A Wasatch Front chain of firearm and ammunition stores has been granted a permit to open a shop in Tooele.
Get Some Guns and Ammo was granted a conditional use permit at the Tooele City Council meeting last Wednesday. The store will feature an indoor shooting range — which required the business to get a conditional use permit before opening — and retail section.
Stuart Wallin, owner and founder of the three-store business, said after getting a building permit, the business can start building at its new location at 952 N. Main Street. The site is currently a vacant building.
Wallin said he began tracking purchases from people living in Tooele County at his three existing stores about a year ago.
“We were surprised at how many were coming from Tooele, so we said, let’s put some effort into understanding the market out there,” he said. “The Tooele location is something we’ve looked at and done some research in the market and thought it would be a great area. There isn’t really anything that services the firearms market out there.”
Get Some Guns and Ammo was founded in 2003 in Midvale. After the success of that store, Wallin moved its location to Murray and opened two more stores, one in Layton and the other in Orem.
The store in Tooele will have eight lanes available for both rifle and pistol shooters, carry all major brands of firearms and ammunition, and teach a variety of classes, including a beginner handgun course, advanced conceal carry class and concealed carry permit classes, Wallin said.
Although the proposed range is in a commercial area, Wallin said that is true for all of the chain’s stores. He believes the business has actually helped other companies in the surrounding areas.
“All of our other locations are right in major metropolitan areas,” he said. “If I look at my Murray store, it’s just a couple hundred yards south of Fashion Place Mall and Sam’s Club, and there’s restaurants by our Murray store that do really well because of the traffic we bring in there.”
He noted a Winco Foods and McDonald’s are situated near the Orem location, and a K-Mart and 7-Eleven are near the Layton store.
“We’ve been no hindrance to any of them,” he said.
Opening the other stores has brought no known negative impact, either, he claimed. The only person ever to speak out at a public meeting against a store was when Wallin opened the first location, he said, and her chief complaint was about what the business was called.
“People think you’re shooting guns out loud, but people have been amazed with how well the sound has been controlled at our ranges,” he said. “[The woman who complained] didn’t care that we sold guns, she just didn’t like our name.”
Wallin said more information about the coming store will be available on the store’s website, getsomeguns.com, in mid-December, but the business is hoping for an opening in the early spring and wants to nestle itself in the area for years to come.
“We’re hoping to be part of the community and not just a part but help the community grow in their love of firearms,” he said. “A lot of people take firearms the wrong way. I don’t think we’ll have that problem in Tooele, but at the same time we look at the population and how many more people get involved with shooting and we hope that will be a process in Tooele County and Tooele City.”