Politics

Council divided on gun regulations

By Bill Moss, Published: November 5, 2015

The Hendersonville City Council members agreed that the city needs a broad security plan on guns and the threat of a shooter on city property. They don't agree on how to get there.

On Thursday night the council delayed action on a city code amendment that would have allowed council members to carry concealed weapons at council meetings — an idea that became an issue in the city election. Minutes later, the council in a 4-1 vote rejected a motion by Councilman Jerry Smith to bar weapons on city property. It turned out that the city code does not currently prohibit firearms at City Hall and other buildings. Smith's amendment would have probibited guns in  "public-owned buildings, on the grounds or parking areas of those buildings, or in public parks or recreation areas.” It would not apply to guns in automobiles nor on city streets and sidewalks. "If someone want to walk up and down Main Street (with a gun), this would not prohibit that at all," he said.

“Under our current laws if we don’t pass this, if someone wants to come in tomorrow with a weapon on his hip and shoot (city manager) John (Connet), he can,” Smith said.

Councilman Steve Caraker pulled from the agenda his city code amendment giving council members the right to bring guns into City Hall if they had a concealed-carry permit.

“After discussing it with Jeff and Ron I think we need to develop some kind of safety plan for all buildings,” Caraker said. “I think we need a plan of action. God forbid we should ever need it in this town but I think it’s irresponsible not to have it in place.”

“I agree with Mr. Smith that we should be consistent whether it’s concealed or open or whatever but I also think at this point it would be better to try to do this as a package,” Mayor Barbara Volk said.

Councilman Ron Stephens said he wanted the city manager and police chief to draft a security plan and weapons policy by the Dec. 2 meeting. Miller and Caraker objected, saying a plan covering all city buildings and parks would take longer.

“I’m talking about putting things in place for an active shooter,” Miller said. “I’m not living in fear. That’s not the case. The folks in Fort Hood that are gone now weren’t living in fear. The folks that went to the movie in Aurora weren’t living in fear. ... I’ve spent a good bit of time with Chief Blake and really thought we ought to let this weapons thing go back and get their involvement and get a recommendation from them and from staff and draw up an entire plan. I think this would certainly be a piece of that and I would rather not piecemeal it. I’d rather have a full discussion of it in its entirety.”

Smith said the council need not wait until it develops a more comprehensive security plan.

“Whatever plan we come up with I can’t imagine that it’s going to involve that we are trying to bring more weapons on to city property.”

The ordinance allowing council members to carry weapons appeared to be on the way to passage after council members voted for it 3-2 last month. The ordinance change required a two-thirds majority on first reading but could pass on second reading with a simple majority. Brought up by Caraker, the amendment was supported by Miller and  Stephens. Mayor  Volk and Smith voted no.
“It’s bothered me from the beginning that the time it was brought up to when we were sitting in a meeting (voting on it) was very short,” Miller said. “We all usually like to have some research before we jump on something.”
“The problem was, if after all the reaction we turned right around and pulled the thing off the agenda, it would have looked like political cover because the election was coming up,” he added. “This doesn’t say it’s not going to come back up. If it does it will be part of a policy that is much broader so that it protects every member and every person that works for the city and not four council members and three people that work for the city. It was just too narrow for me.”
Miller said when he asked about current security plans at City Hall he learned that employees got training on what to do in case of a fire, earthquake or tornado.
“No one had ever addressed the active shooter side of this so I asked the chief if he would work with the city manager and staff” to develop a broader security plan. “There’s a much broader picture, and I felt like we were picking and choosing to protect eight people and ignoring the rest. Right now we have a little beefed up security in council meetings and we’re going to continue to work on it. Chief Blake has done a good job putting things in place that I’m not going to discuss.”

“Concealed carry in these meetings will be one very small piece of the whole thing” when the staff drafts a security plan, Miller added.
Stephens, the mayor pro tem, said he agreed that the council should table the issue for now.
“What we’re doing is we want it to be fair to everybody,” he said. “At the end of the day people will be protected but we didn’t want to say just the council and the city manager and clerk” could be armed. “We wanted to get some research done that involves the chief.”
Stephens said the gun question was one of the few issues voters raised during the municipal election. Stephens and Caraker won re-election over challenger Rebecca Schwartz.
“I do think it was” an issue, Stephens said. “There are some people with strong feelings that think that fewer guns means fewer people getting shot, and I just don’t think that’s true. At the League of Women Voters meet-and-greet that was the no. 1 thing they wanted to talk about. There was one voter that said it was good. There were more people that actually came up to us at the meeting that were opposed to it.”