MANASSAS, Va. — Home owner Mark Sicat explained his idea in July to Prince William County's Planning Commission: "My intent is to operate a home-based firearms business dealing in firearms sales, firearms transfers, and firearms manufacturing as defined by the ATF. There will be no casting equipment or any kind of steel work or anything like that. I'll be assembling firearms and, as required, serializing, if I'm creating them from scratch as far as 80 percent type of lowers."
The Blackburn development in Manassas is around 160 homes, and neighbors say each home is valued at around $700,000.
We talked to some of Sicat's neighbors:
"Mark is a wonderful neighbor. Met him three years ago. We all get together in the community and have fun. He's very responsible. Just all-around good guy," said Lamont Saunders.
"His character, everything else, is irrelevant. This is a protection of my property and the property of other members of the Blackburn homeowners," neighbor Joseph Grandanetti told County Supervisors.
While Sicat wasn't available for an interview or a tour of his home and business site, pictures he provided to the county show the garage he plans to work out of.
"At the end of the day, we're talking about individuals coming into a neighborhood, buying a firearm and then leaving. You can establish all the precautions in the world you want, and all it takes is one accident. One accident and someone in the neighborhood, or at that community center could be injured or killed," neighbor Aaron Gall told the County Planning Commission.
In a 5 to 3 vote last Tuesday, County Supervisors granted Sicat permission to open his home gun store with some conditions: All customers must be by appointment only, and only five customers a day. No outside signage is allowed, and no selling of ammunition.
In a statement to WUSA9, Sicat wrote: "I am glad that there are proper regulations in-place, for home businesses, zoned in residential communities. I don’t take for granted the amount of research, perspectives, and legislation of which were brought to my case, and I don’t take my neighbors’ perspectives for granted. As a member of this community, I understand and respect both supporting and opposing perspectives. I too, am a family man with the upmost concern for the safety of my family and my neighbors and friends. In addition, I care for the safety of people of whom I don’t know, that wish to follow the rule of law, whether it be local or national."