This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
A proclamation declaring September 17th as 'Firearms Awareness and Safety Day" was to be read at City Council on Tuesday night.
The mayor opted not to read the proclamation instead.
Bagley explained that he had been given two proclamations over the last few months. One from a local gun control group -Mothers Demand Action- which he read in a slightly modified form. This reading upset the local gun control group.
More recently, another proclamation from a 2nd Amendment rights group, which was to be read tonight, was meant to be read. The mayor had announced that he would make proclamations for things that he agreed with and encouraged other groups to submit proclamations accordingly. He also asked them to submit when they objected to the gun control group's version of a proclamation.
Mayor Bagley is a guns rights advocate and makes no secret of his love for guns. He told pro-gun advocates to bring a proclamation and he would read that too. However, he decided that the proclamation submitted by the pro-gun group was divisive. He said that if he read it as mayor, it would be divisive for the community and something people take sides on which was not his place as mayor. He would change it, like the first proclamation, and read that.
The city staff, however, published the first (original) unedited proclamation by mistake as the version the mayor would be reading, which had what he considered inflammatory language in it - effectively, that guns don't kill people, but that people kill people.
The pro-gun groups were very pleased and the gun control people were upset.
Bagley's opinion is that because of the first version of the proclamation being mistakenly released instead of the modified and far less divisive version, the purpose of the reading had changed. By reading it, it would be saying that Bagley had taken a side.
He then talked about the conversation on guns that had been set up for the following evening (Wednesday, Sept. 12) between gun rights and gun control community members. This community conversation was set up by Council Member Tim Waters and local faith communities. It was Bagley's belief that on the eve of such a conversation that reading this proclamation would be divisive to the community.
So, he challenged both groups to sit down together in this meeting and come up with a proclamation that both were happy with and that he could read sometime in the future.
He did not inform any of the pro-gun group who made up at least a couple of dozen audience members that he would not be reading their proclamation beforehand. He said he understood that the pro-gun group would leave tonight upset.
He then opened up the sign-up sheet for Public Invited To Be Heard for a few minutes so that those who wanted to express their thoughts would have the opportunity.
To watch Mayor Brian Bagley's complete 10 minute talk to the audience and the city, watch the video below:
https://youtu.be/3Zr7Pii7W3k?t=59m21s
