Oldest Gun Store in USA . . . ?

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Prof Young

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Had a quick weekend tour to NY City. Saw couple broadway shows etc. Ate dinner in Little Italy and found myself just around the corner from John Jovino's guns shop which bills itself as the oldest gun store in the USA. Established in 1911. I'm sure there were gun stores in the USA before 1911, but maybe this one is the oldest on going. Asian guy inside said they were also the only gun store in NY city. They had lots of shooting paraphernalia but not many guns on display. Same guy said they had a lot of stock in the back. I asked if they had a cap with the store name on it. They did . . . in Chinese but I bought the cap anyway. Sorry I didn't get a pic of the outside of the store. Big gun shaped sign as I recall. Pic below is about half a block from the store.

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Prof Young
 

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Asian guy inside said they were also the only gun store in NY city.
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Not quite true. There is another gun store in NYC that caters to civilians as well as LE, which is DF Brothers & Sons, located on New Utrecht Avenue under the D train line. (The car-train chase scene from the movie The French Connection was filmed all along this line)

Very large and spacey interior with a lot of handguns, rifles and bows as well as knives, clothing, literature and gun maintenance supplies. The owner is very friendly and I have done A LOT of business with him and his family members who also work the counters. One year ago, a brazen thief walked into DF, pepper-sprayed Frank Taormina, the owner, and then shattered the pistol display case with a hammer. When he tried to grab a couple of handguns inside the case, Mr. Taormina drew his own concealed handgun and blasted the robber in the shoulder. He fled empty handed and left a blood trail but made a getaway in a vehicle. No word if he ever got caught but I don't think any guns were stolen, thanks to the quick actions of Mr. Taormina.

This is the article in connection with the robbery:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/wounded-crook-bolts-store-article-1.3285522

There is also another gun store at the very far end of Chinatown almost by the Metropolitan Correctional Center (where Bartleby, Melville's autistic scrivener was confined) called New York Iron Works. But this one caters only to law enforcement.

And then in Glendale, Queens, there is S&S Firearms, who primarily deals with Civil War reproduction black powder firearms, various assorted military surplus uniforms and gear from the Civil War all the way to Iraqi Freedom and Afghanistan. And they still got some items left over from the liquidation of Bannerman's formidable estate from the 50's to the 90's.

So that rounds out to at least 4 gun stores in the New York City area. Three of which caters to civilians. There may be more that I don't know of, but I have done business with all three.

Jon Jovino's was originally owned by an Italian family but it later sold the business to a Chinese family in the late 1990's, who continue to operate the store to this day.
 
Weakly Watson Sporting Goods in Texas. They claim continuous operation as
a gun store since 1876.
 
AW Peterson gun shop, Mount Dora, FL:
Established in 1886, A W Peterson Gun Shop in Mt. Dora, FL is famous throughout the South and one of the largest gun shops located in Mount Dora, FL. We have been proudly providing guns and ammunition from our current location since 1953.
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My dad was NYPD and used to go Jovino's from the 50s through the 80s.
There were several high-end dealers in NYC for the longest time; Abercrombie & Fitch was one in particular; their displays, especially for the African Safari types, was awesome.
 
A.W. Peterson was a famous schuetzen gunsmith in Denver.
The Florida operation kind of glosses over how his shop got from Colorado to Florida.
 
Granny died late 1977 and it has been that long since I was in Weakly Watson in Brownwood. The Gibson store was another great one for sporting goods there.
 
Double Naught said:
Jovino's may be the oldest "gun shop" per se, but Watson-Weakly in Brownwood, Texas is a hardware store that has been selling guns since the 1800s.
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Dufus said:
Granny died late 1977 and it has been that long since I was in Weakly Watson in Brownwood. The Gibson store was another great one for sporting goods there.
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I thought they were in Early Texas, not Brownwood. Did they move?
 
Well, they opened on Brownwood in 1876 as a hardware store that sold guns. They apparently have a store in Early that is a sporting goods store. They have a store in Brownwood that is a hardware store, now affiliated with Ace.
 
Does Sears Roebuck still sell guns and ammo?
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Unfortunately no, not anymore.

Even up into the 90's, Sears still had ammo, bows, arrows, canoes and certain bolt action rifles in their outdoor sporting departments. Today, you will be lucky if you can even find a couple of 16.4oz portable propane canisters. Most of their hunting and hiking gear have been replaced by ball/team sports items. And I don't even think that this is due to any political reasons. They just want to make business, and the best way to do it is by stocking what people demand. Especially after they merged with K-Mart, they have become more and more like a Staples with sports supplies rather than a Cabelas, which they historically were.

Maybe their online portal offers far more selection in goods, but they seem to have done away with all gun and archery stuff.
 
When I was in college in Central Pennsylvania in the mid 1980s there was a local hardware store just off the square that had been in continuous operation since 1858 and had sold firearms for most of that time.

The county went eminent domain on them and they decided to fold shop. I bought a bunch of neat stuff from them, but the one thing that they would not part with (and God knows I tried) was an early 1920s Winchester cartridge board.

I tried for several weeks to get them to sell it to me, but they refused.
 
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