Gun shop owner's views make him unpopular...with gun industry

By JOHN A. DVORAK and TOM PERRIN - The Kansas City Star
Date: 06/23/99 22:15

The telephone has been ringing nonstop at Bob Lockett's Overland Park gun shop.

One minute it is an invitation from a television network. The next it's an anonymous threat.

The callers don't want to buy a rifle. They want to quiz Lockett about his views on the gun industry, views that in some ways sound as if they are coming from an anti-gun activist.

"It's just another day at the office," Lockett said Wednesday as he put down the receiver from yet another debate over firearms policy.

The 51-year-old Lockett, general manager of a business called the Second Amendment, may not be well-known to the typical Kansas Citian. Inside the gun industry, however, he has become famous, and not real popular.

"I told the truth as I know it," he said.

Lockett is referring to a column he wrote recently for an industry publication called Shooting Sports Retailer. In general, he calls on the gun industry to do some cleaning up and tightening down.

Manufacturers should better control the marketing of their products by establishing formal relationships with dealers and setting rules for who buys from them, he said. The sale of weapons to teen-agers at gun shows should stop, added Lockett, who has written for the magazine before.

Word of the latest column, which has not been published yet, spread widely.

"I would say it's caused an immediate explosion of conversation and concern by the industry," said Robert Hodgdon, a Johnson County businessman who is an advocate of gun rights and a former board member of the National Rifle Association.

Potentially, said Hodgdon, Lockett's views could aid the efforts of cities challenging the gun industry in court.

"I think that Bob probably would not want that result," Hodgdon said.

Those who make and sell weapons are under siege these days, with lawsuits facing them on the one side and the possibility of tougher regulation from Congress on the other.

To outsiders, the industry often appears united. Self-criticism, if any, usually is kept from public view. Lockett's transgression, in the industry's view, has been to haul the dirty laundry out into the open.

Some consider him a grandstander, although Lockett says he has no desire to testify in court and has not been asked to do so.

Some say his proposals are just plain wrong.

When asked about the column, Elizabeth Saunders, president and chief executive officer of American Derringer Co., said: "I don't agree with that at all. I think it's an infringement on our rights, period. The Bill of Rights is the Bill of Rights."

Concluded Saunders: "The problem is with the criminals."

Chuck Samuel, show director for Missouri Valley Arms Collectors, which runs two gun shows a year in Kansas City, said the Columbine High School killers in Colorado broke many laws.

He asked: Would another law have stopped them?

"Everybody wants to be politically correct instead of doing what should be done," he said.

Samuel warned that Lockett's proposals would reduce competition and harm some gun shops and gun shows.

It is argued that if manufacturers severely limited the distribution of their weapons, higher prices might result and gun store profits could increase.

Lockett discounts the possibility. He said changes at gun shows would not enhance his profits. Visitors to gun shows don't go to gun shops, he said.

Tight relationships between dealers and gun manufacturers would not be realistic, said Kevin Jamison, a Kansas City lawyer who concentrates in weapons and self-defense law.

"I don't think as a legal and practical matter that it's possible," he said. "And if it did happen, I don't think it would do any good. I can't see it ending the problem of criminals having guns."

Lockett does not necessarily advocate more laws. He stands far away from the those who criticize guns.

Second Amendment sells a full range of handguns, rifles and shotguns. One shotgun crafted with gold inlay and fine wood carries a price of $36,900.

Lockett strongly supports the right of people to own firearms.

He pointed out, however, that in the past the liquor industry and the tobacco industry encountered stern public admonishment. They changed the way they operated.

Society is changing, and so should the gun industry, he said.

"I would like to see more professionalism within the ranks of the industry, from the retailer base through the distributors to the manufacturers," he said.

If manufacturers worked closer with dealers, the underground sale of weapons could be slowed, he says.

With guns generating so much news lately, Lockett's views of his industry are in high demand. The Wall Street Journal this week wrote an article about him. Television networks invited him to go on various shows. Offers came in to publish his upcoming column on the World Wide Web. Newspapers telephoned.

One reporter visiting the gun shop was told by a clerk, "You're on the list right after `Good Morning America.' "

Customers, Lockett said, have been supportive.

But an anonymous man, claiming to be on the board of a gun organization, called with a threat.

"He said they would get me. I thanked him very much," Lockett said. "I listened to the guy for 20 minutes."

The criticism, he said, will not be a deterrent.

"It's my job as a retailer, he said, "to ensure that I'm doing all that I can to protect the assets of this industry."

To reach John A. Dvorak, call (816) 234-7743 or send e-mail to jdvorak@kcstar.com

To reach Tom Perrin, call (816) 234-7746 or send e-mail to tperrin@kcstar.com