During the hustle and bustle of the holidays, a gun shop quietly slipped into Downtown Bellevue. It’s located on the north side of NE 8th St., in a strip mall with stores including Thai Grill, Bellevue Nails, What the Pho, Money Tree, and a few others. The store is on the same city block as Washington Square’s Condominium Towers.
A gun shop doesn’t quite fit in with newly opened stores nearby on NE 8th, such as Neiman Marcus, or new neighborhood condos and apartments within a block’s radius of the shop. At DTB, we don’t profess to be policy specialists, but it seems odd that the City of Bellevue would allow a gun shop right in the core of Downtown Bellevue, given the City’s other strict regulations. Of additional concern is the gun shop’s close proximity to area homes, throughout this rapidly developing urban neighborhood. However, there are of course going to be those to whom this is a welcome addition.
Additionally, it seems peculiar that developer Wasatch Development Partners, who is the landlord/owner of “Washington Square Condominiums” would consent to a gun shop opening just down the street from where they are trying to sell homes. This recent development surely will not entice future buyers.
What do you think about the gun shop opening in Downtown Bellevue? Sound off in the comments section and our poll on the homepage.
sounds like you poor people have to put up with a piece of garbage liberal newspaper.
sorry.
this is how it starts going bad in your area, i recomend getting rid of that paper before people get brainwashed into liberal stupidity.
I have lived in Bellevue most of my life and my husband has lived here all of his. We were thinking of moving in closer to the downtown area to a condo now that our children are grown. We thought it would be a nice change. We do not receive the newspaper by choice as I see what is printed a bunch of liberal propaganda. After reading these comments, I am having second thoughts about buying in the downtown area and it has to do with the negative attitudes of those who are so ridiculous acting about a gun shop sharing a portion of the city! I see a gun shop as a service to people who wish to exercise their second amendment rights and it is wonderful to have such an establishment conveniently located. We do have the right to protect ourselves against those who do NOT obtain their guns from a reputable gun dealer. My disdain for the State liquor store located nearby has never made a dent in their business, unfortunately! Oh,and isn’t there some seedy porn shop near the downtown core also? I really don’t know as it is a vague memory passing by it. There is your two “Tacky” places to complain about. More people are killed in alcohol related deaths each year than will ever die by a gunshot wound!!! It is interesting , I heard nothing about the morals of keeping the porn industry , alcohol and prositution out of the City of Bellevue, so maybe a few of you should now get off your high horses and soapboxes.
I live and work in 98004. I agree with the supply/demand argument. I have never owned a gun and don’t ever plan to – but there are plenty of neighbors that do and if enogh of them (and visitors and folks who work and shop downtown) support the shop then all the better – another successful shop in Bellevue if it has products people want.
BTW – maybe someone could really stir up a pot of bees with a new concept: Bikini Gun Shop. 🙂
I agree it is not the best location for a gun store. Guns must be thriving business in hard times. A new indoor gun range and shop just opened in factoria, by the transfer station. A more appropriate location I guess.
Awesome shop! I stopped in over the weekend and the staff is really friendly and easy going.
What I find interesting is that yet another gun shop can compete in this area. In addition to Bellevue’s busy Wade’s gun shop/range and several existing ranges and shops in surrounding communities, two new gun shops and two range/gun shops have opened on the 405 corridor around Bellevue in barely two years. There is clearly a surge of interest in buying and practicing with guns. I’ve been at area gun shops that are making sales every few minutes. Seems like a remarkable number of new guns are being distributed. Articles have noted this trend nation-wide, supposedly in response to perceived threats to gun rights from Obama. (Who is a perfectly milktoast political centrist who has never made a peep about national gun control at any point in his public career, and who is too politically savvy to throw himself on that live grenade regardless of his unknown personal views. His election sure stimulated the gun manufacturers and retailers business; secretly they must be very grateful.) Based on the local situation, the density of gun shops seems to increase with a community’s affluence. With the exception of the members-only Seattle police gun shop/range in north Tukwila, there isn’t any venue for buying or practicing near my home along Rainier Ave in SE Seattle. In Renton and North Seattle you start to get some. And on the East Side of the Lake the whole culture and industry proliferates with at least ten establishments. Perhaps people are more terrified of losing the relative wealth they’ve accumulated. Having said that, I will admit that the actual use of guns in violence, at least among teens, is obviously higher in SE Seattle. But all those guns came originally from legal manufacturers through legal sales. If they weren’t prolifically distributed to meet demand, the kids wouldn’t be getting them. As an owner of several guns, I acknowledge this reality.
Welcome to a free society. Many a crime would be stopped if there were more responsible gun owners.
I dislike Japanese food – can we start a poll on getting rid of them?
The author of this story is an idiot!
I find it very troubling that there is a Thai restaurant nearby. I heard about food poisoning by Thai food, and I think Bellevue should protect it visitors(who obviously require a nanny) and ban all Thai restaurants.
Also, I feel threatened by and uncomfortable around tall people. Can we ban them from visiting Starbucks so I can relax there with my(also short) kids ?
