Georgia gun shop owner shutting down store after mass shootings

The owner of a Georgia gun shop said he is shutting down his store in the wake of several recent mass shootings that took the lives of children.

“I’m not against the Second Amendment,” owner Jon Waldman told NBC News. “But just with my conscience, I can’t sell it because I don’t know who it’s going to affect and hurt.”

“That’s what eats at me,” he added. “If it can happen, it’s only a matter of time until it does happen.”

Waldman, 43, owns Georgia Ballistics outside of Atlanta, which he opened in March 2021. However, he said a March shooting at a Nashville, Tenn., elementary school and a May shooting at an Atlanta hospital ultimately led him to close the store, according to NBC.

“It’s really the kids,” he said in a separate interview with CNN. “My son keeps seeing it. My son’s going through mass shooting tragedies at school. He’s going through all the training. It’s nothing like that when I went to school. It’s sad that he has to live like that.” 

“But at the same time, it’s also my responsibility because I sell higher-end items that could be used like that,” Waldman added. “And I don’t ever want to sell something that could be used against my kid, let alone anybody else’s.”

Six people were killed, including three 9-year-olds, at The Covenant School in Nashville, while one woman who worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was killed in the Atlanta shooting.

There have been 268 mass shootings and 24 school shootings so far in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive and Education Week.