Especially a NJ School!

[url=www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-1/102586020825088.xml]Full Text.[/url]

[b]Bergen school leaders fight gun shop opening[/b]

[i]Friday, July 05, 2002

BY ANA M. ALAYA
Star-Ledger Staff[/i]

For three decades, a large gun shop did business on Bergen Boulevard in Ridgefield, attracting an international following among gun owners until it closed last year, but little attention from the town's 11,000 residents.

But a former employee's recent attempt to open a new gun shop several blocks away from the former site has alarmed some residents of this Bergen County town.


The new site is 25 feet from the Bergen Boulevard School, and parents and school leaders are leading a fight to keep the shop from opening.

"It's like an accident waiting to happen," said Christina Vermeal, who has a daughter in first grade. "The safety and welfare of our children is at stake. Why make it easy for someone to get a gun so close to the school? All it takes is one irrational person for a tragedy to happen."

Ron Granito, the owner of the shop, Bergen Sporting Goods, claims the opposition is nothing more than an emotionally fueled, anti-gun campaign, and he has hired attorney Evan Nappen, one of New Jersey's well-known gun-law experts in Eatontown, to defend him.

"This is about emotionalism and politics," Nappen said. "The claims about public safety are absolutely false. New Jersey guns shops are one of the most licensed and regulated industries, with both buyers and sellers heavily regulated. A licensed shop is not a threat to any child."

Granito's store is not the first gun shop to face local opposition in the past several years, though gun shops have coexisted near schools without incident for decades in some parts of the state. New Jersey has 410 shops, the lowest number per capita of any state. Last year, West Long Branch residents fought a shop that tried to open near a school, and in Rockaway, residents were concerned a gun shop threatened the wholesome image of their downtown.

"It's the old 'not-in-my-backyard,'" said Eric Schwab, a New Jersey lawyer who specializes in gun laws. "Despite what people want, guns are still perfectly legal for law-abiding citizens. Just because people don't like guns, they're trying to regulate them out of business."

Nearly 100 people turned out for a zoning hearing last week as lawyers for the Ridgefield Board of Education and Granito sparred over whether a borough official properly allowed the gun shop to open.

The gun and ammunition store at 649 Bergen Blvd. was issued a certificate of occupancy last October and the store opened May 17. The next day, because of objections from school leaders, the town shut the shop down for failing to obtain a zoning certificate.

Board of Education attorney Stanley Turitz told the Board of Adjustment that Granito's business doesn't comply with an ordinance the town council recently passed barring gun shops within 100 feet of a school.

damn, why do they put roads so close to schools?

If the owner has the stones and cash to fight he is going to clean the town's clock.
Ex post facto zoning is not going to pass muster.

Same sort of logic, or lack thereof, was displayed in the past few years here.

The county has had a too small jail for about two decades. So they wanted to build a new, bigger one nearby. So what's the problem? Well, it's the local grade school sitting two or three blocks away.

Now wait a minute. The school is older than the too small jail, but there is no problem with it's location. But to build a new jail nearby suddenly puts the kiddies in danger!!?? [>:/]

After many years, law suits, etc. including a threat to move the county jail to another town (with the implied threat the county seat may follow) the city council approved building the new jail one block west of the old jail, which makes it closer to the school by one block.

Now that it's up and running nobody is worried about the kiddies. The city council just didn't want the jail downtown. A$$clowns. [:(!]

Sounds like a bunch of emotional, irrational soccer moms.

The same A$$clowns(Hey!, I like it too!) are at work around here too. Several years ago, a small gunshop had wanted to buy the building next door and expand Their business. Even though it had been in the same location three blocks from a local high school, without any trouble for years, suddenly the "For The Children!" crowd got vocal at the city meetings. Vast amounts of Verbal Sewage was sprayed about. It took many of Us(Citizens Who supported the Owner(s)) to get up in front of the city meetings and >Try< to bring some common sense back into the discussions. After 3-4 city meetings, the city saw that it was not going to get this one by without a HUGE fight from Us, and relented. The effort put out by the local gun supporters was great! I just wish it was always like that. In November We (Michigan) will be voting on a new governor. Our Republican one is retiring and, with all the Unions around here, It's looking like We will be F#cked by Them and have a new Dem-O-Crap one in for the next few years.....YIPPIE!

I REALLY need to move out to Arizona!
Anyone out there need a Electronics Tech with 23 years experience!???

Tall Shadow

My son already fought this battle with the town of west long branch here in new jersey and we beat them ,we hired Evan Nappen the gun guru lawyer here in jersey.
They got so scared that we were going to file a cival suit in fed court they dropped the city ordinance they were proposing.
The guy can win very easy,the fed law on this says it is illegal because of whats called "preemption",which says that a town or city can not enact a law that is already covered by fed law,and there by preempting the federal law.

[b]Granito's store is not the first gun shop to face local opposition in the past several years, though gun shops have coexisted near schools without incident for decades in some parts of the state. New Jersey has 410 shops, the lowest number per capita of any state. Last year, West Long Branch residents fought a shop that tried to open near a school, and in Rockaway, residents were concerned a gun shop threatened the wholesome image of their downtown[/b]

Notice that the news paper never mentioned the fact that we beat the town and remained open?

but guys its "for the children"

lol

My former hometown tried to fuck over a liquor store in that way.  The store was across from a high school, but in a patch of land that was "unincorporated" by any town.  So the city council annexed the property one night and passed a resolution five minutes later banning liquor stores within some huge distance of schools.  There was no notification to the property owner or to the liquor-store owner ahead of time.

It took two years of court fights, but the city lost.

People would rather complain to city council and try to keep businesses such as gun shops an  liquor stores away from their children instead of taking the time to educate and teach their children right from wrong.

Alright!!  Girlfriend finally posted...  with an intelligent reply no less [sex]