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Edited Date/Time
5/17/2016 9:58am
Looks like this won't end well for a bunch of anti gun folks as they tried to shut down a firearms business.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/arlington-gun-st…
The owner of the Arlington gun store that opened last month despite vociferous objections from local residents has sued 64 people, including elected officials, claiming that they conspired to destroy the business, harassed the owner and landlord and mailed death threats to the 16-year-old “owner-in-training.”
The suit, filed last week in Richmond Circuit Court, named seven state legislators who appealed to the landlord, on official General Assembly stationery, to refuse to rent 2300 N. Pershing Dr. to Nova Armory. The lawsuit also named Arlington County Board member Christian Dorsey, School Board member Barbara Kanninen and multiple residents who have spoken out against the gun store.
[He says Arlington gun store will be great but won’t say who owns it]
Daniel Hawes, attorney for Broadstone Security, which does business as Nova Armory, said the plaintiffs warned the lawmakers and residents against “interference” with the business.
“People generally don’t like it if you try to destroy their business. That’s malicious behavior,” Hawes said. He said someone has been following customers who leave the store and taking photos of their cars and license plates. “There’s been all sorts of creepy stuff by people with a morbid obsession, a neurotic obsession, with firearms,” he said. “They are really dangerous people.”
The complaint says defamatory comments on social media, harassing phone calls and emails and a mailed death threat to 16-year-old Lauren Pratte forced the business to spend time and money “in merely surviving the crisis.” Pratte is the daughter of Dennis R. Pratte II, who described Nova Armory as a family-owned business. The lawsuit asks for $2.1 million in lost revenue and damages, an amount that can be tripled under law.
[Gun store opens in Arlington]
Del. Mark Levine (D-Alexandria), who signed the letter and who was singled out in the lawsuit for his comments on social media, said he was representing his constituents who do not want the gun store in the neighborhood. Levine called the lawsuit “a very, very dangerous attack on the First Amendment, an absolute attack on people’s right to speak out.”
“Protests are as American as apple pie, as pro-American as civil rights protests, as boycotts of grapes,” Levine said. “If this lawsuit succeeds, the Montgomery (Ala.) bus company ought to sue Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement for that boycott because they wanted to shut down that business.”
Upon learning that she was named in the lawsuit, 25-year resident Natalie Roy, who has opposed the gun store’s opening, said, “This guy is a bully who never cared about the neighborhood, and now he has proven it.”
Cragg Hines, a former Washington columnist for the Houston Chronicle who is now involved in local Democratic politics, said that the lawsuit is “ridiculous” and that those who opposed the gun store were engaged in fair comment.
He read the list of other residents being sued and described them as “great company. I’d get in the trenches any day with them.”
Opposition to the gun store arose in late February, when Lyon Park neighborhood residents learned that Pratte, the former owner of another gun store, had applied for a certificate of occupancy. Virginia law does not allow local governments to prohibit or regulate firearms merchants if the business complies with basic zoning rules.
More than 3,500 people signed a petition opposing the location of the gun store in a strip of storefronts just off U.S. 50, near both a military base and a private day-care facility. Members of the local civic association voted 264 to 16 to oppose the gun store.
A proposed gun store in Arlington’s Cherrydale neighborhood lost its lease last spring after local residents pressured the landlord. The only other known place that sells guns in Arlington is a pawn shop on Lee Highway, but several gun shops operate just a few miles away in Fairfax County.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/arlington-gun-st…
The owner of the Arlington gun store that opened last month despite vociferous objections from local residents has sued 64 people, including elected officials, claiming that they conspired to destroy the business, harassed the owner and landlord and mailed death threats to the 16-year-old “owner-in-training.”
The suit, filed last week in Richmond Circuit Court, named seven state legislators who appealed to the landlord, on official General Assembly stationery, to refuse to rent 2300 N. Pershing Dr. to Nova Armory. The lawsuit also named Arlington County Board member Christian Dorsey, School Board member Barbara Kanninen and multiple residents who have spoken out against the gun store.
[He says Arlington gun store will be great but won’t say who owns it]
Daniel Hawes, attorney for Broadstone Security, which does business as Nova Armory, said the plaintiffs warned the lawmakers and residents against “interference” with the business.
“People generally don’t like it if you try to destroy their business. That’s malicious behavior,” Hawes said. He said someone has been following customers who leave the store and taking photos of their cars and license plates. “There’s been all sorts of creepy stuff by people with a morbid obsession, a neurotic obsession, with firearms,” he said. “They are really dangerous people.”
