Nationwide, one in five public elementary schools is within a half mile of a gun dealer; for Belmont Hills Elementary, the distance is even shorter—only around 1,000 feet from the swing sets. Lower Merion Township’s elysian reputation has been shaken by the encroachment of gun shops like Shot Tec LLC—a gun retailer residents describe as aiming to arm the community, deliver a message of “hatred and fear,” and create a “vigilante squad in the community”—a manifestation of a dangerous national delusion: safety is brought about by guns. In a community with legitimate fears, guns—especially near schools and public institutions—do the exact opposite of increasing safety.
Last month, a PA Commonwealth Court ruled in favor of Shot Tec in a lawsuit waged against Lower Merion Township zoning laws that had prohibited firearms dealers from being located within at least 1,000 feet from a school or house of worship. It would also have required gun businesses to produce licenses and insurance, as well as identify their business hours—all basic, common sense safeguards for the families and children of this district. In the dissenting opinion, Judge Renee Cohen Jubelirer acknowledged the absurdity of the decision, writing, “Contrary to the Majority’s conclusion, none of the provisions of the ordinance at issue here regulate the ownership, transportation, or transfer of firearms, ammunition, or ammunition components.”
For a township that prides itself on community, this decision weakens the shield that protects our schools, parks, and institutions, the very havens that drew so many residents here. “This business in this location is not in keeping with the character of our peaceful, safe, family-oriented residential neighborhood filled with schools and places of worship,” said Commissioner Gilda Kramer. “Its presence so close to where we live and our children play and go to school is alarming, even frightening, to many.”
Grant Schmidt, owner and founder of Shot Tec, has insisted that the gun shop is primarily meant to teach gun safety, but his prior statements have often contradicted this. He has commonly described his mission as both moral and martial: “It’s actually a mitzvah,” he said, “if someone is trying to kill another person, that you have to intervene, and you’re basically authorized to use lethal force to stop that murder from happening.” A study by the NIH, however, actually showed that armed bystanders were only able to successfully defend themselves and others with guns less than one percent of the time, instead often worsening the situation and increasing confusion.
Although Schmidt has more recently said that he “totally get[s]” those who disagree with him, that’s inconsistent with his prior statements. In a 2020 Facebook post, he called people who disagree “socialist tyrants” while orating at a podium emblazoned with “Make the Second Amendment Great Again.” In 2022, he also dismissed the discomfort many feel about more guns in overwrought civilian hands as merely “haplophobia”—an “irrational fear of war and warriors.”
But the issue is not irrational; the issue is a legitimate concern about the disruption and division that may come when warlike ideologies intrude into our neighborhoods.
Schmidt, of Shot Tec, has used real fear to market its business, saying, “I was blessed with a family that always reminded me that people hate you just for waking up Jewish this morning, just for waking up alive with a beating heart this morning, and it’s time that you recognize this in your life and not commit the same mistake, frankly, that your parents did, which is that you were raised on the pretenses that peace and love and harmony is normal. It’s not normal, it takes a lot of hard work, and it’s not the default.” Schmidt has also stated the need “for Jews to get armed,” going on to say, “Stop bellyaching, stop wringing your hands, arm yourself, get trained, and be ready.”
Shot Tec has had an impact on feelings of safety and unity among LM’s residents. “Several of my neighbors have confided in me that Grant [Schmidt] is not just some guy who likes guns,” said Bala Cynwyd resident Amanda Olson. “He’s someone who’s actively wanting to put guns in the hands of our community members. I started feeling less and less safe in my neighborhood for the first time in eleven years.” He has openly made statements about arming “key community members”—people who are “always at the synagogue, always at the school.” He hopes to make civilians and teachers embedded in daily life “real, legitimate private security officers,” armed and ready to operate.
This proposal—to arm teachers and civilians around children—is perhaps the most dangerous idea to come out of America’s gun obsession. Shot Tec’s apparent aim to arm those closest to our kids actively ignores research that arming key community members creates distrust and fear in kids and has no tangible effect on curbing violence. Unequivocal evidence points toward having a gun in schools and in homes increasing risks, not safety. Households with one or more guns are two times more likely to have a firearm death—and the risk of a child dying by suicide or by accidental shooting increases by 300 percent when a gun is present in a home or public institution.
When the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department announced gun shop inspections, Schmidt commented that the county should instead “…focus on the schools. Me and some of my staff, we worked private security, and I can tell you that the school security sucks. So focus on that; no amount of sifting through my paperwork is going to keep someone safe.” Paperwork, however, is key in both keeping gun shops and their customers safe and can even help prevent crime.
In The Washington Post, Schmidt said that Shot Tec sales “shot up” so fast that credit card companies flagged the transactions as suspicious. He further proclaimed, “My staff keeps joking it’s like the Jewish Community Center around here.” That increase exposes the true fuel of Shot Tec’s success: the exploitation of fear, packaged as empowerment. When asked about increasing gun sales amongst Jews, Schmidt remarked, “They’re doing so much soul-searching right now. They’re all over the place, mentally, emotionally, [and] psychologically.” Jewish institutions such as schools, synagogues, and camps that a year ago didn’t want security guards to wear uniforms, he said, now request that they openly carry rifles. Shot Tec has a basic business model based on the marketing of community fears, with tragedy as the sales pitch. The greater the fear in a community, the more lucrative gun training and selling become, all of which, according to Johns Hopkins University, only lead to greater rates of accidental shootings, suicides, and domestic homicides. More guns in more hands means more opportunity for tragedy.
Shot Tec’s messaging presents the world as unsafe and irreparable. Narratives like those of Shot Tec don’t unify; they divide. “I recognize I am part of a targeted group,” said resident Hannah Hamermesh, “but to create a vigilante squad in the community is not the right response.”
As demonstrated with lockdowns throughout the district, threats and safety concerns are very real. There is no doubt that within Lower Merion Township, groups of people are being targeted for their religion and race. From antisemitic and Islamophobic spray paint to racist texts, Lower Merion is in no way a jurisdiction with nothing to fear, but in a community with real fears, adding guns, especially in schools and public institutions only exacerbates the problem.
Today, firearms are the leading cause of death for American children and teens. That’s not ideology; that is an established fact. Having additional firearms in a home, school, or community as a whole increases the chance for yet another preventable tragedy. When Shot Tec argues for empowering community members, it is using real fears to market firepower as a solution. In reality, it is the exact opposite: guns present increased risks to safety.
Families have long chosen Lower Merion for its safety—the notion of security without the need for weaponization. If every concerned parent, school, and place of worship were to be guilt-tripped into purchasing firearms or armed guards, then the values of this township as we know it would be rejected. We will have exchanged the peace of mind that attracted many of the families within our school district for a false sense of security borne out of fear and distrust.
Lower Merion’s fears are real—but the answer should not be firepower. When we respond to uncertainty with weapons, we trade our township’s values and security in favor of a fleeting illusion of control. Arming our neighborhoods doesn’t protect, it fractures. Time after time, facts have demonstrated that guns present a greater opportunity for tragedy. The strength of the township has never, and should never, come from being armed. If we allow fear to dictate our choices, we will lose the very sense of safety we try to protect. The loss of safety—not from crime, but from propagating firepower and capitalizing on legitimate fear—is the real cost of Shot Tec’s victory.
