Round of Applause: Gun Store Owner in Georgia Decides to Close Shop in Response to Recent Mass Shootings [Video]

A gun store owner near Atlanta said he is closing his store after his conscience was burdened by recent mass shootings that targeted young victims.

via: Complex

Jon Waldman, the owner of Georgia Ballistics in Duluth, spoke with regional outlet WXIA-TV last week about his decision and his larger concerns about gun violence. According to Waldman, who opened the shop in March 2021, seeing “kids after kids after kids” being caught up in gun violence has led him to this moment.

“This is just my conscience, and it’s more important to me than anything else,” he told the outlet, adding that moving forward on this issue will, in his opinion, require communities coming together on “both sides.”

In early May, an Instagram account associated with the shop posted about the Atlanta hospital shooting in which a 24-year-old suspect.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Georgia ballistics (@georgiaballistics)

“Absolutely horrible, something truly needs to be done about this,” the post, which stood as the most recent update to the account at the time of this writing, read.

Elaborating further on his decision in an interview, as seen up top, Waldman noted that the closure of his shop doesn’t mean he’s individually against people being armed.

“I just can’t sell items like this to people,” he said. Waldman also questioned the effectiveness of background checks, pointing out that merely passing one doesn’t necessarily mean a person “should” have access to such weapons. He also pointed to his status as a father as being instrumental in the store closure.

“What stops this from being used against my kid?” he asked.

At the time of this writing, no public posts had been shared by the Duluth-based gun shop regarding the closure. Per a separate report from NBC News, however, the plan is to have the store cleared out by the middle of this month.

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