Three gun stores in Bakersfield have been identified as the primary source of firearms later linked to crimes in California, according to newly released state data covering the period of 2023 to 2025. The city's Turner’s Outdoorsman location on Mohawk Street ranked highest, with 83 firearms sold by the store subsequently connected to criminal activity. Valley Gun followed with 78 crime-linked firearms, and Dirty Bird Guns and Ammo with 60.
Notably, the total number of crime guns traced to the Bakersfield Turner’s Outdoorsman alone surpassed the combined figures from the top five dealers in larger metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. This statistic has raised concerns among local community members and intervention programs.
“There’s other cities that are a lot bigger than Bakersfield, and there are cities that have more gun shops, including some of the shops that have come out in this report,” Juan Avila, an employee at Garden Pathways, a violence intervention mentorship program, told KGET. “So to see that Bakersfield had a high rate was of concern.” Some suggest that lax sales practices at area gun stores may be contributing to weapons ending up in the wrong hands, though the Bakersfield Police Department stated they are “unaware of there being any illegal firearms sales or transactions that are occurring.”
The Turner’s Outdoorsman chain, which operates over 30 locations throughout California, was previously reported by The Trace to have sold a quarter of the state’s crime-linked guns. The firearm used by the California shooter at this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner was purchased from a Torrance location of the same chain.
While some officials, such as Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, have called for investigations into the business, some customers of Turner's Outdoorsman maintain the purchase process is rigorous. “I feel like they’re doing a good job and doing everything right,” Obed Munoz of Bakersfield told KGET. “So that statistic is shocking, but after you do have the gun, you can do whatever you want with it. So if you do a crime, that’s more on the individual and not the store.”
Turner’s Outdoorsman has maintained that it adheres to all applicable laws and regulations. The company stated to The Daily Caller that it has a “proven commitment to regulatory compliance” and that the traced data “does not indicate wrongdoing by the retailer.”