An idyllic oceanfront California community continues to react to the news that a local gun shop is about to open next to a daycare in early September, sparking rallies by residents and leading to immediate action down at city hall.
Goleta is a small bedroom community of about 30,000 just up the coast from Santa Barbara. The bucolic town is perhaps known best statewide for being the original home of the Habit Burger & Grill. News broke here earlier this month that a local gun shop, called Goodland Guns, was moving next door to the Here We Grow Early Learning Center on Hollister Avenue, one of the town’s main drags, sending shock waves through the community right away.
After news of the gun shop’s location broke, the community immediately held a rally in the park next to the daycare center on Monday, Aug. 3. Opponents spoke out against having a gun store in such close proximity to children.
Goleta City Council members and Dan Ashton, the gun store owner, also attended the rally and addressed the community members and their concerns.
The gun shop, which used to be in Old Town Goleta, recently signed a 25-year lease on the Hollister Avenue location in an empty commercial space that once was a 7-Eleven…