California animal shelter bans adoption if they endorse gun ownership

An animal shelter in California has announced it won’t let people adopt pets if they don’t support gun control in the wake of a series of mass shootings that have wreaked havoc across the US.

Shelter Hope Pet Store in the city of Thousand Oaks said they added the question “What’s your position on gun control” to their adoption interview for those looking to adopt a pet.

Kim Sill, owner of the pet shelter, said that if a person is a supporter of the NRA and believes there shouldn’t be a background check for weapons, they will be banned from adopting a pet.

“If you lie about being an NRA supporter, make no mistake, we will sue you for fraud,” Sill said in a statement.

‘If you think it is our responsibility to protect ourselves in public places and arm ourselves with a weapon, please do not come to us to adopt a dog. We have a choice of who to work with.

Sill said he had decided to introduce the policy after the elementary school shooting massacre in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

She added: ‘We do not support those who believe the 2nd amendment gives them the right to buy assault weapons. If your beliefs are not in line with ours, we will not adopt a pet for you.

Sill, the founder of the pet shelter, pointed to how people in the city of Thousand Oaks experienced a mass shooting in 2018 when a 28-year-old Marine Corps veteran killed at least 12 people at the Borderline Bar.

Sill said the shooter had come to his store for community service hours.

“We think he had explored a lot of places and we were one of them,” Sill said. “We changed our policy on volunteering after that incident, but now we feel confident to go even further.”

Sill said his new policy means those who adopt a dog from the shelter must not only be 25 years old but also pro-gun control.

We’ll question you before you even get a date and visit our rescue. If we ask ‘do you care that children are being shot to death in our schools?’

“If you hesitate, because your core belief is that you think teachers should carry firearms, then you won’t get approval to adopt from us.”

Sill added: ‘Shelter Hope Pet Shop will in no way continue to operate if we are even remotely part of the problem. We support teachers, children and businesses that provide services to the public, but we are sick of all the senseless killing.’

sill said nbc news that some of the shelter’s donors are Republicans and some have threatened to cut funding if she doesn’t delete the new gun control interview question.

“I say, okay, keep your money,” he said. ‘If I go out of business, as a result, I go out of business. But I have to do something. And this is the only thing I can do to point out that mass killings by people armed with guns must stop.”

In response to Sill’s updated policy, NRA spokeswoman Amy Hunter told the news outlet, “Having this silly political litmus test comes at the expense of needy and homeless dogs and cats.”

There is a growing demand for gun control laws in the US in the wake of a series of mass shootings.

On Sunday, a bipartisan group of senators announced they had reached an agreement on a framework for gun control legislation.

President Joe Biden said he will sign the framework as soon as it arrives on his desk.

The deal would incentivize “red flag” laws but would not include provisions championed by Democrats up until Biden himself, such as raising the age to buy certain rifles to 21 or banning assault weapons.

“I continue to believe that military-style assault weapons that can shred the bodies of their victims have no place in civilian use, but we cannot allow Congress’s perfect response to be the enemy of good,” Majority Leader wrote. of the Senate, Dick Durbin, on Twitter on Sunday. .

“While this agreement falls short in this and other respects, it can and will make our nation more secure.”

New Jersey Democratic Senator Corey Booker shared a similar sentiment, making it clear that Congress must go further to successfully counter the devastating wave of mass shootings seen in recent weeks.

“I support these bipartisan measures that would begin to curb gun violence in America. I hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will find a way to make these changes and provide these resources. We need to continue our efforts to pass common sense gun safety laws,” Booker wrote on Twitter.

David Hogg, a gun control activist and survivor of the school shooting from Parkland, Florida, hailed the legislation as a “first step.”

While the deal is substantially smaller than the House bills passed last week and weaker than Democrats want, it provides the framework for the biggest federal gun restrictions in nearly three decades.

The main lawmakers behind the Senate deal are Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kysten Sinema of Arizona, as well as Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

The four people are still working on drafting and finalizing the legislative text, but they are confident that it will have the support of at least 60 senators, which is the threshold needed for the legislation to pass the upper house.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the legislation “a good first step in ending persistent inaction in the face of the epidemic of gun violence that has plagued our country and terrorized our children for far too long.”

“Once the text of this agreement is finalized, I will introduce this bill as soon as possible so that the Senate can act quickly to advance gun safety legislation,” he added.

One of the potentially most restrictive aspects of the tentative agreement would establish a federal grant program to encourage the creation of “red flag” laws, which would allow authorities to prevent people from buying weapons that a judge deems a threat to themselves. or other people.

It would also require for the first time that federal criminal background checks for those looking to buy a firearm under the age of 21 include a search of their juvenile justice records, according to the Sunday Post report.

What the compromise does not include, however, is a provision pushed by Democrats and President Joe Biden that would raise the minimum age to purchase certain rifles from 18 to 21, while it is already federal law that people must be 21 to buy a firearm.