Bullskin woman seeks to halt nephew's home gun sales
Certified firearms instructor and range safety officer Brad Breakiron said he took up selling handguns out of his Fayette County home about three years ago as a hobby.
Breakiron has no inventory, with all sales conducted by special order. He doesn't advertise, and sells to friends and acquaintances only.
“If someone calls out of the blue and says, ‘Hey, are you that guy?' but someone I know didn't send them, well, then, I'm not that guy,” Breakiron said. “It's too much responsibility to have someone wig out and go shoot up a church.”
All told, Breakiron has sold or processed transfer paperwork for 90 guns out of his former Bullskin home at 314 Longanecker Road, with profit on each transaction usually less than $25, he said.
That's why he said he was surprised to learn Friday that his aunt, Vicki S. Marks of Bullskin, has filed a petition seeking to overturn a zoning decision that lets him sell guns from his new residence at 340 Longanecker Road.
“Vicki was at the hearing for me to get my shop,” Breakiron said. “I've had the gun shop for years.”
A transcript of the board's May 13 hearing on Breakiron's request for a special exception for the gun shop in an agricultural zone shows Marks attended the hearing but did not testify. She declined comment when contacted Friday by phone.
“It's a family matter,” Marks said.
Marks is the executrix for the estate of her late mother, Laura E. Breakiron, who died in January 2014. In her will, Laura Breakiron directed that her grandson, Brad, and great-grandson, Cole B. Breakiron, each be given half interest in her home at 340 Longanecker.
Breakiron said he moved to 340 Longanecker from 314 Longanecker when he and his wife, Betty Jo, recently divorced. A special exception he previously obtained for the gun shop at 314 Longanecker did not apply to 340 Longanecker, he said.
Marks' attorney, Donald McCue of Connellsville, filed the petition Thursday seeking to reverse the board's decision granting the special exception. It indicates Marks doesn't want the gun shop because her mother's will calls for the home to be turned over to Cole Breakiron when he turns 22 in 10 years.
Marks contends the house will require extensive remodeling for the gun shop, “which would create damage and reduce the fair-market value.”
In addition, she argues the gun shop is inappropriate because “there would undoubtedly be some discharge of weapons on the premises” to ensure repaired guns function properly.
Brad Breakiron said customers are not permitted to fire weapons on his property. He described his aunt's petition as an attempt to “throw a fly in the punch bowl.”
Among the other issues McCue raises in the petition are that Breakiron had no standing to seek the special exception because he is only a tenant on the property. Allowing the gun shop, McCue argues, “would not be in the best interest of the health, safety and welfare of the estate nor of the community of Bullskin Township in general.”
McCue is the township's solicitor.
At the May 13 hearing, one of Breakiron's neighbors expressed concerns about junk on the property and the possibility that cars would endanger the house, which is near a blind curve. Breakiron said he is cleaning up the property and will direct customers to use a second driveway that is not on the curve.
The petition has not been assigned to a judge for a hearing.
Liz Zemba is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-601-2166 or lzemba@tribweb.com.