I like where your head is at rtell. We should ban more stuff. I’m actually quite concerned with high end retailers – people with nice clothes make me nervous. Clearly all the concern over a gun shop in town is warranted. After all, gun violence in DTB has skyrocketed from zero to…zero since this post in December.
Money Tree is by FAR a worse indicator for a neighborhood then a gun shop. Guns are a high end product that are purchased in the VAST majority by law abiding citizens. I purchased a nice shotgun from them in their Kirkland store a year or two ago and they were a professional group of people that sell only high end products. On the other hand a store like money tree caters only to those who are poor and have a poor understanding of money (too put it politely). The fact that there is enough business for them in a place like Bellevue is troubling. I would say that the poverty that they represent is a far greater indication of a potential for crime then a store that sells guns for hundreds of dollars a piece. I also agree that criminals almost never get guns from stores. Even in high-school I was offered a chance to get “any gun” in a no questions asked kind of deal from a “friend”. Stores like this are if anything a benefit to the community. And for everyone that says that you should trust the police to protect you from crime just remember this. When seconds count the police are only minutes away.
i think that gun control should always be imposed at all times to reduce violence.:-*
It’s about time Bellevue allowed some semblance of a reality-based commercial balance back into the city. This isn’t about guns or bikinis or housing…this is about a jurisdiction trying to create a false shopping/living utopia that caters to only those they deem appropriate to reside within their precious city limits. Your city welcomes the cash of the outsiders, but you’d rather keep the housing costs so high “they” will never be able to afford to stay longer than a few hours. What the city council has actually created is something so UN-American it should be torn down and started fresh….it is literally being designed as an off-hour life support system for it’s primary commerce…shopping…and those who buy into the mystique of “urban living” may as well have taken up residence on the roof of the mall. Have another look at the movie The Matrix…Bellevue’s residents are the Coppertop’s…think about it. Old Bellevue used to be a charming and livable city…what we have now is a soul-less and cash-driven store-front display of a community…if you could ever call the current downtown region a community.
For those of us who actually enjoy owning firearms, hunting, shooting, etc, this is a great step in the right direction. For the rest of you, get off your precious green high-horse and visit other cities to gain an understanding of what real America is about. It has a little grit under its fingernails. It works for a living. And it’s full of real people with real lives and realistic incomes. I’d be ashamed to live in and stand up for such a filtered, processed city.
Micheal when you state that something is a fact it has to be verifiable, not just something you ‘believe’ to be true. Your arrogance reeks of intolerance and close mindedness. I have no respect for people with such attitudes.
Do I smell the stench of arrogance?
@Gregory: holy thread revival, Batman!
I must have missed it… All I’ve read in the original post was opinion, and I don’t feel that Michael was trying to pass it off as facts. Could you possibly point out what you thought could be construed as facts?
Unbelievable: how could anyone object to a small business owner who is trying to earn a buck simply because their expertise is firearms? Good grief. For all those “high society folks” who object to free enterprise and consider a gun store to “low class” for Bellevue, do as I did and enlist in the US Armed Forces. Serve your country in the military as I did during time of war and stop crying and whining about a merchant trying to make a living. Get a life!
I can’t believe this is even a concern… Since when has our 2nd Amendment rights and anything related (including the purchase of firearms) become “a sign of urban decay”? I think that someone who lives downtown shouldn’t have to go to the “suburbs” or elsewhere to legally purchase firearms. I think the author really needs to reevaluate their rights and what kind of image they are pressing onto other more informed and more freedom loving citizens.
Sorry, a gun shop is an embarrassment to any community. Especially if they carry guns whose only purpose is to mow down large numbers of people. It’s time to grow up, people, and stop playing cops and robbers.
Why would a gun shop in Bellevue (or any other city) be construed as a bad thing. Criminals don’t purchase their guns from gun shops, the people who criminals are afraid of do.
Your implication that it constitutes a policy failure that the City of Bellevue would “allow” such a store to operate downtown is indicative of your extremely liberal views on regulating businesses and ostracizing gun owners. If you don’t like it, don’t shop there. But realize your definition of normal is on the far left of the political spectrum. I would frankly be more concerned about someone like you being too close to my neighborhood and schools than a gun store.
Driving thru bellevue everyday and seeing all the upscale construction going on, my first impression was…A gunshop? Here? Right in the middle of Bellevue. I think,in general, people can be uneasy when they see anything gun related given all the crazy incidents they see/hear in the media. So i think it’s that initial response you get when you go somewhere to eat or whatever venue is there, and then all of a sudden you see a gun shop. With Wades, it sits there on it’s own. If you go there, you’re just going to Wades, there’s nothing else there. I think it’s just a bad mix when in general, the attitude of guns is unfavorable. Just perception wise, I don’t think it’s good. Just curious if the vendors in the same mall have been affected by their presence. Or if people actually decided not to buy property nearby because of it. If so, then arguing against there presence is valid. Adding to the idea of perception, maybe a fancy sign like the person suggested above would a have made it more acceptable.