The sheriff for Los Angeles County is making bold moves this week to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, including shutting down all gun stores and releasing inmates from county jails.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva indicated that the decision to close FFLs was about public safety and protecting people from themselves.

“We will be closing them, they are not an essential function,” Villanueva told FOX 11. “I’m a supporter of the 2nd amendment, I’m a gun owner myself, but now you have the mixture of people that are not formerly gun owners and you have a lot more people at home and anytime you introduce a firearm in a home, from what I understand from CDC studies, it increases fourfold the chance that someone is gonna get shot.”

Along with shuttering gun shops, Villanueva has let 10 percent of the inmates in county jails back out on the street, roughly 1,700 criminals, out of fear they may contract and spread the contagion to other inmates.

Though, the sheriff contends that they are nonviolent lawbreakers and with a ramped-up police force, Villanueva ordered an additional 1,300 officers to patrol local communities, they shouldn’t be a problem.