NJ residents outraged after gun store opens near elementary school

TENAFLY, New Jersey (WABC) -- There is outrage in one New Jersey community over the recent opening of a gun store just a few hundred feet from a school.

Iconic Arms, run by former Special Forces veterans, is now open on County Road in Tenafly, near the Maugham Elementary School.

Elysa Todd's daughter is a fifth grader there

"The thought in your mind is that someone could potentially walk out of there and walk right across the street," she said. "If it was somewhere else a bit further out in town, I think people would feel a little bit better."

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People we spoke with stressed again and again that they're not opposed to a gun store, but they're very much against the gun store's location.

We tried to get some answers at the newly opened shop, but no one answered the door and the response to our phone call was, "No comment."

The stunned residents who talked to us, along with scores of others on social media, say the gun shop opened up under a cloak of secrecy.

"How did we fall under the radar in terms of having it so close to a school district?" resident Betty Maldonado-Ackerman said. "Especially Tenafly, which we are known for our great schools."

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Even the Tenafly Police Chief Robert Chamberlain acknowledged he was not aware of the gun store's arrival, but he added the business has federal and state licensing, was thoroughly investigated, and was ultimately approved by the New Jersey State Police.

"I did meet with the owner/operator yesterday, and I went inside and he showed me the security features," he said. "And they are above and beyond what I have ever seen. This not the kind of store you can just walk in. Other places that I have gone to that sell firearms, you'd be able to walk in as a regular patron and kind of browse. You can't do that here."

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