Gun Store Relocation in McLean, near elementary school - Thoughts? (Arlington: felons, transfer)

[johnsonkk]

So your lead in for the Culpeper situation and how it compares to the school in McLean is that having a gun store nearby an elementary school implies a quick purchase, buy some ammo, and quickly exit gun store to attack the school. Is that what your implying with proximity?

The Culpeper situation was a student bringing a pellet gun on the bus and other students reported this as soon as they reached the school.

Gun scare at Culpeper school turned out to be pellet gun - WTOP

No word on where or when the student acquired the pellet gun. We're trying to see the concern but the rational and examples are not highlighting the correlation between distances of gun stores with schools adversely affecting safety.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by johnsonkk

So your lead in for the Culpeper situation and how it compares to the school in McLean is that having a gun store nearby an elementary school implies a quick purchase, buy some ammo, and quickly exit gun store to attack the school. Is that what your implying with proximity?

The Culpeper situation was a student bringing a pellet gun on the bus and other students reported this as soon as they reached the school.

Gun scare at Culpeper school turned out to be pellet gun - WTOP

No word on where or when the student acquired the pellet gun. We're trying to see the concern but the rational and examples are not highlighting the correlation between distances of gun stores with schools adversely affecting safety.

There are many lockdowns already, so if you have a gun store 100 feet from a school you may end up with situations where there are both unnecessary lockdowns (because someone gets spooked by a legal transaction taking place nearby) or failures to take appropriate action (because people get so used to people carrying weapons openly around the area that they don't respond appropriately when someone with bad intent crosses into school property or starts aiming towards the school.

You apparently don't live in McLean or even Fairfax County, so you really do not know this community. It's mostly people who live outside McLean who somehow have decided that their own freedoms will be put at serious risk if a gun dealer can't sell weapons a stone's throw away from a bunch of first graders in McLean. And let's cut through the crap - for all the talk about what a great guy some of these gun store owners are, their financial incentive is to sell as much hardware to as many people as they can as quickly as possible. It's almost certainly harder to get a rescue dog from a local shelter than it is to buy a gun at that store that could kill or injure dozens of people.

[Bigfoot424]

Again, let the market decide if this business makes it or not. I plan a visit to the store soon.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by JEB77

You apparently don't live in McLean or even Fairfax County, so you really do not know this community.

OK, from within the community, what is happening? A couple days of protesting and a petition. What are the next steps to eradicating this legal business?

[HokieFan]

Originally Posted by JEB77

And let's cut through the crap - for all the talk about what a great guy some of these gun store owners are, their financial incentive is to sell as much hardware to as many people as they can as quickly as possible.

You've said this more than once, and I'm not sure what is the point. This is the goal of most businesses. That goes without saying. This type of store has more state and federal regulations to comply with than your typical retailer, as long as they are in compliance why should this store be any different?

[JD984]

Originally Posted by Bigfoot424

Again, let the market decide if this business makes it or not. I plan a visit to the store soon.

If you need driving directions, I hear that Route 66 east is pretty light in the mornings.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by HokieFan

You've said this more than once, and I'm not sure what is the point. This is the goal of most businesses. That goes without saying. This type of store has more state and federal regulations to comply with than your typical retailer, as long as they are in compliance why should this store be any different?

They might comply with regulations and sell guns to murderers:

Official: Gun in Va. television murders purchased legally

Some guns stores in Virginia, of course, don't comply with the laws:

NYC Defends Running Stings Of Va. Gun Sales

Locating that store somewhere else would not violate the Second Amendment at all.

[Carlingtonian]

People have a right to express their opposition (however illogical) to the relocation of this business.

However: It's a slippery slope when local communities oppose a legal businesses based on dislike of what it sells.

What if a group of vocal locals in a conservative Christian community oppose a new Islamic bookstore? Do those law-abiding Americans, solely due to their religion, forfeit their right to open a business?

What if it's an LGBT bookstore?

What if it's a Tea Party bookstore opening in Takoma Park?

What if it were a lingerie store in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood?

This is America. Complain all you want--but all of the above have the right to pursue a legal livelihood within the confines of the law.

In this entire thread, no one has raised a single, plausible risk to these kids from having this very highly regulated and secured store nearby. The store isn't going to be selling guns at tables in the parking lot. Unlike this store, I guarantee you there are plenty of people with criminal backgrounds who have shopped at nearby convenience stores. Yet no one is trying to ban 7-Elevens near elementary schools.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

People have a right to express their opposition (however illogical) to the relocation of this business.

