With little recourse in gun-friendly Va., Arlington resists store opening
Patricia Sullivan for the Washington Post reports:
Neighborhood e-mail lists in Arlington County have been burning up for the past week over news that an empty storefront where a weight-reduction salon once stood will open for business selling handguns, rifles, ammunition and gear.
Residents of North Arlington’s Cherrydale and Maywood — neighborhoods of rolling residential streets less than a mile from the Potomac River — say a gun shop is simply not appropriate along a stretch of Lee Highway where businesses such as a flower shop, a hardware store and a grocery cater to the families living nearby.
And they have registered their upset with a Change.org petition asking the landlord to break the lease. So far, the petition has collected more than 1,500 signatures.
“Kids walk past it to the 7-Eleven all the time,” said Christina Friedli, one of many residents who posted their dismay online. “I wouldn’t want a sex shop there either. A coffee shop or balloon store would be better. … This is in close proximity to schools and preschools.”
Apparently gun stores are comparable to sex shops now? Read the full story at the Washington Post.
