RIVER RIDGE, La. — One of the last things you'd expect to see next to a school is a gun store.
But this Sunday, NOLA Guns LLC is hosting its grand opening right next to St. Matthew the Apostle School in River Ridge.
"It's 48 feet away, where you literally have a building here with 1- and 2-year-old kids, windows, and they play in the yard," Lisa Dial, whose children go to St. Matthew's, said. "And then across the lane is a gun shop."
The parents we spoke with said they're not anti-gun — far from it — what they're worried about is having a gun store so close to their school.
"No one in the parent's group has said, 'No, we're against guns," Aaron Weidenhaft, who has children at the school, said. "We just don't want it here."
Trey Rankin is the store's owner. He says that if NOLA Guns LLC was any threat to the children next door, he wouldn't have opened it.
"I actually think it would deter a criminal from coming over here and doing it, having me right here," he said.
He's been talking to school leaders about what can be done to make peace between his store and concerned parents. So far, he says most of the talk has been about him moving the store, but that's not happening.
"They don't want me here, I understand that, but I don't have the money to leave," Rankin said.
And there's nothing illegal about what he's doing. A gun store can operate in a gun-free school zone because those guns are on private property. Customers can carry weapons from the store to the parking lot and into their car without any legal problems.
In a joint statement with the Archdiocese of New Orleans, St. Matthew the Apostle Parish said that having a gun shop so close to their campus is "outrageous" and "deeply concerning."
"To put the school — students and faculty — in a situation where there is access to guns and ammunition practically next door is unfathomable."
"I just feel like we have to push our lawmakers to do better," Jessica Guillot, who has children at the school, said. "I feel like the school, the teachers, the students, and the parents were failed at this point."
But since Rankin's business is completely legal, the school may have to learn to co-exist with the gun store next door.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.