The owner of a Goleta, California daycare who tried to have her gun store neighbor shut down before he could even officially open his doors says her business will soon be closing.
Heather Robbins, owner of Here We Grow Early Learning Center, says the preschool will shut down in December after enrollment declined from 14 kids to just seven over the past few months. Robbins blames the demise of her daycare on the presence of Goodland Guns, which moved into a former 7-Eleven back in August. The move prompted protests from some parents and Robbins herself, who argued that the city shouldn't have approved Goodland Guns owner Dan Ashton's move from his location in Old Town Goleta to the vacant building.
“We don’t really notice them at all,” Robbins said. “It’s more the perceived feeling of safety that parents aren’t getting with them next door.”
Yet, she knew “instinctively” the two businesses could not successfully coexist.
“I know that having a reminder of this thing that is plaguing America is terrifying to all parents, right in their faces, all the time,” she said.
No offense to Robbins, but a gun store isn't terrifying to all parents. My guess is that there are plenty of moms and dads who are shopping at Goodland Guns, and there are millions of parents who responsibly own firearms across the United States.
I think Robbins is on to something, though, when she talks about the "perceived" feeling of safety (or rather, insecurity) from some of her customers. The problem is that she herself helped to stoke those fears. Back in August, Robbins told local media that Goodland Guns' new location wasn't "just matter of discomfort."
It’s a potential safety hazard for the young children in our charge, and it places an emotional and operational burden on our entire community."
Robbins even started a Change.org petition to urge "local authorities to deny the establishment of a gun and ammo store next to our preschool," claiming that the "psychological impact of just being near such stores could distress the children and undermine the sense of security parents expect from us."
Maybe Robbins would still be suffering from the same enrollment problems if she had talked about the work that Goodland Guns owner Dan Ashton was doing to be a good neighbor, including putting up a privacy fence between his parking lot and the daycare playground. She could have pointed out to parents that Ashton's previous location abutted another preschool, and there were no issues there. She could have tried to assuage the concerns of her customers. Instead, she chose to fan the flames in the hopes of getting Ashton's store shut down.
Given that, it's hard for me to have much sympathy for Robbins. Still, I'm glad she has another daycare where attendance is strong, and it's good that the staffers at the soon-to-be-shuttered location can move to the other location and remain employed. I don't like to see anyone lose their jobs, and becoming unemployed because of the irrational fears of a few parents would really suck, especially so close to the holidays.
I'm also not convinced that the hoplophobic reaction to Goodland Guns is entirely to blame for the lack of enrollment at Here We Grow. Robbins said the facility was licensed to have as many as 39 students, but according to Noozhawk, the daycare's enrollment peaked at 14 kids before declining to seven. Here We Grow opened in January, more than six months before Goodland Guns relocated, so it sounds like Robbins was struggling to fill the facility long before the gun shop became an issue for some parents.
I'm sure the ill-fated campaign to force Ashton to move his shop didn't help, though. It's ironic that Robbins spent months warning parents about the dangers of a business that, by her own admission, is barely noticeable. In the end, I'd say the biggest threat to Here We Grow wasn't really the gun store next door, but the fear the daycare owner worked so hard to cultivate.