Standing their ground

Greg Risling

COSTA MESA -- Taking heavy flak from nearly every angle, whether it is

legislators in the state capital or another attorney filing a lawsuit,

Bryco Arms has remained open while other gun manufacturers have closed

shop.

In the year that saw tobacco companies footing the bill for anti-smoking

advertisements, gun manufacturers are expected to be the next big

business ready for a major fall -- or so their opponents think.

It’s been a year since the Daily Pilot profiled Bryco Arms, a Costa

Mesa-based gun company that makes small-caliber handguns, commonly dubbed

“Saturday night specials.”

While many of its firearm brethren have filed for bankruptcy, Bryco has

kept producing handguns, albeit in fewer numbers than past years.

“We are one of the last ones standing in California,” said Bruce

Jennings, who gave the business to his ex-wife, Janice, as part of a

divorce settlement. “We feel we will prevail in these unresolved

lawsuits. The costs right now are very hard to estimate.”

The Jennings family would rather forgot 1999. Jennings estimates Bryco is

named in more than 20 lawsuits filed by cities across the nation. The

lawsuits claim manufacturers like Bryco are liable for gun-related

deaths.

Bryco is part of the notorious “Ring of Fire,” a group of Los

Angeles-based gun manufacturers that produces small-caliber handguns.

Most of the companies were either owned or operated by members of the

Jennings family. But since the set of sweeping lawsuits against the gun

industry, three of the companies have been slowly snuffed out.

New laws have also placed further restrictions and stricter standards for

manufacturers. The strongest form of legislation comes by way of a state

Senate bill that requires gun companies to have their products tested by

an independent laboratory. Effective in January 2001, the bill would make

it a misdemeanor to sell any gun that isn’t certified.

While anti-gun advocates heralded the bill, gun manufacturers like

Jennings think it will actually aid the industry.

“Any gun that doesn’t pass the test won’t be sold,” Jennings said. “The

anti-gunners thought they were going to put Bryco out of business, but

what they actually did by supporting the bill was put standards in place

so we can be credited. We have no doubt Bryco’s guns will pass the

tests.”

Janice Jennings, who runs Bryco’s daily operations, agreed that the law

gives gun companies more credibility.

“No one will be able to call us a junk gun manufacturer ever again,” she

said. “When we pass those tests, they will put us out of that category.”

The number of guns Bryco produces has dramatically dropped from 300,000

in 1993 to a little more than 70,000 last year. Although the lawsuits and

legislation has affected Bryco’s business to some degree, there is one

thing the Jennings promise will not change.

“We aren’t going anywhere,” Jennings said. “Modern-day companies like

ours will evolve to comply with the standards, no matter what they are.”