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Mass. town votes to allow guns in public buildings
Monday’s vote to allow firearms in Charlton’s municipal buildings was swift and decisive.
Charlton residents voted overwhelmingly Monday to exempt the town from a Massachusetts law barring firearms in municipal buildings.
Prompted by a citizen’s petition, the measure passed by a vote of 481 in favor and 161 opposed, Town Meeting minutes show. A previous iteration of the proposal failed by just four votes in October.
Under state law, people who carry a gun in a “prohibited area” can be fined up to $1,000 and punished with up to two-and-a-half years in jail. However, towns and cities can vote to exclude their municipal buildings, as Charlton did. Guns will still be prohibited in schools, as they are not deemed administrative municipal buildings, according to The Telegram & Gazette.
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Nancy Pecore, who initially filed the opt-out petition, said Monday she carries her firearm everywhere it’s legal to do so.
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“My firearm is my equalizer. My life matters, and I refuse to be a victim,” she said during the Town Meeting, noting she stands at just 5 feet, 2 inches tall.
“For you to deny my personal and my constitutional civil rights because of your fear of firearms, that’s on you. I am not a threat,” Pecore added. “Law-abiding citizens are not the problem.”
Other speakers had mixed reactions. Stefan Sage, chair of the Charlton Public Library trustees, said the board was unanimously opposed.
“We feel that the fact that the library is filled with children almost all the time, it makes it unsafe for them to have people wandering around with weapons on them,” Sage explained.
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Offering his personal take, Sage said he’s long been a pacifist. Citing the nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary, however, he said he recently came to the conclusion that “political violence against tyrannical leaders may be necessary to restore our democracy here in the United States of America.”
“If I apply for a gun permit now, I might be denied due to my political beliefs that I just publicly proclaimed,” Sage continued following a chorus of boos. “I might possibly have supported this article if I felt there was adequate, yearly mental health screening for gun owners. Since there is not, I cannot support this article.”
Select Board member David Singer noted the trustees could simply implement their own policy to prohibit firearms inside the library.
“Let the individual buildings, if they have a concern, put a policy in place for their building,” he suggested.
Jessica Burokas, meanwhile, defended the existing vetting and background check process and said that as someone with a license to carry, she practices handling her firearm responsibly.
“I think it’s very important to teach this, and I think that the people who are carrying are responsible in this manner,” Burokas said. She also identified herself as a former public school teacher who has trained for active shooter scenarios.
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“We are not the ones you should be worried about; we are not the ones you should be concerned about,” Burokas said. “We know our rights. We know safety.”
Dr. Tim Emhoff, the retired chief of trauma and surgical critical care at UMass Memorial Medical Center, asked whether the town would stage active shooter drills in its municipal buildings if the petition passed.
“My whole career, I’ve been dealing with people bringing firearms into buildings, and that never turns out well,” he said.
Likewise, Colin Foley said he was against allowing people to bring firearms into public buildings, “specifically because you don’t know whether or not they’re trained.”
The final vote, however, was swift and decisive. In a statement posted to Facebook, the Charlton Republican Town Committee said residents “showed what real community looks like.” The statement also appeared to address Sage’s comments and said even the suggestion of political violence “has absolutely no place in Charlton.”
“We proved tonight that disagreement can be strong, but our commitment to civil debate, safety, and respect is even stronger,” the committee added. “We are proud of Charlton for showing up, speaking up, and standing up peacefully for what we believe in.”
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Yet the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence voiced its opposition and said Charlton’s vote “unnecessarily makes the simple act of engaging in civic activities in a municipal building a potentially dangerous situation.”
The coalition added: “An essential part of protecting people from harm is to be thoughtful about places where allowing for the carrying of a deadly weapon might put others at risk.”
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