Democrats in a D.C. collar county are taking aim at gun shops, along with tobacco retailers, self-storage businesses, and liquor stores by imposing a new use and occupancy permit requirement that will cost $5,000 to start... and could get more expensive every year.
The new ordinance claims that "alcohol, tobacco, firearm, and self-storage-related uses have a particularly detrimental impact on Prince George’s County’s quality of life", and it seems pretty clear that the measure is meant to reduce the number of these businesses by making it more costly to keep the doors open.
The ordinance notes that Prince George’s County had the second highest number of firearm-related deaths in Maryland between January 2015 and September 2025 and gun-related incidents by youth in the county increased by more than 200 percent between 2020 and 2023, but offers no evidence that local gun stores are responsible for either of those statistics.
There are only a handful of gun shops in the county as it is, and the new ordinance is sure to have a chilling effect on both existing businesses and the potential for new stores to serve the county's residents. As WTOP reports, though, some of those impacted by the new ordinance are vowing to take the county to court over the new fees.
“I am the son of two Indian immigrants who came here with nothing,” said Aalekh Kaswala, of Bowie. “My dad used to sell roses on the median. Then, he was a pizza delivery guy.”
Eventually, Kaswala’s father bought a liquor store on Marlboro Pike, which is now owned by Kaswala’s sister, who lives in District Heights.
“This industry is almost entirely immigrant-owned and operated,” he said. “Each one of these licensees is a family, and the way I believe that we’re being spoken about, we’re being demonized.”
Also in Largo to testify against the measure was Bruce Bereano, a lobbyist hired by the storage industry against the bill.
“This bill, on its face, is so blatantly unconstitutional and illegal by discriminatory classification of certain businesses,” Bereano said.
“These businesses are here legally and lawfully through the zoning power and authority of the county council and the county government.”
Most of those present to testify were opposed to the ordinance, but Council Chair Krystal Oriadha, who authored the measure, was unmoved by their impassioned pleas.
Oriadha argued it’s more about choosing the right businesses.
“We deserve better. Our residents deserve better,” she said during the hearing, after half a dozen business owners spoke out against the bill.
“There’s also a reality of the types of businesses we want to continue to attract and the ones we don’t,” Oriadha added in an interview with WTOP.
“And I think that’s wildly agreed to by every person actually lives in Prince George’s County.”
She said it comes down to deciding what types of businesses the county wants to attract and which ones it wants to dissuade.
“If you say, ‘Hey, I want better,’ then you’re anti-business,” Oriadha said.
“And that’s the furthest thing from the truth. I have had so much pro-business, pro-Black and brown business set aside legislation. So I’ve been here for the last three years in a real thoughtful way. So it’s not anti-business, but is that what we deserve?”
Oriadha's ordinance isn't just meant to discourage gun stores from operating in the county. As the "whereas" section of her measure states, these stores supposedly impact the quality of life for county residents by lawfully selling firearms. It's clear, then, that Oriadha and the council members who approved this measure are also actively trying to make it more difficult for county residents to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
Some courts have upheld restrictive zoning laws and other impositions on gun stores by arguing that the Supreme Court's language in Heller talked about presumptively lawful regulations on the commercial sale of firearms. This ordinance, though, isn't limited solely to gun shops. Instead, it's aimed at a variety of disfavored businesses, so it's not really about regulating the lawful commerce in arms.
If any gun store owners were in attendance at the county council's meeting on Tuesday, WTOP didn't mention them. I hope that every FFL with a storefront location, along with all of the other small business owners impacted by the council's new $5,000 fee, band together to challenge this new permit in court.
Editor’s Note: The radical gun control agenda isn't limited solely to bills in Congress or state capitols. Anti-gun activists are trying to strip us of our Second Amendment rights at the local level too.
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