Minuteman Supply Pearle Robertson
Pearle Robertson has 12 years of experience in the firearms industry. She has taught women and children how to handle guns. Photo by Bob McGovern

A Navy veteran is behind the city’s second gun shop.

Pearle Robertson opened up Minuteman Supply in mid-January at The Wells, signing a three-year lease at 41620 W. Maricopa Casa Grande Hwy.

“We are here to provide supplies for the modern minuteman,” she said.

The store sells firearms, ammunition, survival gear and emergency preparedness accessories like a “bug out bag” designed to survive the first 72 hours of evacuation, with tent, gallon water bag, food, water purification tablets, fire starter and first aid kit.

Robertson, 41, is a mother of four who specialized in cryptographic communications for the U.S. Navy, spending time in South Korea. Before joining the military, she was a candymaker, a craft she resumed when she left the service. After moving to Las Vegas, where she lived for about a year, she took a job at The Gun Store, a shooting range a few miles off The Strip.

“That got my foot in the door of the firearms industry,” she said. She earned her instructor certification and specialized in teaching women and children how to handle guns.

She moved to Maricopa six years ago, working at gun shops and shooting ranges in metro Phoenix. After listening to people tell her for years to go into business for herself, she said she was finally ready in August. “I just said, ‘Alright, let’s do this.’”

With 12 years in the firearms industry, Robertson first started selling body armor and other survival accessories online last summer as she worked to get the proper licensing to open the shop.

One early challenge will be a national shortage of handguns and ammunition resulting from record-high sales of guns in the United States in 2020. She has been told by dealers the shortage will get worse before it gets better.

She plans to resume firearm instruction at some point after hearing interest from other soccer moms.

Minuteman Supply has competition from Arizona Law Dawgs, but Robertson said she feels the business is in a good location with the southern and eastern parts of town expected to see considerable growth in the coming years.

“This town is definitely big enough for another gun shop,” she said.

“I have a good spot.”

520-230-5143
MinutemanSupplyCo.com


This story appears in the February issue of InMaricopa magazine.