NOBLESVILLE, Ind. – Noblesville Mayor John Ditslear considers himself “a Second Amendment guy, but I also know and respect guns, and if you’ve got young children in the house…any and all guns should be locked up and not accessible to kids, period.”
That warning was on the mayor’s mind this past Saturday, 24 hours after the Noblesville West Middle School shooting[1], when he realized Hoosier Armory was having its grand opening at 10th and Logan streets just a block off the city’s downtown square, complete with a tent to encourage registration and membership in the NRA.
“I did approach the owner and I just told him that, ‘No one expected this but you’re hurting your business, in my opinion, strongly, and you’re hurting our city,’ and I asked them to maybe just think about it and take the tent down, and I was asked to leave. And with those types of attitudes, those are very difficult but something needs to happen.
“The NRA needs to realize that they have a place in this to protect gun owners but they also have to make sure that gun owners are responsible.
“I was not happy that I was asked to leave.”
Clara Lawson, a 17-year-old junior at Noblesville High School where middle school children were reunited with their parents after the shootings, spread word of the Hoosier Armory protest through social media Saturday morning and spent four hours carrying signs with friends outside the store.
“We’re not trying to take away your guns. We understand that’s a right and I understand that, too,” she said. “I was protesting the NRA booth, not the Hoosier Armory, because I understand that’s their store, they’re fine if they’re there, that’s their right, but I
