Firearms stores near me

Last Saturday, 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmeter arrived at a Dollar General store in a black neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida, and killed three people before turning his gun on himself and committing suicide.  “The gunman used racial slurs, left behind a racist screed and drew swastikas on his firearm, authorities said. He was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun and was wearing a tactical vest and blue latex gloves,” according to a report on CNN Sunday afternoon.

I was going to write yet another story about the easy availability of firearms and how we have more guns in the United States of America than we do citizens.  Palmeter bought both of his firearms legally – a Glock pistol in April and a Palmetto 15 Multi semiautomatic AR-15 style rifle in June, according to law enforcement authorities in Jacksonville.  This despite the fact that he had been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility by family members under the Florida State Baker Act in 2017.  He was a minor at that time, so the federal background check law did not apply when he purchased the guns as a 21 year old this year.  “In this situation, there was nothing illegal about him owning the firearms,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said in a news conference Sunday.  

I’ve gone over the gun statistics for this country repeatedly.  I’ve written about so many mass shootings, from the murder of 49 people and the wounding of 53 at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida to the murder of 19 children and two teachers at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a shooting that also wounded 17 others, and on and on and on.  Now we have the murders of three black people by a racist in Jacksonville, and who knows what tomorrow will bring? 

We live in Milford, Pennsylvania, a town of 1,000 citizens in Northeast Pennsylvania less than a mile from New Jersey and only about five miles from New York.  It’s a largely rural area of small towns like Matamoras, Pennsylvania, and Port Jervis, New York, and Dingman’s Ferry, Pennsylvania, all within a short driving distance.  The closest hospital to Milford is the Newton Medical Center in Newton, New Jersey, about 21 miles and 31 minutes by car from Milford.  If a gunman were to kill people in this area, that’s where you would be taken by ambulance.

So I decided to see just how easily available firearms are in this area.  I Googled “firearms stores near me,” and this is what I came up with:

The closest firearms store is Old Mill Tactical Outfitters, so close that when I clicked on the “directions” button, it showed the store was a half mile and 12 minutes away by walking.  If you want to drive, it’s only three minutes from this house.  The store advertises on the local classic rock station, calling itself “Your friendly neighborhood firearms store.”

Next was Patriot Arms and Munitions, 8/10ths a mile away down Route 206, which we can reach by walking 18 minutes or driving for two minutes.   Here is a screenshot of the store’s logo:

Keystone Arms is in Matamoras, Pennsylvania, 12 minutes and 6.7 miles away.  Just across the Delaware River in Port Jervis, New York is The Gun Lady, 7.2 miles and 14 minutes away. Here is a screenshot of her website:

You can reach J.J. Rifle World by driving down Milford Road to Birchwood Lakes in Dingman’s Ferry, Pennsylvania.  It’s only 10.8 miles and 16 minutes away.  Incidentally, you’ll pass a Dollar General store just before you reach J.J. Rifle World.

Further afield in Greeley, PA, is the Tommy Gun Warehouse, 14.5 miles and 20 minutes by car to the northwest.  Here is a photo of the staff and wares on offer at the Tommy Gun Warehouse.

Across the river, 13 miles and 19 minutes away by car in Wantage, New Jersey, is the headquarters of Letting the Lead Fly LLC.  Here is a screenshot of their website. 

You can buy a Mossberg Shockwave Pump 12 gauge shotgun from Letting the Lead Fly for $458.96.  It’s got a magazine that holds six rounds and the kind of sawed-off barrel that used to be illegal before the Supreme Court ruled that you can own pretty much anything that shoots bullets except a .50 caliber machine gun…but you can own a .50 caliber Barrett M82 sniper rifle that is accurate up to one mile, just in case somebody a mile away is getting ready to hold you up or burgle your house.

Big Gary’s Gunshop in Westtown, New York, is 17.3 miles and 25 minutes away.  It’s owned by a guy who describes himself as semi-retired but is still working 60 hours a week “and enjoying every minute of it.”  He says his goal is to promote the respect of “property rights” of landowners, in case you were interested.

Tri-State Firearms Exchange, down in Vernon, New Jersey, is 25 miles and 41 minutes away by car.  Their website describes them as “a different kind of gun store” that specializes in estate liquidations and internet sales, but invites you to “come on in.”  Here’s a photo of some of what they’ve got for sale.

The Gun Place is located on Milford Road in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.  It’s 23.6 miles away and 33 minutes by car when the traffic is good. Here’s a photo from their Facebook page.

If you’re willing to drive 26 miles down to Vernon Township, New Jersey, and spend 42 minutes of your time doing it, you can shop at Mastadon Ammo and Camo.  They sell all kinds of firearms, of course, and for $107.99, they will also sell you a Rothco Soft Shell Concealed Carry Jacket that’s got a neat little pocket just inside its zipper closure especially designed to hold a semiautomatic handgun. Here’s their logo:

So, what have we learned here?  Just by looking at the websites for the gun stores and the online retailers, I can assure you that there are more firearms within 40 minutes of Milford, Pennsylvania than there are residents of this village.  Anyone who decides they want to shoot up our Dollar General Store, less than two minutes from this house and just a short distance past Patriot Arms and Munitions, will have plenty of firearms stores and firearms to choose from.

What any of the villages and towns around here do not have, however, is an emergency room with a level one trauma center that specializes in treating the kind of emergencies brought on by gunshot wounds.  For that, you will have to go to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania, 80 miles away, a drive that will take you one hour and 40 minutes.

We have ready access to the firearms that kill people and cause extreme, life-threatening traumas, but limited availability to the kind of medical treatment that can save your life. 

But there are more than 78,000 licensed firearms dealers in this country.  Over half of them are located in residential communities where the great majority of the 300-plus million people in the United States live.  Which pretty much describes the entirety of the United States of America.  Lots of people, even more guns, and lots of gun stores, but not so many trauma centers to save your life, or the life of child at an elementary school or the patron of a nightclub or a customer at your local Dollar General store.