NEW YORK
A U.S. gun shop owner in Florida has banned Muslim customers from entering his business in response to a gunman's shooting rampage that killed four Marines and a sailor last week.
“I have a moral and legal responsibility to ensure the safety of all patriots in my community, and so effective immediately, I am declaring Florida Gun Supply as a Muslim-free zone,” Andy Hallinan said Saturday in a video posted to the store's Facebook page.
He said he issued the ban after Kuwait-born Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez shot a flurry of bullets at a military recruitment center before attacking a nearby Navy and Marine reserve center, killing the four military personnel in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
"I'll not arm and train those who wish to do harm to my fellow patriots," he said.
In the video, Hallinan is seen standing against the backdrop of a Confederate flag, a widely recognized symbol of the American south that is considered by many to be racist and divisive.
The flag was most recently linked to a 21-year-old white man accused of killing nine blacks at a South Carolina church in June. The incident prompted the state to remove the flag from South Carolina Capitol grounds earlier this month.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the video has attracted more than 56,000 views.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a U.S. Muslim advocacy group, said it would ask the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate possible federal civil rights violations by businesses that have been declared "Muslim free zones”.
"Systematically banning Muslims from such businesses is a violation of federal laws prohibiting racial and religious discrimination in public accommodations", the group said in a press release.
