A gun shop that shares a fence with a Goleta daycare's playground has become the flashpoint for a fast-moving fight over where firearms retailers can legally operate in Santa Barbara County. Goodland Guns, which sells handguns, rifles and ammunition, moved into a former 7-Eleven storefront on Hollister Avenue directly next to the Here We Grow Infant Care and Preschool Center, and enrollment at the daycare has since dropped from 14 children to 8.
The relocation, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, has infuriated families who say they had no idea a gun store was moving in until security fencing went up. Owner Dan Ashton spent more than $20,000 on an industrial-zone permitting process and hired two architects before signing a 25-year lease on the building in 2026, according to the same report. He said he searched for a new location for two years after his former landlord nearly doubled the rent at his old Old Town Goleta spot, where Goodland Guns had operated for more than a decade without a single formal complaint, according to Goleta officials cited by the Times.
A License Issued Without a Public Hearing
Goodland Guns obtained its Goleta business license on June 4, 2026, months after the daycare itself had opened, per the Times' reporting. Under Goleta's municipal code, licensed gun stores are classified as general retail, a designation that, as Noozhawk reported, let the shop clear city approval without triggering public notification, a conditional use permit, or discretionary planning review. The nearest Goleta Union School District elementary campus sits half a mile from the new location, and California law separately requires that handguns be kept in locked containers and that both handguns and long guns remain unloaded, but the state has no statewide mandate on how far a gun retailer must sit from a school or daycare, according to the Times.
Ashton has said he followed Goleta's laws, and he has defended the move on other grounds too. Speaking to KEYT, he said the vacant lot he took over had suffered chronic trespassing, drug use, vandalism and public defecation right along the preschool's property line before he arrived, and argued that the security fencing and privacy screen he installed actually improved safety at the site. The Here We Grow center opened six months before Goodland Guns received its license and is licensed for 39 children.
Parents Organize, Petition and Push Back
Here We Grow owner Heather Robbins has collected more than 2,200 signatures on a petition protesting the relocation and has said she does not expect the business to survive with only eight children still enrolled. Goleta City Councilmember Ethan Bertrand has said Goleta is a community touched by significant gun violence, a reference to the region's history: in 2006, a former postal worker killed a former neighbor and six mail-sorting-facility employees at the Goleta processing center before turning the gun on herself, one of the deadliest workplace shootings in U.S. Postal Service history, according to Wikipedia. Elliot Rodger, who killed six UC Santa Barbara students in the 2014 Isla Vista rampage, had bought a Glock 34 semiautomatic pistol at Goleta Valley Gun and Supply in 2012, roughly a year and a half before the attack, per the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office investigative report.
Public awareness of the relocation first spread in late July 2026 when neighbors noticed the security fencing going up and began asking questions on Nextdoor, according to the Santa Barbara Independent. That led to an August 3 rally at Santa Barbara Shores Park attended by dozens of residents, city council members and both business owners. The Independent also noted the storefront sits along a Class I multi-use bike path completed in 2018 under Goleta's Safe Routes to School initiative, connecting neighborhoods to Ellwood Elementary.
City and County Both Move Toward New Buffer Rules
Goleta's City Council has directed staff to evaluate new firearms-retailer regulations, including potential buffer zones, changes to the store's general-retail classification, and additional business-license requirements, with a vote on a temporary moratorium on new gun stores expected later this month. That moratorium, if approved, could last up to a year. The Goleta Union School District board has already passed a resolution urging a minimum 1,000-foot distance between gun stores and both schools and daycares, and along routes regularly traveled by children and youth.
Santa Barbara County has moved faster. On September 1, the county's Board of Supervisors voted 4-1, with Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson dissenting, to enact a 45-day moratorium on new, relocated or expanded gun stores in unincorporated areas, according to Noozhawk. County staff will now draft a permanent ordinance establishing a 1,000-foot buffer around schools, daycares, parks, playgrounds, youth centers and houses of worship. The county's planning code already required a 1,000-foot buffer between gun retailers and K-12 schools, but the Santa Barbara Independent reported that rule explicitly omitted preschools and licensed childcare centers, the exact loophole that allowed Goodland Guns to locate beside Here We Grow.
Santa Barbara County Third District Supervisor Laura Capps said in an emailed statement that the community was outraged that Goodland Guns acted without a public process. County officials have said any new rules would not apply retroactively to existing firearms dealers, meaning Goodland Guns itself would likely be allowed to remain even if the buffer ordinance passes.
A Statewide Patchwork, With No Uniform Rule
California's gun-zoning landscape is a patchwork of municipal and county ordinances rather than a single statewide standard; the state's Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1995 largely prohibits possessing a firearm within 1,000 feet of a K-12 school but does not address gun retailers' proximity to schools or daycares. A July 2024 report from the Giffords Law Center found at least 34 California jurisdictions restrict gun dealers from operating within set distances of schools, daycares and parks, while 105 municipalities impose local business-licensing rules on gun retailers beyond federal and state permits.
The tension is playing out elsewhere in the county too. In Santa Maria, a firearms store called Get R Gun sits directly across the street from Santa Maria High School, the Times noted, underscoring how uneven the region's proximity rules have been until now. Goodland Guns had also been the target of a 2021 burglary at its former location, when thieves stole five pistols, four shotguns and two rifles, according to the Times' reporting. As Goleta and the county both race to finalize new ordinances, the outcome will determine whether other California communities facing similar last-minute relocations gain a clearer legal tool — or whether commercial lease rights and existing permits continue to outpace local safety rules.