However: It's a slippery slope when local communities oppose a legal businesses based on dislike of what it sells.

What if a group of vocal locals in a conservative Christian community oppose a new Islamic bookstore? Do those law-abiding Americans, solely due to their religion, forfeit their right to open a business?

What if it's an LGBT bookstore?

What if it's a Tea Party bookstore opening in Takoma Park?

What if it were a lingerie store in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood?

This is America. Complain all you want--but all of the above have the right to pursue a legal livelihood within the confines of the law.

In this entire thread, no one has raised a single, plausible risk to these kids from having this very highly regulated and secured store nearby. The store isn't going to be selling guns at tables in the parking lot. Unlike this store, I guarantee you there are plenty of people with criminal backgrounds who have shopped at nearby convenience stores. Yet no one is trying to ban 7-Elevens near elementary schools.

Actually, people have repeatedly discussed the risks associated with guns. You made foolish statements that no kids could possibly get hurt due to this store, and within hours the Oregon shootings had occurred with multiple homicides at yet another place of learning. Exquisitely bad timing on your part.

It is a matter of common sense that locating a gun store near a school - given the repeated, demonstrated propensity of sick people to shoot up schools - at a minimum may cause anxiety among local students and parents. From what I've read, some people have already pulled their kids from the school. Harder to measure, but impossible to ignore if you actually have skin in the game, is that it makes it logistically easier for a sick person to acquire a gun legally (or illegally if the owners aren't quite as upstanding as you assume) and go on a rampage.

Your arguments about what you can do in 'Merica are both frivolous and wrong. Under current Supreme Court interpretations (which could change in the future, as Second Amendment jurisprudence has been anything but consistent), you currently have a Second Amendment right as an individual, assuming you are not disqualified due to a prior felony, diagnosed mental illness, etc., to own a firearm and keep it at your residence.

However, even under those decisions, local jurisdictions may regulate where and how firearms are sold. The fact that they may currently have a legal right under Virginia law to operate the store in that location does not trump other laws, current or future. The zoning laws might be changed, with no grandfathering of this location, or FCPS conceivably might decide to exercise its rights of eminent domain under current Virginia law to lay claim to the land. Or there might be someone who will essentially give in to the landlord's fairly transparent efforts to blackmail the community, buy the property and terminate the current lease. The only thing I know for sure is that this store will never be welcome in the community at that location, just as residents of your county made it quite clear they would not welcome the business. Can you point me to the thread where so you argued so fervently that Arlington residents should get over it and welcome this business?

The views of those in McLean opposing this store's location are by no means on the fringe. What's a little more bizarre is how we've now been besieged by out-of-towners, who just have to show us how fantastic open carry is: https://www.facebook.com/Coalitionto...iolence?ref=nf Be honest, and ask yourself if you really want guys showing up at your next PTA meeting (assuming you have kids, and I'm not sure you do) armed to the teeth.

[TheWatchmen]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

People have a right to express their opposition (however illogical) to the relocation of this business.

However: It's a slippery slope when local communities oppose a legal businesses based on dislike of what it sells.

What if a group of vocal locals in a conservative Christian community oppose a new Islamic bookstore? Do those law-abiding Americans, solely due to their religion, forfeit their right to open a business?

What if it's an LGBT bookstore?

What if it's a Tea Party bookstore opening in Takoma Park?

What if it were a lingerie store in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood?

This is America. Complain all you want--but all of the above have the right to pursue a legal livelihood within the confines of the law.

In this entire thread, no one has raised a single, plausible risk to these kids from having this very highly regulated and secured store nearby. The store isn't going to be selling guns at tables in the parking lot. Unlike this store, I guarantee you there are plenty of people with criminal backgrounds who have shopped at nearby convenience stores. Yet no one is trying to ban 7-Elevens near elementary schools.

There are efforts in my community to limit opening new car title loan and other predatory loan establishments, which I wholly support. Wave the American flag, the Constitution, and whatever else you please, while others try and improve their communities. I have personally attended hearings where citizens try and have a hand in the businesses that operate in their communities, and rightfully so.

Annandale VA: Supervisors to consider zoning limits on car title lenders

The proposed Fairfax County zoning ordinance also would prohibit car title and payday lenders in shopping centers adjacent to or across from land developed with any public use, place of worship, child care center, private school, or athletic fields. These lenders would not be permitted within 5,280 feet from another title or payday lender, and their operating hours would be limited to 8 a.m.-6 p.m.

I go to a 7-11 that is a stone's throw away from an Alexandria elementary school quite frequently, and have no issues with the location of that business whatsoever.