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WELLSVILLE – While some gun stores offer weapons for expensive prices and can sell to just about anybody, one new local store’s goal is to provide quality service for much less and also make sure they’re in the right hands.
River Valley Armory, located at 555 Main St. in downtown Wellsville, offers brand-name guns, ammo and accessories for competitive prices, with their mission being to protect the customer’s Second Amendment rights along with promoting gun safety and education.
Owners Chris Amato, Nick Amato, Landon Lyle and Joe Lyle and the rest of the staff, all based in Columbiana County, look to serve just about anyone’s needs, whether it’s for protection or for sport.
“We don’t just cater to one group,” Landon Lyle said. “We’re trying to be all-around: Hunters, concealed carriers, active shooters, target practice.”
The store offers a wide variety of guns to choose from, and several different name brands as well, ranging from Smith and Wesson, Remington, Taurus, Winchester, Henry, Beretta, Sig Sauer and Glock just to name a few.
The owners also noted the business offers comparable prices in regard to other stores. Chris Amato mentioned that gun prices in the area were rather questionable, and decided to go in business with the Lyles.
“We decided to put an FFL (Federal Firearms License) around 2014,” Chris Amato said. “We decided that prices around the area were – extremely too high.”
Chris mentioned that if RVA doesn’t have a specific gun available, they will check other places for the gun, and offer no shipping charge to the customer.
Along with competitive prices on guns, customers can also be able to receive a discount on re-manufactured ammo as well. Rather than throwing away empty brass, RVA offers to re-manufacture the brass, which Amato commented is also better for the environment.
“With the re-manufactured ammo, for every box that you want to buy, you bring us a box of the emptied brass and the already-fired brass, and you get $2 off a box,” Landon Lyle said. “So it’s a promotional thing.”
One important aspect of RVA is not only to serve the community and honor the Second Amendment, but also make sure that guns are not sold to the wrong hands. Along with strict background checks depending on what is being purchased, the staff also asks other questions as well in order to provide a feel for the customer.
According to Chris, the store reserves the right to refuse sales and has already done so on at least one occasion.
“We’ve refused many people,” Chris said. “We’ve refused a few people that we didn’t think were mentally fit.”
Another important note is that the store does not itself conduct CCW (conceal-carry weapon) license courses, but Chris mentioned that there are a few areas that conduct CCW courses.
While the store aims to help customers with proper weapons at decent prices, they also help out in many ways outside the store as well, including donations and sponsorship to civic organizations and youth groups through the Wellsville area.
As an added incentive, discounts are also available for military veterans, police and fire crews as well.
River Valley Armory is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, and by appointment Sunday. For more information, call 330-362-0017, visit www.rivervalleyarmory.com or like the business on its Facebook page.