Georgia gun store owner shutters his business because the number of children killed in shootings has risen by 50% over the past two years: ‘I don’t want something I’ve personally touched to be used on children’
- Jon Waldman, owner of Georgia Ballistics Gun Shop in Duluth, says a rise in gun violence involving children is forcing him to close the shop he opened in 2021
- There have been 24 school shootings this year that resulted in injuries or death
- ‘What stops this (gun) from being used against my kid … you never know the person getting it just because they pass a background check.’
A Georgia gun shop owner is shutting down his business because his conscience won’t allow him to continue selling guns that could be used to target children.
Jon Waldman, the owner of Georgia Ballistics Gun Shop in Duluth, said the rise in mass shootings and gun violence involving children has forced him to shut the doors of the shop he opened in March of 2021.
An estimated 495,897 guns were sold in Georgia that year. Gun sales surged to breaking records since the pandemic.
However, as gun sales increased across the country, so have mass shootings.
And as a father himself, Waldman, 43, said he couldn’t continue to keep his shop open with a clean conscience: ‘I don’t want something that I’ve personally touched, that I’ve helped a client with to be used on children,’ Waldman said to 11 Alive.
Jon Waldman, the owner of Georgia Ballistics Gun Shop in Duluth, says a rise in mass shootings and gun violence involving children is why he is closing his gun shop
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3yPAXcpcxik%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26hl%3Den-US
‘What stops this (holding a gun) from being used against my kid, and that’s the problem I have, you never know the person getting it just because they pass a background check.’
The number of children killed by gunfire jumped 50 percent over the past two years, leaving nearly half of U.S. parents terrified, according to Pew Research Center.
‘The fact that it keeps being kids, after kids after kids, that’s the thing for me,’ he continued. I understand I’m not the one selling the guns that are doing this but there’s a possibility that I could,’ Waldman added.
Waldman said there is no clear answer on how to solve the problem we’re seeing across the country, but by closing his shop, he believes he’s doing his part.
‘There’s not a way to cast a huge net, there’s not a magical solution and it’s fixed, there’s not, it’s one of those where the community has to come together, both sides,’ Waldman said to 11 Alive.
Waldman said his shop is already closed and he plans to have all weapons cleared out by June 15, according to NBC.
Dailymail.com reached out to Waldman but received no response from him.
While constitutionally, Waldman believes weapons and ammunition should be available for purchase, he emphasizes a lack of training and easy accessibility as key issues in the sale.
And as a father himself, Waldman said he couldn’t continue to keep his shop open with a clean conscience: ‘I don’t want something that I’ve personally touched, that I’ve helped a client with to be used on children,’ Waldman said to 11 Alive.
Waldman said when he looks at his own child, he has to have a clear conscience about what he’s doing in life
Georgia Ballistics Gun Shop in Duluth was opened in 2021
Waldman once backed out of a sale and refunded a client when they attempted to purchase 4,000 rounds of armor-piercing bullets.
‘Just because you pass (a background check) that doesn’t mean you should have it,’ he said.
Waldman said when he looks at his own child, he has to have a clear conscience about what he’s doing in life.
‘This is just my conscience, and it’s more important to me than anything else,’ he said to 11 Alive.
The number of child gunshot deaths grew from 1,732 to 2,590 in 2021— the highest number since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started counting deaths in 1999.
There have been 24 school shootings this year that resulted in injuries or deaths, according to an Education Week analysis. Since 2018, there have been a whopping 168 school shootings.
In March, a shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, left three adults and three nine-year-old students dead.
Just this month, 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia killed eight people, including children, at a Texas mall.
And last month, a nine-year-old boy was shot dead in a mass shooting in Texas.
Daniel Enrique Laso, 9, was shot alongside four other members of his family and close friends by illegal immigrant Francisco Oropesa, 38.
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