Gun Shop Near School Sparks Alarm

It's against the law to sell liquor within 500 feet of a school - but not to sell guns.

And that has mobilized parents in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.

Since a gun shop opened recently a block and a half from the West Woodland Elementary School, letters, petitions and complaints have been fired off to city and school officials.

But the Mountain Castle Arms gun shop at 5413 Sixth Ave. N.W., operated by Monty Reed, a 25-year-old former Army Ranger, apparently is legal because the city neighborhood-commercial zoning there permits small businesses like his.

West Woodland's principal, Jim Alexander, has no quarrel with private enterprise but wonders about the wisdom of a firearms shop so close to his school. ``It is on our recommended route map for children walking to and from school,'' he said.

But for the moment, the school's 480 pupils are out of harm's way.

The children are temporarily attending classes about a mile west of West Woodland in the old Monroe Junior High building, their temporary home until the fall of 1991, when construction of the new West Woodland is scheduled to be completed on the old school site at 5634 Fifth Ave. N.W.

That time cushion hasn't persuaded the gun shop opponents to holster their weapons.

Prodded by parents, Seattle School Board President Marilyn Smith says she will introduce a resolution at tomorrow's board meeting calling on the board to support changes in the law to restrict placement of gun shops within certain distances of schools.

But relief apparently will have to come from the state, according to Mayor Norm Rice's office.

The mayor has been advised that the state, which now prohibits liquor sales within 500 feet of a school, has the jurisdiction over regulating placement of gun shops in relation to schools if the Legislature chooses to do so, said the mayor's press secretary, Mark Murray.

``Basically, the mayor agrees with the residents that a gun shop in close proximity to a school isn't appropriate,'' Murray said.

The press aide said Rice would like to work with state lawmakers to see if the same distance restriction that applies to liquor sales can be applied to gun sales. Others feel the same way.

Mary Hanson, president of the Fremont Neighborhood Council, said her group unanimously supports a gun-shop-to-school proximity law. ``We're somewhat disappointed that this wasn't caught somewhere in the system before the man put his shop in there,'' she said.

The opposition was organized by the school PTA and a neighbor's group, which is thinking of calling itself NAG (Neighbors Against Gunshop).

PTA President Debra Beauchaine wrote City Councilwoman Jane Noland, head of the council's Public Safety Committee, that parents and teachers are ``dismayed that a business of this type - selling dangerous and potentially harmful firearms - can legally operate at such a close distance to a school.'' She urged a city ordinance to limit the distance.

Ron McKenzie, PTA treasurer, said the PTA board informally has talked abut a 1,000-foot restriction.

Chief spokesman for ``NAG'' is Mary Hillyer, whose home is less than a block from the gun shop. Her husband is Blayne Heckel, a University of Washington physics professor. They have three children 5 and younger.

The parents' concern isn't directed against Reed personally, Hillyer said. ``It's just going to bring in the wrong element for schoolchildren to be walking past there,'' she said. ``There are guys out front sighting 9-millimeter handguns.''

There's been a federal firearm's license in effect at that location for decades, but neighbors hardly noticed.

They knew the spot as Leonard Nordine's Barber & Sport Shop. Nordine, who will be 79 in May and is retiring in June after 60 years in business there, cut hair, repaired fishing rods and reels - and occasionally sold firearms.

``I never displayed too many guns,'' Nordine said.

Reed, a native of Seattle and a 1983 Blanchet High School graduate, doesn't understand why some of the neighbors are so upset and wishes they would talk to him. His customers don't hang around the neighborhood, Reed said. ``They buy the guns and are gone.''

``Monty doesn't sell to just anybody,'' Nordine volunteered as he snipped the hair of one of his longtime patrons. ``And just because they (some customers) look shaggy, doesn't mean they aren't good guys.''

Reed went into gun sales after he broke his back in a practice night parachute jump with the Rangers in Germany. He spent a year in the hospital and rehabilitation.

Reed said he decided to sell guns because, ``All the Army taught me about was weapons.''

For nearly three years Reed said he operated out of his father's home in Seattle while attending classes at North Seattle Community College, until he found Nordine's shop for sale. He is living in a house next door.

Since he opened Feb. 1, business has been brisk, ``doubled since I moved here,'' Reed said. The former Ranger said he intends to stay.

Reed said he has talked with his attorneys about the neighborhood opposition. ``If my business is hurt negatively, they (his lawyers) want to sue for damages, probably against the PTA,'' Reed said.

NAG also is talking about a suit.

Hillyer, once an ombudsman on elderly and disability issues for former Wisconsin Gov. Lee Dreyfus, said, ``We're looking into a class-action suit'' because of the threat to property values posed by the nearness of the gun shop.

She said she and her husband have put a hold on plans to build an addition to their house until they are assured their dwelling's value isn't diminished by being around the corner from a firearms' outlet.

Hillyer concedes that even if the law is changed, it probably wouldn't apply to Reed, because he already is in business at the location.

But the greater issue is whether gun shops should be restricted in school areas, she said.

Hillyer said that she and other mothers remember too well that a troubled gun enthusiast killed five children and wounded 30 other people last year at a Stockton, Calif., elementary-school playground.

While the parents don't favor a porno shop coming into the area either, ``dirty pictures don't kill kids,'' Hillyer said. ``Guns do.''