Gun shop owner closes store after mass shootings of kids: 'I don’t know who it’s going to affect'

A Georgia gun shop owner has reportedly decided that he can't in good conscience continue to run the store with the knowledge that the weapons he sells could one day be used to target children, NBC News reports.

Jon Waldman said business at his Georgia Ballistics shop in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth has been steady since he opened it in March 2021, but the mass shooting epidemic compelled him to close shop.

Waldman said the March 27 shooting at a Nashville Christian school and the May 3 shooting at an Atlanta hospital were the last straws for him. The 43-year-old has already shuttered his store and expects to have all the weapons cleared out by June 15.

"There’s no guilt about it, I sell to law-abiding citizens," Waldman told NBC News on Thursday.

Waldman said he isn’t opposed to gun ownership but acknowledged the uncertainty about what happens with the firearms and ammunition that he sells has given him pause.

“I’m not against the Second Amendment. But just with my conscience, I can’t sell it because I don’t know who it’s going to affect and hurt," Waldman said.

"That’s what eats at me. If it can happen, it’s only a matter of time until it does happen.”

A customer’s request to purchase 4,000 rounds six weeks ago helped validate his decision to shutter his store.

"If you had ordered 200 to 1,000 rounds that's fine. Anyone who shoots regularly, you're going through a thousand rounds in a month," he said.

"But when you order 4,000 rounds, the kind of stuff that goes through engine blocks, refrigerators and vests that police officers wear, I just can't sell that."

Waldman said he isn’t advocating for more restrictions but said he’d like to see a greater emphasis on training and responsible ownership.

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“For the last couple of months, you just see kids, over and over again, getting shot," Waldman said.

"It's kids being randomly shot, and I'm tired of it. I have a kid, my girlfriend has two kids. I’m a family man. I’m all about people being armed but at the same time they leave their stuff in their cars. They don’t see their firearms (to be as important) as their phones.”

Read the article here.