According to a recent article on arlnow.com, the Nauck Civic Association has created a petition to prevent a possible small business from opening in South Arlington because it potentially could be a gun shop. As a group that supports the rights of all Arlingtonians to exercise their freedoms as enumerated by the US Constitution, we respect the rights of the Nauck Civic Association to exercise their First Amendment rights in opposition to a potential gun shop in Arlington; however, we are equally entitled to exercise our freedom of speech to support this business.

We support the right to engage in lawful commerce, and advocate for proprietor of Shirlington Heights Condominiums, Michael Griffin to lease his property to any and all potentially interested parties including a gun shop. With the economy that has remained mostly stagnant, we are concerned that determining which businesses should, or should not be allowed will do a far larger disservice to the community as a whole. Further, it has been shown the firearms industry has been one of the few bright spots, in an otherwise dismal economic state. The possibility of a gun shop in South Arlington has the potential to confer numerous benefits to the county, including additional job growth, tax revenue for the county’s coffers, as well as providing law-abiding county residents the option to purchase a firearm from a local small business. As noted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, target shooting in the United States has an economic impact of $23 billion dollars a year, and supports just under 250,000 jobs, and provides tax revenue exceeding $5 billion dollars a year in business taxes. Based off these figures, we are against restricting potential vendors for the location based off unfounded concerns, and would like to encourage all residents of Arlington to avoid being myopic regarding this matter, and to foster a truly open and tolerant community.