Queen City Arms, located in the village of New Richmond at 320 Sycamore St., has been open for almost a year. Pictured, from left, are co-owners Matthew Berger and his wife Tara Berger. The two are joined by their son Ayrton Berger, who is 16 months old.

Queen City Arms, located in the village of New Richmond at 320 Sycamore St., has been open for almost a year. Pictured, from left, are co-owners Matthew Berger and his wife Tara Berger. The two are joined by their son Ayrton Berger, who is 16 months old.
By Megan Alley
Sun Staff

The owners of Queen City Arms, located in the village of New Richmond, will celebrate the gun shop’s one year anniversary on Dec. 5, and so far, business has been great.

“It has been, honestly, phenomenal,” Tara Berger, who owns the store with her husband Matthew Berger, said. “We have been very, very fortunate and very, very blessed. We’re going to be closing out our first year very, very successful.”

She added, “The people have really embraced us and the village has embraced us. We have people that come from all over Ohio, which is really, really cool. It’s just awesome. It’s been a whirlwind to be quite honest.”

Queen City Arms, located at 320 Sycamore St., carries pre-manufactured guns and specializes in gunsmithing and building ArmaLite rifles.

“We are actually a manufacturer, so we are able to actually build out guns, which is really fun and really cool,” Tara Berger said. “We are very proud of the products that we build.”

The shop also carries ammunition for all basic calibers, and they’ll fill special orders.

“Honestly, you ask us to do something, and if we can’t do it, we do have a very good network of people who can,” Tara Berger said, adding, “We will be the first ones to tell you we don’t know everything, we don’t even pretend to; the industry is always changing and we’re always learning as we go.”

Additional amenities offered by the shop include transfer services at a flat rate of $20, part sourcing, gun safety classes and private lessons.

“I feel very passionate about training and educating people about gun safety,” Tara Berger, a National Rifle Association certified instructor, said.

In addition to teaching classes, Tara Berger staffs the shop, does sales and ordering, gunsmiths and builds guns. She also makes custom holsters from Kydex, a moldable plastic.

“I’m kind of a jack of all trades,” she said.

Matthew Berger, who manages a career outside of the shop as an information technology startup manager, also builds guns, gunsmiths and manages the shop’s day-to-day operations for ordering.

Tara Berger grew up around firearms. She was raised on a farm in Burlington, Kentucky, where she hunted with her father and brother.

“These are some of my earliest memories,” she said.

Shortly after Tara Berger and Matthew Berger, who grew up in the Anderson Township area, began dating in 2009, she suggested he go hunting with her father.

“[Matthew] really didn’t have much experience with the firearm industry or shooting or anything like that, so I kinda said, hey, why don’t you go hang with my dad,” she said. “He kind of got his feet wet there, and he is such a technical person that he really started enjoying the details of breaking down guns and building them, and the different things that you can do with them.”

The two were married in 2012 and made the decision to open the shop in early 2015, when Tara Berger was pregnant with the couple’s son Ayrton Berger, who was born in July 2015.

Previously, Tara Berger had worked as a compliance auditor at a law firm in downtown Cincinnati for almost five years.

“I really wanted the opportunity to, for one, open a small business,” Tara Berger said.

“And, for two, be able to raise my son with the flexibility of; you know, without the restraint of a normal 9 to 5 deal.”

She added, “It’s such an easy transition over to this business because, you know, we are heavily regulated and there’s a lot of compliance issues; I kind of love that stuff, so it was very easy to transition over to this.”

The opened their shop in New Richmond because they liked the feel of a small town; they live in Anderson Township, near Coney Island amusement park.

“Clermont County welcomed us with open arms, and the village of New Richmond has been awesome,” she said.

Queen City Arms is a unique gun shop because they “avoid the hard sell” and really try to focus on customer service and building relationships, according to Tara Berger.

“I wanted to make it a different experience for customers; I want to make sure that everyone is taken care of, regardless if they walk out the door with a firearm or a sale or anything like that,” she said. “We’re very honest and transparent. We work hard, we’ve been there, and we don’t ever want to take advantage somebody else’s hard earned money.”

She added, “We’ve made lifelong friends with just the short time that we’ve been open.”

Customer Patrick Duschl, of the city of Milford, started shopping at Queen City Arms soon after it opened. He’s been using firearms for the past 30 years.

“I choose to shop there because I’m taken care of, the prices are very reasonable, the customer service is second to none and they over deliver and under promise,” he said. “They really work to make you feel like family, and there is no other shop around that treats you like that.”

Queen City Arms is open Sunday and Monday by appointment only, Tuesday to Friday from noon to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call the store at 513-900-8005 or visit the shop’s website at www.queencityarms.com.