At Esparza’s Jewelry in the Fruitvale section of Oakland, the owner, Rodolfo Perez, works the counter with a .38-caliber revolver strapped to his belt.

Perez acquired the weapon after thieves stole $20,000 in merchandise in May 2010. That August, with Perez elsewhere in the store, robbers took a $2,500 ring and beat up an employee. After the second incident, Perez said, the police waited five months to take a report.

Fruitvale merchants are increasingly arming themselves, concerned that Oakland’s overburdened police force is unable to defend them against a wave of violent crime that has crippled the local economy and made them fear for their safety.

The Oakland Police Department lost 80 officers to budget cuts last year — more than 10 percent of the force. Officials acknowledge that they are increasingly faced with hard choices over where to devote resources.

Sgt. Holly Joshi, a spokeswoman, said the police did not object to residents’ acquiring licensed weapons.

“We have to defend ourselves,” said Hugo Guerrero, owner of Hugo’s Tours travel agency and chief executive of a local merchants association. But for some residents, the preponderance of weapons, even if for protection, also creates fear.

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On the Fruitvale stretch of International Boulevard, the commercial heart of East Oakland, Valentino Torres, owner of La Torta Loca sandwich shop, displays an arsenal of knives, clubs, swords, nun-chucks and machetes on the wall “as a warning,” he said. Across the street, Agustina Sugia, the owner of Taquería 16 de Septiembre, keeps a metal bat under a supply of paper cups beneath the counter.

Another businessman, who would not allow his name to be used, opened his desk drawer to show off a silver-barreled revolver, boasting that it was loaded with bullets that expand on impact for maximum destruction. Even Gisela Jimenez, the owner of La Rosa candy store, said she owned a gun.

Still, when someone who Jimenez thinks looks suspicious walks in to her business, she said she walks out rather than risk a confrontation, because criminals in Fruitvale “aren’t afraid of the consequences.”

Like much of East Oakland, Fruitvale has long been plagued by crime. But merchants say their frustration is boiling over because of an increase in lawlessness, including shootings for money and armed robberies in broad daylight.

The crime wave includes a rash of highly publicized killings. On April 8, Jesus Campos, a past president of the local merchants group, was shot to death as he opened his popular Otaez Mexicatessen restaurant at 39th Avenue and International Boulevard. The crime remains unsolved. Elsewhere in East Oakland, on Aug. 8, 3-year-old Carlos Nava was struck by a stray bullet near his mother on International Boulevard. Three weeks later, Jose Esparza was shot to death in front of his 6-year-old son during a robbery.

This surveillance video shows a recent robbery on International Boulevard:

One business owner, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, said he is so tired of the insecurity that he is recruiting fellow merchants to pool their money to hire a private security force. During business hours, the guards would carry loaded weapons, and they would patrol on foot the stretch of International Boulevard that runs through Fruitvale, he said.

“This will at least tell criminals: ‘You come around here, you’ll get caught,’” the business owner said.