AP Photo/Keith Srakocic
I’ve been writing for the past couple of months about the hoplophobia that’s been spreading through the Boston suburb of Newton, Massachusetts like a virus. Earlier this year, when townfolk discovered that a gun store was getting ready to open in the business district downtown, calls were made, groups were formed, and an organized campaign to kick the gun store to the curb was soon underway.
Over the past few months the city council has weighed banning gun shops completely, but ultimately settled on a change to zoning laws that will restrict gun stores to just a few square blocks in industrial or less-desirable pockets of real estate. Some gun control activists still say the town hasn’t gone far enough, but I ran across an interesting take from one of the proponents of the attack on Newton Firearms recently, who seems to be having some second thoughts about the whole crusade.
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Newton residents speak out on proposed gun store rules
By John Hilliard Globe Staff,Updated May 11, 2021, 12:48 p.m.
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Newton officials and many residents are fighting a proposed gun shop at 709 Washington St. in Newtonville.Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
Dozens of Newton residents weighed in Monday night on proposed rules to regulate gun stores and other firearms businesses, some making passionate cases to city officials about the role gun ownership and the Second Amendment should play in the city.
The zoning rules for firearms dealers, proposed late last month by Fuller and all 24 city councilors, would impose strict limits on the location and operation of firearms dealers, gunsmiths, and gun ranges
Opposition grows over proposed gun shop in Newton: âA gun store will make us all less safe.â
By John Hilliard Globe Staff,Updated April 20, 2021, 12:55 p.m.
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A stop work order was posted to the proposed gun shop at 709 Washington Street in Newton.Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
In a vacant storefront in Newtonville, close to an ice cream shop, wine store, supermarket, and marijuana shop, a local businessman hopes to open Newtonâs only gun store.
But in the days since news that Newton Firearms LLC would open its doors at 709 Washington St. became widely known, city officials and residents have banded together in full-throated opposition to the proposed store, which would be in the vicinity of many homes and several schools, including Newton North High School.