"There are too many closed minds on gun control. Worse, far too many proudly closed minds. Meanwhile, the American shooting gallery remains open," American novelist Stephen King tweeted in June.

Residents of Arlington recently concluded a two-month-long protest to express their disagreement on the opening of a firearm shop in a local mall. The protesters dissented against the selling of automatic and semi-automatic weapons of mass destruction. 

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An online petition calling for the gun store to closed down has been signed by 2,689 residents, and many more are boycotting the shopping mall completely.

Konstantinos Kapasouris, the owner of the building along Lee Highway, said there will be no gun store because he doesn't want to upset the community. 

"I did what I had to do to back out. This was my decision and only my decision," Kapasouris said.

"Many of our customers clearly said that they will stop visiting the shop because they do not want their children to come close to a place selling guns. The opening up of NOVA Firearms would have affected the business of each and every shop in this mall catering to household needs," John Nicholsan, co-owner of Company Flowers, said.

The concerns of parents are not unfounded considering the fact that shooting incidents among high school and college students has been rising. The United States' history is littered with many incidents where guns meant for personal security have been used to kill innocent people. 

In 1996, Barry Loukaitis killed his algebra instructor Leona Caires and two students using a .22-calibre revolver. He waved the pistol in the air and quoted the lines from Rage, "This sure beats algebra, doesn't it?"

A year later, Michael Carneal, armed with a Ruger MK II semi-automatic pistol, killed three and injured five people in Heath High School, Kentucky. Later, a copy of Rage was confiscated from his locker.

Rage is a popular novel based on a high school shootout. In the book, Charlie Decker, a schoolboy, kills his algebra teacher and holds his class hostage. The novel was written by Stephen King.

"That was enough for me. I asked my publishers to pull the novel. I didn't pull Rage from publication because the law demanded it; I was protected under the First Amendment, and the law couldn't demand it. I pulled it because in my judgment it might be hurting people, and that made it the responsible thing to do," King wrote in an essay titled 'Stephen King- why the US must introduce limited gun controls' published in 2013.

"Assault weapons will remain readily available to crazy people until the powerful pro-gun forces in this country decide to do a similar turnaround," King argued.

The US Constitution's Second Amendment states that "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Over the years, several historians, academicians, and the public have debated the exact meaning of "a well-regulated militia" and the kind of rights covered by the Second Amendment.

"I don't think that many people on either side of the modern gun debate - gun control or gun rights - really would be happy if we went back to the original meaning of the Second Amendment, because for gun control people it would involve a much greater militarization of society," said Soul Cornell, Constitutional historian.

Since a 2012 shootout in a school in Newtown, 128 cases of shooting in schools have been reported in the U.S. The last one was in Rogers State University in Claremore.  

Despite the absence of a mechanism for registering guns in the U.S., a survey conducted by the Congressional Research in 2012 estimates the total number of weapons in the civilian hands in the U.S. is 310 million, indicating one gun per citizen.

TagsArlington Gun Shop, Stephen King, U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment, High School Shootout, Soul Cornell, NOVA Firearms, u.s. gun control, NOVA Firearms Arlington