Customers in the cross-hairs

Alicia Robinson

Two Costa Mesa entrepreneurs are aiming their new products at holes

in the weapons industry.

Mitch Barrie and Ron Welsh, proprietors of Mesa Tactical, have

developed accessories that let shooters attach sights and lights or

change the stocks on their shotguns, and they have plans for more

products in the works. Customers, which include military and law

enforcement clients as well as private gun owners, want these

products but not many companies make them, Welsh said.

“The start of this business was aimed at the law enforcement

community,” Welsh said. But, he added, “there’s just been a growing

request for parts or kits that would allow civilians to adapt

civilian-type weapons to a law enforcement-type configuration,” he

said.

Firearms are a hobby for both Barrie and Welsh, and they’re also

gun activists who want to protect citizens’ right to own guns. Both

men have backgrounds with high-tech companies, and Barrie always

wanted to manufacture something, he said.

“To be honest, we’re capitalizing a little bit on the Sept. 11

thing because people are more aware now that the world’s a

potentially scary place,” Barrie said.

But private citizens won’t be the major part of Mesa Tactical’s

business, he said.

There are at least a million shotguns being used by U.S. law

enforcement agencies, which often start modifying guns immediately

after purchasing them, Barrie said. But most gun manufacturers don’t

bother with designing new guns or making the accessories, instead

leaving it to other companies, he said.

That’s where Mesa Tactical fits in. They don’t sell the firearms

themselves, but they offer adapters that work on weapons from the

three major shotgun manufacturers.

While interest in hunting seems to be on the wane and other gun

industry segments sales have been flat, manufacturers confirm that

tactical weapons and products are a growing field, Welsh said.

And it’s a relatively low-risk business for Mesa Tactical because

they develop the products in-house but farm out the manufacturing end

of the business. For instance, the company’s aluminum gun stock

adapters are cast at a Costa Mesa foundry just blocks away, and some

machining of parts is done in Huntington Beach.

“In some ways it’s a virtual company in that we don’t have the

tooling and the capital equipment, but to the rest of the world we’re

a manufacturer,” Barrie said.

Welsh and Barrie are just now getting Mesa Tactical up and

running. They recently held an open house for potential law

enforcement clients, and they hope to have their catalog available

online within the next few weeks.

“We have enough work for a whole nother year just with the ideas

we’ve gotten from talking to people,” Barrie said.

One reason they picked Costa Mesa for their business was the

proximity of manufacturing facilities, but there was another, perhaps

more symbolic reason. The ArmaLite Corp., a major gun manufacturer,

was once located on East 16th Street in Costa Mesa, Barrie said.

“This is the birthplace of the AR-15/M-16 rifle,” he said.

Mesa Tactical is at 1835 Whittier Ave., unit A-5, Costa Mesa.