California pet shop bars gun control opponents from adopting animals and threatens to sue anyone who lies about supporting the NRA

If you support the National Rifle Association and want to adopt a pet, you won't be able to get your furry friend from the Shelter Hope Pet Shop in Thousand Oaks, California.

The shop has announced that you will not be eligible to get an animal if you believe that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to own assault rifles. And if you lie about backing the NRA, you will be slapped with a lawsuit.

"We do not support those who believe that the 2nd amendment gives them the right to buy assault weapons. If your beliefs are not in line with ours, we will not adopt a pet to you," a newsletter notes. "If you lie about being a NRA supporter, make no mistake, we will sue you for fraud. If you believe that it is our responsibility to protect ourselves in public places and arm ourselves with a gun--do not come to us to adopt a dog."

The newsletter states that "if you are pro guns and believe that no background check is necessary, then do not come to us to adopt. We will grill you before you even get an appointment and visit our rescue. If we ask you 'do you care about children being gunned down in our schools?' If you hesitate, because your core belief is that you believe teachers need to carry firearms, then you will not get approved to adopt from us. If you foster for us and believe in guns, please bring our dogs and/or cats back, or we will arrange to have them picked up. Shelter Hope Pet Shop in no way will continue to operate if we are even remotely part of the problem. We support teachers, children, and businesses who provide services to the public, but we've had enough of all the senseless killing."

Founder Kim Sill told NBC News that some people have threatened to stop donating money if she does not drop the gun control inquiry from the pet adoption screening process.

"I say, fine, keep your money," Sill noted, according to the outlet. "If I go out of business, as a result, I go out of business. But I have to do something. And this is the only thing I can do to make the point that mass killings by people armed with guns have to stop."

In 2018, a gunman perpetrated a mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, killing himself and others — according to NBC News, Sill said that around three months prior, the perpetrator had gone to her facility to carry out community service linked to an arrest.

"When he walked in, one of the other volunteers noticed he was wearing flip-flops and told me," Sill said. "When I told him he really should be wearing something like gym shoes, he got real snappy with me."

Sill assigned the man to work with an individual named Larry. "After a day, Larry said we can’t work with him, and I had to let him go," Sill noted.

Sill said that following the mass shooting, the FBI and police informed her that the killer had scoped out her facility out as a potential target.

"Their advice to me was to hire security, and for a time I did," she noted, according to the outlet. "It was unarmed security, but it was security. Somebody standing at the door. The other advice I got from the police was come up with an escape plan."

"An escape plan? What I have here are lots of senior citizens and dozens of dogs and cats," Sill said. "How would we escape a gunman who came inside here to kill us?"

"I found myself looking over my shoulder whenever I came to work," she noted. "And after a while, I realized I just couldn’t live like that."