Gun owners on Tuesday said that a proposed Shelton ordinance to establish weapon-free zones at all city-owned schools, buildings, parks and open space would make them easy prey for criminals, deranged individuals and wild animals.
About 80 people packed the auditorium at City Hall for a hearing on the proposed ordinance, most of them in opposition to the idea.
Background
The ordinance, proposed by Alderman Jack Finn, would prohibit not just firearms, but also bows, crossbows and pellet guns on municipal property.
Violators could be fined $250 for each offense. Police and security officers would be exempt.
Finn said he was motivated not by the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December, but by his discovery that a gun safety course featuring working, but unloaded firearms was conducted in a meeting room beneath the Huntington Branch Library.
He said he feels guns do not belong at the library.
Residents Weigh In
The gun owners at Tuesday’s public hearing said designating weapon-free zones would signal to criminals that they could attack citizens there without fear that their victims might shoot back.
“My carrying a firearm only puts a criminal at risk, not anyone else around me,” said Giovanni Sanzo of Chamberlain Drive, the first speaker.
Sanzo also said he worried about being attacked by coyotes, bears or mountain lions while hiking on trails in the city open space areas, and he was not the only one who voiced that concern.
This prompted responses by Terrance Gallagher of the Shelton Trails Committee and Conservation Commission Chairman Tom Harbinson, who said those fears were being exaggerated.
“There is an abundance of wildlife in our open space, but we have never had a person attacked by a wild animal,” said Harbinson.
But both Gallagher and Harbinson said they thought it would be advantageous to allow gun safety and hunting safety courses by certified instructors at the Shelton Community Center, which also houses the Huntington Branch Library, or at other municipal buildings, even if the instructors used real firearms.
One gun owner also noted that strict new gun control laws passed in Hartford this spring require anyone who purchases guns or ammunition to take a gun safety course, and that it would be unreasonable to ban the courses after the state increased the demand for them.
Jean Cayer, a member of the Library Board of Directors, said she isn’t against gun safety courses but doesn’t think it is appropriate to hold them in the public library.
Other comments for or against the ordinance focused on whether banning guns made people more safe or less safe.
David Gioiello of Walnut Tree Hill Road noted that Shelton was recently named as one of the safest cities in the state, yet many of the gun owners at the hearing said they were afraid to go to the city dog park without carrying a gun.
His wife, Denise Deeds, said she feels safer when she knows people are not armed with guns.
Alcohol is banned on city property, so why shouldn’t guns be also, she asked.
Sean Welch of Kanungum Trail said guns weren’t allowed at Columbine High School, an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater or at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, all the sites of mass shootings. He argued that gun-free zones didn’t stop those killers.
“I’ll tell you what might have stopped them, and that’s a law-abiding gun owner,” Welch said.
For others, it was simply a matter of the Second Amendment.
“You do not have the right to step on my constitutional rights,” said Richard Millo, owner of Valley Firearms on Howe Avenue.
