Gulf Coast Guns owner, Chris Smith, went live on the business’s social media page Tuesday evening to explain his side of Tuesday’s court order.
According to Smith, the business took out a loan with Regions Bank in 2021 as a line of credit to keep inventory in the store. Smith said they had paid on that loan for three years before Regions decided to sell the loan to another company, Lakeland.
Smith said, “The loan was in good standing, and they sold the loan to someone else before we could get it refinanced with anyone else.”
According to Smith, the company which took over the loan “jacked (it) up” over $100,000.
“We were already paying $10,000 a month with the Regions loan,” Smith said.
Smith indicated Gulf Coast Gun pays its debts as much as possible but has occasionally been late.
“Every time we get a chance, I pay off who we need to, it might not always be on time and sometimes its early,” Smith said. “I have employees who need to make a wage to support their families.”
According to Smith, Lakeland representatives had been “scouting” the store and got a writ to take inventory. Smith said he liquidated personal items to make a deal with the loan company.
“I got screwed,” Smith said. “But my employees still have jobs.”
Smith was emotional during the live video, telling people to leave his family out of the politics of the gun store and highlighting the pressures of running a business.
“Until you have owned a business and had employees, you would not understand how I feel at all,” Smith said. “I had tons of small-business owners reach out to me with support. We are not going anywhere. We will be right here.”
Gulf Coast Guns and Outdoors plans to be open Wednesday during their regular business hours. This weekend they will continue with plans to hold a red tag sale and will pay the sales tax on top of it.
