Residents in ritzy California enclave left fuming as GUN STORE opens up in beach town next to a daycare
Residents of Goleta, an affluent coastal community near Santa Barbara, California, have staged protests and launched a petition after Goodland Guns announced it would open a new store on Hollister Avenue directly next to the Here We Grow Early Learning Center. Parents and locals argue the location, on a route children use to walk to nearby Ellwood Elementary School, is entirely inappropriate for a firearms retailer, and have called on city officials to intervene before the shop's grand opening.
Owner Dan Ashton says the move was forced by circumstance rather than choice, after his landlord at the previous Old Town Goleta site, where the business had traded for 11 years, gave him just 30 days' notice and demanded double the rent. He signed a 25-year lease on the Hollister Avenue site, a former 7-Eleven, following a three-year search complicated by California's strict regulations and a shortage of suitable commercial space. The store held a soft opening on 10 August, with a grand opening still planned for 5 September; Ashton says he has installed a privacy screen along the shared fence with the daycare and held talks with concerned neighbours, insisting he wants to "be good neighbours" despite the ongoing backlash.
- Gun shop opening next to a daycare angers Goleta, California residents
- Petition and protests demand city officials block the move
- Owner cites landlord eviction and lack of alternative sites; opening set for 5 September
New here? Start with this
Goleta is a coastal town near Santa Barbara, California, known for being affluent and family-oriented. At the centre of the row is Goodland Guns, a firearms shop run by owner Dan Ashton, which is opening a new store on Hollister Avenue right next to a childcare centre, on a road children use to walk to a nearby primary school.
Ashton has run the business in Goleta for 11 years, previously trading from a site in Old Town Goleta, and says he only moved because his former landlord gave him little notice and sharply raised the rent. Finding a new site took him three years, partly because California imposes tight rules on where gun shops can operate and suitable commercial premises were scarce.
Local parents and residents have objected to the new location, organising protests and a petition and urging city officials to step in before the store's official opening. The dispute matters because it sets residents' concerns about children's safety and the presence of a childcare centre against a licensed business owner's right to relocate within the constraints of local property and gun-sale regulations.