Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Gun range owner in Delray Beach is allowed to stay open after he challenges city order to close.
A gun seller will be able to stay open in Delray Beach after he pushed back against a city’s order to close under rules aimed at preventing the spread of the new coronavirus.
The dispute came as firearm sales have been surging across the nation while the disease has forced millions of Americans to stay home.
An attorney for the Delray Shooting Center wanted code enforcement officials to immediately review and walk back the shutdown order concerning the closure of “non-essential businesses.”
Owner Michael Caruso says he had over 1,000 customers waiting for their guns.
“These customers have purchased firearms for protection and to maintain the safety of their families and themselves,” attorney Michael Salnick wrote in a letter to code administrator Danise Cleckley. “Respectfully, there is no way one could not classify Delray Shooting Range as a non-essential business. Your resolution puts great numbers of individuals at risk by suggesting such a business should be closed.”
The business, at 1505 Poinsettia Drive, says it should be permitted to stay open under a March 20 city order allowing the operation of companies that “provide services that are necessary to maintaining the safety … of residences and other structures.”
Salnick said the shooting center will take measures to ensure protection against the coronavirus, such as having only “three people in the store at a time who know in advance what they are there to purchase.”
Cleckley could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday despite a phone call and email.
Salnick said that changed Wednesday, with the city attorney agreeing to deem Delray Shooting Center an essential business.
Salnick had also pointed out that Delray’s order puts it at odds with emergency orders in Boca Raton and Broward County that classify firearm and ammunition supply stores as essential businesses.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has not included gun shops in any of his recent orders concerning the operation of businesses during the public health emergency.
Other places in the country, such as Pennsylvania, have forced firearms businesses to close.