TARZANA : Store Owner Sued Over Sale of Firearms Replicas

The sleek semiautomatic Beretta fell out of the Tarzana teen-ager’s overnight bag, right in front of his mother. While the parents interrogated the 15-year-old about the gun, he led them to his little brother’s closet. There they found another one--a Walther PPK. They called the police.

The boys’ guns were replicas. After an undercover sting operation, Los Angeles police found the man they said was the source of the replicas--a Tarzana sporting goods and camping store owner. He allegedly sold them to an 18-year-old who had bought them for the junior high school student.

On Thursday, the city attorney’s office filed a civil lawsuit against Garo Kalaydjian, owner of the Recon-1 “military-cutlery-camping� store on Ventura Boulevard. Kalaydjian was charged in the suit with two violations of a state civil law that prohibits selling an imitation firearm except for use in TV and stage productions, athletic events, military or civil defense activities and public displays at schools.