'Muslim-free' Arkansas gun range draws wary eye of Justice Department

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

'Muslim-free' Arkansas gun range draws wary eye of Justice Department

Max Blau in Atlanta
Friday 1 May 2015 17.59 BST

On a Sunday afternoon in early January, a father and son walked into the Gun Cave Indoor Firing Range in the 35,600-person town of Hot Springs, Arkansas. They were hoping to fire rounds at targets, just as they have done at the same facility in past years, then under different ownership. During their latest visit, owner Jan Morgan asked the South Asian men to leave the range and threatened to call the cops if they did not.

Their visit came four months after Morgan made national headlines for saying she would not allow Muslims at her range, and the father and son – both Hindu – told local media they thought she mistook their identities because of their brown skin.

Their alleged refusal of service based on their perceived religion has forced the gun range into the middle of a national civil rights fight.

Last September, Morgan declared her business to be a “Muslim-free zone”, a policy that set off a firestorm among religious and civil liberties advocates for denying rights protected under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. After calls for an investigation, the US Department of Justice recently confirmed that officials are keeping an eye on the shooting range for allegations of civil rights violations.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/01/muslim-free-zone-gun-cave-shooting-range-arkansas-justice-department

[Fred Sanders]

1. After the gun range lover's childish tantrum it took 4 months for a minority gun range user to

show up and be mislabelled, as well as be mis-judged?

"Bigots wanting attention" is a national pandemic, making them regret getting what they wished for should be a national priority.

[tanyev]

2. Yep, my first thought as soon as I saw the headline was, "How can they tell who's Muslim?"

And that is indeed the problem. I'm guessing the owner of the gun range would say that Hinduism is practically the same thing as Islam, so there is no problem.