Orlando Sentinal
Shoot Straight, Florida's largest independent gun-shop chain, has stopped renting guns to prevent its eight Florida ranges from becoming suicide parlors. Khaled Akkawi, founder of the Apopka-based chain, made the decision last month after the latest suicides at one his gun ranges. "We've had enough," Akkawi said Friday. "They've been increasing real fast and the one common denominator — everyone is done with a rental gun." Shoot Straight joins a growing number of gun ranges across Central Florida that have restricted or prohibited gun rentals to stem the deaths. While no agency tracks gun-range suicides, there have been at least 11 of them in greater Orlando since 2009, according to Orlando Sentinel reporting on the deaths. All were committed with rental guns. Oak Ridge Gun Range, the scene of the latest suicide last week in Orange County, changed its policy after a previous death more than a year ago. Oak Ridge is now attempting to identify customers who would be a suicide risk. "We don't rent to any white male Florida resident who comes in alone," said owner John Harvey. "In the past 30 years, we've never had a suicide that wasn't a white male Florida resident who came in alone. They don't want to mess up their families' homes, so they do it here."
