A bit of gun shop history.
John Jovino Gun Shop
This shop in New York City opened its doors in Manhattan in 1911 and closed in 2020. They sold a lot of guns in those 109 years, many to the NYPD. In the 1920's the store was sold to the Imperatio family who owned a firearms factory in Brooklyn. This was later moved to Bayonne, N.J. and became Henry Repeating Arms. By the way, that four-foot revolver that hung beneath the sign was sold to someone in Los Angles.
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Talk about operating behind enemy lines !
New York state ( and the city,ughh) is a detriment to operating any business, firearms and its 100 times worse.
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Yea, but I bet those bagels are tasty.
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sad to see such places were forced out the history had to be amazing I think I saw a mini documentary new story maybe 10 or 20 yrs ago about a old gun shop in NYC and how they had managed to survive it may have been that place or one darn close had a anout a 100 yr history also
I was 18 before I even knew gun shops existed or gun shows of close as I knew were the stores that had a few like Westen auto and Woolworth and a few big box stores later on when I was about 16 ( like Walmarts predecessors ) like rinks and mr wiggs and O mart
all guns I seen as a kid that family and locals owned had been traded and sold and resold many times over , their history was a mystery to me . I just knew I liked them
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Back in the 1980's when I had a FFL, I ordered several guns from them. Sad to see they are no more.
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Navy Arms & Sarco were just across the Hudson in New Germany. They were interesting places as you never knew what they had to sell. Both have moved out.
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Cool history
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I cannot imagine the BS they must have had to endure over the last 60-70 years. Tip of the hat to them for putting up with New York for all those years..
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Way back in the early 1960's I went there with my Dad (after a lunch at Katz deli for a real pastrami on rye with a Dr. Browns Celray soda, then a handmade potato Knish at Yonah Schimmals on Houston st. and a walk around the Canal street "market" area), I was awe struck, my fascination with firearms was started by that visit.
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Jovino used to big in Shotgun News and sold thousands of firearms through them in the day.
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probably had mafia connections to stay in business that long.
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Mr. Perfect: 30378623033115/comments/
probably had mafia connections to stay in business that long.
Well they did have very strong ties to the NYPD for many many years
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So, I'm confused. That is not hard to do. Wasn't Henry first produced in the early 1860's??? How did it become Henry repeating arms in 1996???
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Totally different company. Like Springfield Armory in Springfield, Mass. and Springfield Armory in Ill.
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Like others, I bought a few guns from their Shotgun News ads. SN was huge in the pre-internet days. Another rag I subscribed to was Gun List. In a storage building I have SN going back to the early '60s and GL from the '80s and '90s. Not a huge amount of issues but maybe 100 or so. Kind of sad to look at some of the deals but there are some guns which are about the same price now as they were 35 years ago. John Jovino, Century Arms International, Sarco, Ron Shirk, J&G Sales, Ellett Bros, and Paragon, to name a few I remember.
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gotta wonder how many times they were broken into......
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I think a NYPD building was right behind them so probably not so often.
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Ricci.Wright: 30378623033115/comments/
Totally different company. Like Springfield Armory in Springfield, Mass. and Springfield Armory in Ill.
You would think the name would be patented. Never knew this. Learn something every day!!!!!!!!!
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