As some misguided American cities such as Memphis, Tennessee, and Savannah, Georgia, attempt to buck state law and create their own patchwork of gun laws designed to restrict Second Amendment rights, at least one city in Colorado is moving the opposite way to support Constitutional freedoms even as their state assembly works to restrict them. Last night, the Aurora City Council overwhelmingly voted to continue allowing concealed firearms in city hall and other government buildings, including to council meetings and other proceedings, in a move to “opt out” of Colorado Senate Bill 24-131.
That recently approved state bill bans possession of firearms in government buildings, polling locations and schools, but allows local governments to opt out of the law.
“If passed, the measure would allow council members, city staff and the public to continue bringing concealed weapons to council meetings and other proceedings at city hall, which increasingly have been marked by vitriol, infighting and outbursts with and among the public,” the Aurora Sentinel reported. Anyone who has ever attended a city council meeting or covered one for a newspaper knows that vitriol, infighting and outbursts are pretty common events where the voices of Democracy are required to be heard.
The Sentinel reports “the city previously banned unconcealed, or ‘open carry’ guns from city hall in 2015, and would continue to do so.” However, Councilmember Curtis Gardner, who proposed Aurora’s measure, explained the move to the Sentinel “as a symbolic reaction against increasing state gun control laws and as a matter of what he sees as local control.”
The council unanimously approved the ordinance on its first reading in July and was again, not opposed in the final approval with nine votes supporting the move and one abstention.
Last May, Douglas County in Colorado approved a similar resolution, the Denver Gazette reports.
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