Beverly Hills, home to entertainment celebrities and corporate titans, has just one gun store, and sales are by appointment only.
But following a high-profile murder and several home invasions and retail smash-and-grabs, gun sales are booming.
“This morning I sold six shotguns in about an hour to people that say, ‘I want a home defense shotgun,’” says Russell Stuart, whose store is in a Beverly Hills office building near a diamond dealer. “Everyone has a general sense of constant fear, which is very sad. We’re used to this being like Mayberry.”
Last March, a $500,000 Richard Mille watch was stolen at gunpoint from a diner. Then the Dec. 1 home-invasion murder of philanthropist Jacqueline Avant, 81, accelerated the arms race in a city where the annual per-capita income eclipses $85,000 and a bargain home goes for $2 million.
Read more at Los Angeles Magazine.
