L.A.’s Arms Race of the Affluent
From Beverly Hills to Santa Monica, the crime-panicked wealthy are banishing bling and buying guns
In Beverly Hills, even the purchase of a firearm comes with certain…expectations. The city’s only gun store, Beverly Hills Guns, is a “concierge service” by appointment only, for a largely affluent clientele. And business is booming.
Since opening in July 2020, the store has seen upscale residents from Santa Monica to the Hollywood Hills increasingly in a panic following several high-profile smash-and-grab and violent home invasion robberies. The apparent siege has brought in a daily stream of anxious business owners and prominent actors, real estate moguls and film execs, says owner Russell Stuart. Most are arming themselves for the first time.
“This morning I sold six shotguns in about an hour to people that say, ‘I want a home defense shotgun,’” says Stuart, whose store is discreetly located in a Beverly Hills office building, with no sign on the doors, down the hall from a diamond dealer. “Everyone has a general sense of constant fear, which is very sad. We’re used to this being like Mayberry.”
In Beverly Hills, the craving for additional security dates to the riot that followed an otherwise peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in May 2020, with unprecedented looting along Rodeo Drive that left broken boutique windows beneath beloved luxury brands: Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Michael Kors, MCM, Ermenegildo Zegna. Last March, a $500,000 Richard Mille watch was stolen at gunpoint from a diner at the Il Pastaio restaurant. The Dec. 1 home-invasion robbery and shooting death of philanthropist Jacqueline Avant, 81, in her Trousdale Estates home, only accelerated the arms race among the affluent.
Generally I’m for new gun owners.
In this case it’s tough.
I totally support the right of people to defend themselves and own the tools to do that.
At the same time I know two things to be true:
One: the wealthy elite buying guns in Beverly Hills are the same people to supported the Woke prosevtuors, changes to the law, and defunding of police that made California into the current shithole it is.
Two: these people still support gun control for everyone else, i.e., the poors.
If the elite want guns and concealed carry (which they get the same way they do in NYC, corruption by donating huge sums to the Sheriff who approves the permit) because of this crime wave, that should be available to every citizen, not just the ones who can cut massive checks and go shopping in Beverly Hills.
So while I support new gun ownership, I can’t support hypocrisy, because we all know that the elite don’t get red pulled and change their opinions, they just buy themselves indulgences so to not have to be bound by rules and laws that inconvenience them.
Not to worry, they’ll go all Alec Baldwin on each other.
“Hell hath no fury like an ass kicked liberal”Clint Smith once said. I think its hilarious.. these high n mightys are getting a dose of reality….
I remember during the Hurricane Irma evacuation, my extended family and I drove from the 305 (Miami) to Georgia where more family was. Our crew had some anti-gun progressives in the mix. While in our (quite pleasant) North Georgia respite, we went to Kroger to pick up some stuff. There was a gent in Kroger with a “White Pride World Wide” shirt on. Yeah, everyone gave him the stink-eye, but he didn’t leave. He was otherwise not bothering anyone. One of the progs in the group said “Oh boy, I’m glad the Regular Guy is here since if that racist decides to shoot up the place, we’ve got someone with us who has a gun!”
Did you then shoot the prog?
Nah. Ironically during the late unpleasantness with regards to George Floyd, he asked to “borrow” a gun. I declined, since he was untrained and would have been more of a threat to himself than an assailant.
They’ll buy it and treat it like a magic talisman in which just the presence of it wards off evil.
Some lucky looter will get a brand new Benelli.
Maybe they’ll follow Brandon’s advice and the thug will get a bespoke Westley Richards double barrel.
Not sure how. Brandon’s advice was to stand on the balcony and fire both barrels into the air.
That was one time; another time his advice was to fire through the front door.
I have no problems with people in general choosing to buy guns.
In this case, even if I did, I have to accept it if I’m not going to be a hypocrite.
However … I sincerely hope the California waiting periods and training / testing requirements for ownership* aren’t waived or “eased” or whatever for this crowd; and that every domestic abuse, drug charge, and other criminal offense comes back to bite those that committed said crimes. And that their background checks come back screwed up when they try to buy ammo.
After all, this *is* the policy and procedure they wanted for everyone else, they should get a good feel for how it all works.
* California has training and testing requirements just to get permission to own a handgun … and perhaps by now it’s expanded to other firearms as well. (Been a while since I lived in CA, and when there I didn’t own a rifle or shotgun.)
I thought the waiting periods and permits didn’t apply to long guns.
They did the same thing after Sharon Tate, her unborn child, and her friends were murdered. They did the same thing after the LA Riots.
Their politics never changed. If anything they doubled down on their Woke “Progressiveness.”
Yep. They ran headlong into their politics after the Rodney King riots touched off. Every gun shop in the area had lines out the door and people bitching and moaning about having to be subject to the 10 day wait and background check that most of them voted for a few years prior.
Fast forward to the George Floyd situation. The same people who:
– hate cops
– hate guns
– hate white people
Suddenly wanted guns, and cops (who are mostly white – it’s not racist, it’s a fact…) by the bucketload, and bitched about having to wait 10 days for the process to clear, plus having to pay extra and go through hoops if they wanted to carry it outside of their home.
I’m willing to wager that quite a few of the progs/Dems who were scooping up guns in California at that time availed themselves of the numerous illegal avenues to acquire a weapon in Los Angeles. Let’s be blunt, a lot of those moneyed types out there have their share of illegal habits. Drugs, hookers, etc. The guy who they buy blow from can probably get them a gun in the space of an hour. Probably get them an MG too with sufficient financial motivation.
Also, even if caught, the moneyed progs in Los Angeles will never feel the full wrath of the California justice system. Those laws are for peasants, not for them. Some wackjob Hollywood producer gets a GLOCK with 17 round magazines and some ammo to feed it. He gets caught with the gun and an 8 ball. He’ll never see the inside of a correctional institution, ever.
They don’t support gun rights since gun control doesn’t apply to them.
“We’re used to this being like Mayberry.”
I call bee-ess on that. They couldn’t stand to live in Mayberry if it were real.
Very true. They would bitch and moan about the lack of Whole Foods, etc.
Owning a firearm doesn’t make you ‘armed’ anymore than owning a guitar make you a musician.