Gun shop proposal in Mundelein dropped due to growing opposition in wake of Uvalde, Highland Park shootings

A proposal to open a gun shop in Mundelein has been dropped after mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Highland Park led to rising opposition.

“I’m obviously relieved,” opponent Nicole Sullivan said. “We don’t want it here.”

Maxon Shooter’s Supplies and Indoor Range, of Des Plaines, had proposed opening a new store and gun range in a commercial development at Illinois Routes 60 and 83.

The village board gave preliminary support when the plan was informally proposed at a board meeting in May. But once residents got wind of the idea, they mounted an email and phone campaign against it.

“Emotions are very high,” Mayor Steve Lentz said. “I think we’re relieved it’s not going to be before us.”

Maxon’s owner, Dan Eldridge, wrote in an email to the Tribune that he would look elsewhere.

“We are disappointed that we will not have the opportunity to bring a world class, safety centered facility to Mundelein,” he wrote, “and will focus our future efforts on communities in which we are wanted.”

As proposed, the shop would have held up to 20,000 square feet, in a shopping area that includes a Salvation Army, a church and a Garden Fresh Market. Trustees initially had expressed enthusiasm for having a local gun range and safety training Maxon provides.

When Sullivan, a board member of Diamond Lake School District 76, found out about the plan, she couldn’t believe it would be allowed a quarter-mile from Diamond Lake School.

She alerted others online and started an email campaign expressing opposition to village officials.

The campaign gained momentum after the Uvalde and Highland Park shootings.

“After Highland Park, so many more people were motivated to take action,” Sullivan said.

Scott Gendell of Terraco Inc. in Wilmette, a developer who helped present the proposal, told village officials he was withdrawing it, Village Administrator Eric Guenther said.

The city’s zoning laws don’t allow a gun business at that location, but the board could have granted a variance to do so. Should anyone propose a gun shop again, the proposal would have to be considered by the planning commission and the village board.

Eldridge told the board his store, which has been in business more than 60 years, sells only to state-approved firearm owner cardholders who pass background checks.

In May, an 18-year-old with a semi-automatic rifle killed 21 people at a grade school in Uvalde. On July 4, a gunman killed seven and wounded dozens more at the Highland Park Independence Day parade. Both gun purchases were allowed under current law, though critics said they should have been denied.

The high-powered semi-automatic rifle used in the Highland Park shooting was purchased legally through a gun shop in the area by a 19-year-old after his father helped him get an Illinois firearm owner’s identification card. Illinois State Police issued the card despite the shooter’s previously reported threats at home to kill himself and “everyone” else.

Moving beyond the siting issue in Mundelein, Sullivan said she would push state lawmakers to enlarge the minimum distance between retail gun stores and schools beyond its current 500-foot minimum.

Pioneer Press reporter Gavin Good contributed.