There is no need for the moratorium on establishing new firearm retailers in Santa Cruz County, because:

1) Firearm retailers pose no significant threat to public safety. The City of Sunnyvale recently conducted a study on the impacts of firearm vendors on the surrounding areas and found there is no determinable negative impact;

2) Rather than negatively impacting the community, firearm retailers generate significant revenue and provide good paying jobs, which the County could use in this period of economic hardship. Scaring away good businesses from the County based on irrational fear is not what is best for residents;

3) Firearm vendors are the purveyors of Second Amendment rights. This means that while they are subject to legitimate zoning laws just like any other business, they are entitled to constitutional protections, and cannot be singled out for mistreatment. The County should take this into account when deciding how to zone and treat firearm retailers;

4) The County is inviting litigation by treating firearm retailers unfairly. Alameda County spent over 12 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation costs battling a lawsuit that sought to ban firearm sales;

5) Firearm vendors are heavily regulated under federal and state law, more so than most any other type of business and are renowned for their compliance with the law and law enforcement.

Dear NRA member,

1) The Sunnyvale study not withstanding, gun shops do in fact get broken into often enough, so much so that some cities require extra security for locking them up at night. Furthermore, you seldom see a gun shop in a high income area - know why? Because gun shops tend to be associated low property value areas and are on par with cheap motels, liquor stores, and marijuana dispensaries.

2) Providing "good paying jobs" for a few does not triumph public safety for the many - Using the latest economic downturn in order to take advantage of the population and push for any kind of store to be allowed into an area is about as politically low as you can get.

3) Advocates who extoll the 2nd amendment as the epitome of freedom are misguided at best, and ideologically driven at worst. Statics show that death by firearms in this country is set to overtake death by auto accidents in the next 10 years - know why? Because driving a car, a vehicle which has much lethal potential, has more safety regulations than owning a gun, which has the sole purpose of being lethal.

4) Inviting litigation from 2nd amendment enthusiasts is a poor reason to not look into proper zoning laws for our area. Just because Alameda lost in court, doesn't mean they weren't morally correct in challenging an overly broad interpretation of the 2nd amendment, which was written when "firearm" was the equivalent of a musket.

5) Firearm dealers are not nearly as regulated as we think they are. The reason for this is due to the extreme litigiousness of the NRA, and their belief that ANY attempt to limit the accessibility of military style assault weapons for the civilian population is a step towards fascism. That level of paranoia leads to the dark side of mental health issues and self isolation, and I think we've already seen way too many times what happens when mentally disturbed individuals are allowed easy access to guns.