Guns & Ammo LLC will be the subject of a public hearing on Sept. 30, as Tuscaloosa city councilors hear arguments on whether to revoke their business license.Tuesday, the city council voted to schedule a public hearing regarding the issue. According to the agenda, the move comes after the business became “a public nuisance and dangerous to the public safety, health and welfare.” Josh Wakefield has owned the store on Greensboro Avenue for the last 15 years. He says if their business license is revoked, he would lose his livelihood.”I love Tuscaloosa, I just want to stay where I’m at,” Wakefield said.Wakefield’s attorney, Josh Swords, said the whole thing is a big misunderstanding.”I think this could have been headed off of the pass real easy with communication on both sides,” Swords said. “It’s I think doing things such as bringing charges and search warrants over things that can be characterized as clerical errors is highly aggressive and not the way business should be conducted.”The clerical errors he’s referring to stem from Tuscaloosa’s secondhand goods ordinance, which only applies in city limits.”It’s not even a violation of a misdemeanor under a state statute or a state law,” Swords said. “None of these claims they’re bringing have any laws violated. The only thing that they’re alleging is the violations of their little secondhand goods ordinance, that’s it. If that rises to public nuisance or public safety issues, the violation of their little secondhand good ordinance, then Tuscaloosa really needs to look at what they’re wanting to do to their businesses here in town.”Swords is emphasizing that the ordinance doesn’t just apply to guns, but any items sold to an items dealer with the intention of being sold again.”It’s the same ordinance that applies to selling lawnmowers, selling your mother’s fur coat, selling your mother’s jewelry,” Swords said. “This won’t even apply to places like Cottondale or Coaling or other places in a county-type atmosphere.”WVTM 13 obtained arrest records through a public records request that show Wakefield and another store owner, Rex Piggot, were arrested on Aug. 8 for allegedly violating the ordinance. One part of the rule requires dealers to hold secondhand items for 10 days before making them available for sale. Wakefield says they were holding the guns for the required 10-day period, but would occasionally place certain items on hold with the intention of selling them to a specific customer once the waiting period was over.”We already knew who we were going to sell them to after the 10 days,” he said. “We put them in the computer as a layaway so we would know who’s going to be buying that gun after the 10 days. thought that they considered that a sale just to ring it up as a layaway.”So, they charged Wakefield with five counts of failure to hold for 10 days. Then, they charged both Wakefield and Piggot with 21 additional charges for issues with the record of purchases.”We’re required to upload a picture of the person holding the gun that they’re selling,” Wakefield said. “We had reported all the information about the person that sold it to us- the gun information, make, model, serial number, everything except at the bottom of the form, there’s a button to click on to upload a picture. There were 21 guns that we had not uploaded the picture, but we’ve taken the pictures, we had the pictures, they just didn’t get uploaded.”Now, Wakefield and his attorney are hoping the city council will see their side of the story and let Guns & Ammo LLC stay in business.After Tuesday’s city council meeting, where the public hearing was initially scheduled, city leaders were asked for a comment on the situation. They responded, ‘It’s city policy to not comment on pending hearings or lawsuits.”The public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 30 at 5 p.m.
Guns & Ammo LLC will be the subject of a public hearing on Sept. 30, as Tuscaloosa city councilors hear arguments on whether to revoke their business license.
Tuesday, the city council voted to schedule a public hearing regarding the issue. According to the agenda, the move comes after the business became “a public nuisance and dangerous to the public safety, health and welfare.”
Josh Wakefield has owned the store on Greensboro Avenue for the last 15 years. He says if their business license is revoked, he would lose his livelihood.
“I love Tuscaloosa, I just want to stay where I’m at,” Wakefield said.
Wakefield’s attorney, Josh Swords, said the whole thing is a big misunderstanding.
“I think this could have been headed off of the pass real easy with communication on both sides,” Swords said. “It’s I think doing things such as bringing charges and search warrants over things that can be characterized as clerical errors is highly aggressive and not the way business should be conducted.”
The clerical errors he’s referring to stem from Tuscaloosa’s secondhand goods ordinance, which only applies in city limits.
“It’s not even a violation of a misdemeanor under a state statute or a state law,” Swords said. “None of these claims they’re bringing have any laws violated. The only thing that they’re alleging is the violations of their little secondhand goods ordinance, that’s it. If that rises to public nuisance or public safety issues, the violation of their little secondhand good ordinance, then Tuscaloosa really needs to look at what they’re wanting to do to their businesses here in town.”
Swords is emphasizing that the ordinance doesn’t just apply to guns, but any items sold to an items dealer with the intention of being sold again.
“It’s the same ordinance that applies to selling lawnmowers, selling your mother’s fur coat, selling your mother’s jewelry,” Swords said. “This won’t even apply to places like Cottondale or Coaling or other places in a county-type atmosphere.”
WVTM 13 obtained arrest records through a public records request that show Wakefield and another store owner, Rex Piggot, were arrested on Aug. 8 for allegedly violating the ordinance.
One part of the rule requires dealers to hold secondhand items for 10 days before making them available for sale. Wakefield says they were holding the guns for the required 10-day period, but would occasionally place certain items on hold with the intention of selling them to a specific customer once the waiting period was over.
“We already knew who we were going to sell them to after the 10 days,” he said. “We put them in the computer as a layaway so we would know who’s going to be buying that gun after the 10 days. [Tuscaloosa police] thought that they considered that a sale just to ring it up as a layaway.”
So, they charged Wakefield with five counts of failure to hold for 10 days. Then, they charged both Wakefield and Piggot with 21 additional charges for issues with the record of purchases.
“We’re required to upload a picture of the person holding the gun that they’re selling,” Wakefield said. “We had reported all the information about the person that sold it to us- the gun information, make, model, serial number, everything except at the bottom of the form, there’s a button to click on to upload a picture. There were 21 guns that we had not uploaded the picture, but we’ve taken the pictures, we had the pictures, they just didn’t get uploaded.”
Now, Wakefield and his attorney are hoping the city council will see their side of the story and let Guns & Ammo LLC stay in business.
After Tuesday’s city council meeting, where the public hearing was initially scheduled, city leaders were asked for a comment on the situation. They responded, ‘It’s city policy to not comment on pending hearings or lawsuits.”
The public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 30 at 5 p.m.