Eustis Chamber of Commerce 1809 S. Bay Street Eustis, FL 32726 To whom it may concern: My name is Richard Pettis with Central Florida Hydro Dipping. | have a small business outside of Eustis on State Road 44. | do a lot of charity fundraising with my shop. We raise money to raise awareness for kids with cancer, breast cancer, sports teams and law enforcement. | have in the past set up a display to show the things we do here, as well as to try, ike anyone else to get more business in my shop. | cannot find any laws or ordinances at all, |have even spoken to the sheriff's office and they even tell me that ‘there are NO laws stopping me from being a vender at a home town event because | sell firearms. No Jaws tell me or any one that a fire arm must be disassembled to a shell, even though | said | would do ‘that to try and accommodate you and still be a vender. It is hard for me to help with charities, hard to help sick kids that have little time on this earth, hard to help parents of sick kids pay their bills, hard to help teams get new uniforms or just donate back to the community in which | live and work, without having sales in my shop. | have never asked to show my guns without having some kind of charity we were trying to help, | have never just come to show my guns or the things we do. The ONLY way for me ‘to do the things we do is to make a profit, without profit | cannot help. We have what is called the 2° AMENDMENT. THE RIGHT TO BARE ARMS. How can you block me from being at any public event? The law says | can walk the street with a rifle strapped and over my shoulder loaded and chambered and ‘that is my right to do if | feel the want to do so. You say that it is a family event and there will be kids there, how many of these families have guns, not to mention... how many of the kids have a gun... how many people are walking around with a gun on their side. | know a lot of them because | am a firearm instructor here as well. this is crazy and unlawful in a lot of eyes here in Lake County. If my firearms are no more than a shell, the gun cannot fire. Therefore, it is nota firearm, it is the shell of a firearm. lam going to take this to the top of the system until | get a legal and legitimate answer of why | can’t show how and what | do to make a living so | can help kids and people in need. Funny how so few of the city management have a problem with this and so many in the city and the county love what | do for people. ‘The crazy thing is as a vendor and a sponsor of the Lake County Sheriffs office Fishing tournament you know the fund raiser for the YOUTH CAMP, we had around 20 guns on display as well as the 21 made for them to auction off and they really appreciated it. (This event probably hosted 500 kids throughout the day, and everyone seemed to enjoy looking at our display) Guns do not hurt or kill anyone or anything, people do. The chairs that are around the street events are more of a threat to people than my guns are, this is a crazy and out right discriminating response to my request, to me along with the people we try to help. A copy of this letter will be posted on all of our social media, as well it will be sent to all city commissioners and local TV stations. Any and all responses will be posted as well Myself as well as many of the residents in this city and county are blown away by the non-support from the City of Eustis as to the support and help we try to provide to the community, we simply want to promote our small business (like any other business that attends a city event and pays a vendor fee), we are trying to raise money for a boy with cancer and we want to enjoy the festivities of the event, like every other vendor and attendee.