A Local Gun Store Was Set To Close. These PTA Moms Stepped In And Made Sure Another Would Not Replace It

A group of Culver City parents are celebrating a victory in community organizing after they successfully lobbied the city to intervene and prevent another gun store from moving in next to an elementary school.

Earlier this month, the Culver City Council voted to authorize an agreement with a local artist who will design and paint a mural over the former gun store, Martin B. Retting Inc. Artist laureate Katy Krantz plans to gather words from the community on how to replace the words "guns" and "knives" that have been painted on the building for years.

When parents heard that the store’s owners, Daniel and Ellen Retting, had decided to retire, they rallied to urge the city council to step in and ensure the property — which is less than 1,000 feet away from La Ballona Elementary School — would not be occupied by another gun retailer.

“It wasn't about gun ownership, or Second Amendment rights,” said Melody Hansen, a Culver City resident whose children attend La Ballona Elementary. “It's just about a gun store should not be next to a school.”

The Rettings did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but parents interviewed by LAist say the city’s purchase of the property was an encouraging win in the fight to bring tangible gun safety measures to their community — and a lesson in the power of what can happen when residents work together.

An outlier

Martin B Retting Inc

Martin B Retting Inc stood less than a thousand feet from La Ballona Elementary

Martin B. Retting Inc. gun store.

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Gillian Moran Perez/LAist

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Martin B. Retting Inc. gun store.

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Gillian Moran Perez/LAist

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Sarah McMahon walks alongside La Ballona Elementary where her second grader attends.

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Gillian Moran Perez/LAist

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On Washington Boulevard, just before reaching the 405 Freeway, it’s hard to ignore Martin B. Retting Inc. The words “GUNS” and “KNIVES” are painted in giant letters and a 20-foot-long rifle is plastered on the side of the building.

Culver City resident Sarah McMahon said her son, who’s in the second grade at La Ballona Elementary, would cling closer to her whenever they had to pass by the gun store.

“My kid has had anxiety driving by the gun store, has had anxiety following lockdown drills at school,” she said.

The campaign for change started in July when McMahon and other community members got an email about Martin B. Retting closing its doors for good.

“We were just like, ‘OK, well what do we do to make sure that another gun store can't move into this space?” Hansen said.

McMullan and Hansen are part of a group called Culver 878 that was formed in the wake of the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas — where 19 students and two teachers were fatally shot on campus — to improve gun safety in the city.

At a local gun safety rally in 2022 after the Uvalde school shooting, a member of Culver 878 used a rolling tape to measure the distance between the front of La Ballona Elementary and Martin B. Retting. The distance: 878 feet.

A glimmer of hope, later overshadowed

McMullan said they were initially excited about Martin B. Retting Inc.’s closure due to a 2005 city law that banned gun sellers from opening a store within 1,000 feet of an elementary school, park, or playground. At the time, Martin B. Retting Inc. was excluded because it opened in 1958, long before the law was passed.

But parents had assumed the law would prevent a new gun store from moving into the building under the assumption that its grandfathered status only applied to the owners, not the property.

When they discovered they were wrong, the campaign for the city to step in was born.

“We didn't think it should be that close, especially after Uvalde and all the other school shootings that have happened," McMullan said.

Turning to the city for help

At an Aug. 28 city council meeting, Culver 878 and other residents mobilized to urge the city to prevent Martin B. Retting Inc. from being replaced with another gun seller.

An emergency moratorium was on the agenda that would pause any transfer of the property for 45 days, and about 30 speakers signed up to comment on the proposal. Their message: To seize the opportunity and make sure another gun store would not stand next to an elementary school.

Only one speaker lamented the loss of Martin B. Retting. And at the end of the meeting, the council voted in favor of the emergency moratorium.

By the next meeting in September, the city council voted unanimously to purchase the Martin B. Retting property for $6.5 million and promised to collect feedback on how to redevelop it.

“It was something to see this mobilization of this educated base of folks who are really ready to counter these more conservative views or more stricter views around what safety should look like, where our community dollars should go,” said Mayor Yasmine-Imani McMorrin.

McMullan, Hansen and McMahon hope their work inspires other communities to take action.

“It takes some organizing. It takes time. It takes a lot of research. It takes, you know, dedication to the cause, but if we could do this, anybody could do this,” McMullan said.