After mass shootings like the one at Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, the conversation often turns to guns and ammunition. It’s an especially complicated issue for business owners like Dan Kash, who has been in the firearms industry for over 20 years and owns the Inglewood-based LAX Ammunition.

“It’s horrible," said Kash. "The last thing you want people to think or associate your business with is something that’s doing something bad to the community or other people. Because as a gun owner or someone in the industry, we don’t want a bad stigmatism on our business at all. It’s the last thing we want.”

Commerce related to guns usually surges in the wake of mass shootings, from rises in gun stock prices to surges in firearms sales. That said, the post-Borderline era has seen a shift in gun-buying behavior: According to Kash, business has essentially been level since the tragedy.

“In the past, when we were under Democratic government, [the prospect of new gun control legislation] did scare people, and so people were more apt to come out and buy," he said. "But now that we have Trump in office, people aren’t as worried about things changing, at least on a federal level. Obviously we are in California – it’s a little bit different, so there are some people who worry about new legislation trying to be enacted, or things that already passed that are coming into effect next year.”

After previous mass shootings like those in Las Vegas and Parkland, Florida, California passed a host of new gun-related laws. (Examples include SB 1100, prohibiting anyone younger than 21 from purchasing or being transferred a handgun.)

Are there any laws that we haven’t seen yet that Kash would support?  

“No, because most of the legislation they keep coming up with, in my opinion, isn’t going to solve the problem,” he offered. “All it’s going to do is make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to be able to purchase firearms and/or ammunition. Or, make it so costly or prohibitive – and I think that’s the overall goal for a lot of people on the left: to make it so difficult, so hard, that they don’t want to shoot anymore, they can’t afford to shoot anymore, or make it to the point that [gun enthusiasts] say, maybe we should try a different sport.”

So, what in his estimation are possible solutions?

“That’s the billion-dollar question, right?” he said. “Most of these shootings I’ve seen, almost all, are by someone who doesn’t have the nut and the bolt screwed correctly - and most of the time we find out that there were indications that there were problems with this person.” 

“Whether that can be stopped or not is a subject we need to talk about, and how we ... make sure those people don’t have firearms or use them, or help those people out. Because every one of these shootings is not because these people are totally sane and going off and killing people. It’s because there’s something mentally deranged about them,” he added.

“So any of these laws we are going to put into effect or try to put into effect aren’t going to help with those [mentally ill] people,” he continued. “Those people are going to do it anyway. There’s access to [guns] one way or another, whether they come to a law-abiding place or they steal guns, or whatever they may do.”

Legislation aside, after mass shootings many take the position that the answer is, simply, less guns. As someone whose life revolves around the sale of ammunition and firearms, what would Kash say as a counter-argument, to suggest to people that the answer is actually the opposite?

“Either we get rid of every single gun in the United States, which is never going to happen, or we try to make legislation ... to get people who need help from [committing these crimes]. Because there’s no way you are going to take the hundreds of millions of firearms away from the people in this country,” he said.

“We are founded on the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms," he continued. "We are so far into the gun culture in this country, that I don’t think you can go back. I think you can just find ways to make common-sense approaches that are going to help possibly curtail these incidents.”

Before getting into the industry, Kash’s immediate family had no connection to guns. Given that the culture of his trade has changed so dramatically over the course of his decades in this business, would he have gone into this line of business if he knew then what he does now?

“I would,” he said. “I’ve met so many great people, from all walks of life,” he added, punctuating this with his observation that the media only talks about them when “something has gone horribly wrong.”