The complaint says defamatory comments on social media, harassing phone calls and emails and a mailed death threat to 16-year-old Lauren Pratte forced the business to spend time and money “in merely surviving the crisis.” Pratte is the daughter of Dennis R. Pratte II, who described Nova Armory as a family-owned business. The lawsuit asks for $2.1 million in lost revenue and damages, an amount that can be tripled under law.
[Gun store opens in Arlington]
Del. Mark Levine (D-Alexandria), who signed the letter and who was singled out in the lawsuit for his comments on social media, said he was representing his constituents who do not want the gun store in the neighborhood. Levine called the lawsuit “a very, very dangerous attack on the First Amendment, an absolute attack on people’s right to speak out.”
“Protests are as American as apple pie, as pro-American as civil rights protests, as boycotts of grapes,” Levine said. “If this lawsuit succeeds, the Montgomery (Ala.) bus company ought to sue Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement for that boycott because they wanted to shut down that business.”
Upon learning that she was named in the lawsuit, 25-year resident Natalie Roy, who has opposed the gun store’s opening, said, “This guy is a bully who never cared about the neighborhood, and now he has proven it.”
Cragg Hines, a former Washington columnist for the Houston Chronicle who is now involved in local Democratic politics, said that the lawsuit is “ridiculous” and that those who opposed the gun store were engaged in fair comment.
He read the list of other residents being sued and described them as “great company. I’d get in the trenches any day with them.”
Opposition to the gun store arose in late February, when Lyon Park neighborhood residents learned that Pratte, the former owner of another gun store, had applied for a certificate of occupancy. Virginia law does not allow local governments to prohibit or regulate firearms merchants if the business complies with basic zoning rules.
More than 3,500 people signed a petition opposing the location of the gun store in a strip of storefronts just off U.S. 50, near both a military base and a private day-care facility. Members of the local civic association voted 264 to 16 to oppose the gun store.
A proposed gun store in Arlington’s Cherrydale neighborhood lost its lease last spring after local residents pressured the landlord. The only other known place that sells guns in Arlington is a pawn shop on Lee Highway, but several gun shops operate just a few miles away in Fairfax County.
I think attacking people's right to free speech reveals how far from reality these people are. Defamatory statements are one thing, but suing people that spoke out against a gun store in their neighborhood is thuggish.
Thing is, why didn't the city government just rewrite the zoning laws.
Happens around here all the time.
So Arlington is often at odds with the state legislature, which is dominated by Republicans.
I guess to have a case, the gun store would have to prove they were threatened, libeled or slandered. I don't know if the state lawmakers letter qualifies as anything illegal, but maybe. I don't think "interfering" with a business is something you can sue for. "Character of the neighborhood comes up all the time in zoning, and is used to turn down all kinds of things. If they county board could have stopped the gun store, they would have.
Death threats should be investigated and those actually committing the acts prosecuted. Unless the officials are directly asking people to issue these threats, then it's a pretty far fetched notion to prosecute them for such things, or even to sue them civilly.
The Shop
"Rep. Levine actually sent the landlord a letter on General Assembly stationery urging the landlord to terminate their lease. Virginia's strong laws about groups of people conspiring to interfere with lawful commerce aside, that seems like a clear case of tortuous interference to me."
Also..., "one of the articles mentioned the store is registered as a "female owned, minority owned" business."
They are just asking to be sued.
Typically with this sorta stuff they(the anti's) contact the BATF with complaints/concerns.
The BATF comes out and audits the business and if they don't have all their ducks in a row or they are committing some sort of violation then they can be fined and also have their FFL yanked (it happens from time to time -missing guns - guns not logged etc..).
But trying to cause local issues for FF licensed biz/dealer at that level isn't going to end well for the anti-gunners,
when its a legal business in compliance with Fed law and other jurisdiction's of the law.
Now if they ORDER the landlords to not lease to or break current leases, that's another issue entirely of course.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/openly-gay-pastor-admits-wrote-203000285.html
Upon learning that she was named in the lawsuit, 25-year resident Natalie Roy, who has opposed the gun store’s opening, said, “This guy is a bully who never cared about the neighborhood, and now he has proven it.”
Just a bit of irony in that.
Humans are such curious beasts
Just curious.
And it looks like DC's requirement that people cite a "good reason" for carrying a firearm was struck down:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/us-judge-strikes-dow…
Post a reply to: Anti gunners screwed the wrong pooch