Just_a_dude_with_a_gun
Member
http://www.connpost.com/news/ci_4473055
Stratford political foes defend right to carry weapon to Town Hall,
Article Launched:10/11/2006 12:21:45 AM EDT
A number of residents who spoke during and after the meeting were divided over whether Miron should be allowed to carry a legally licensed weapon to his Town Hall office and council meetings.
Miron, 41, who served in the U.S. Army, again on Tuesday would neither confirm nor deny whether he carries a gun to Town Hall, but said he does have a state gun permit.
He has been seen with the guns in Town Hall by Town Council Chairman James Feehan, R-9, and a top administrator who asked not to be identified.
Several council members have also confirmed they have gun permits, but deny carrying the guns to Town Hall.
Thomas Carroll, who ran as a petition candidate in November's first mayoral race, ripped Miron during the public portion of Tuesday's meeting. Miron did not show up until after the public portion was completed. "I wish the mayor were here so I could tell him this face to face," Carroll said. "But what kind of example do you, our mayor and council members, think you are setting in regard to the children of Stratford?
"You can spin it on 'right to bear arms,' but I believe, Mr. Mayor, and others, you are protected by our police force if you have been threatened."
Later in the meeting, several council members shot back at Carroll and also blamed the media for creating the controversy.
"It's nobody's business who is carrying a legal firearm, and I would neither confirm nor deny if I do or not," Councilman Robert Camillo, R-8, said in response to Carroll's comments. "This is a nonissue that should die here tonight."
When Carroll asked to respond, he was advised by Feehan that he could not do so because the public portion of the meeting was over.
Carroll stormed out, but said on the way out, "Town employees have told me they have seen the mayor's guns, and that is a violation of the law because they have to be concealed."
Feehan, who confirmed he is a gun owner, said he saw the mayor carrying two guns at one time — one handgun was strapped to his ankle, the other at his side under a suit jacket as he sat behind the council table during a meeting within the past few months.
But on Tuesday, Feehan blasted the media for "stirring all of this up," and defended Miron's right to carry legal weapons.
"I think there are a lot of issues more important than whether the mayor carries legal weapons to Town Hall," Feehan said. "The problem is that the media saw blood in the water and decided to fire [political] shots at the mayor."
Feehan, however, followed up those comment by saying: "If, by carrying these weapons, it makes anyone in Town Hall feel uncomfortable, I would ask the mayor to consider not doing it anymore."
Bill Lindberg, a frequent council critic, also blasted the mayor for carrying guns.
"Why does the mayor feel the need to carry guns?" Lindberg asked during the public portion. "Is he doing something wrong that makes him believe he needs a gun?"
Afterward, Lindberg suggested a new ordinance to prohibit guns in any public places. There is already an ordinance in town that prohibits the discharge of firearms within 300 feet of certain buildings and schools. Stratford High School is across the street from Town Hall.
"I served in World War II and I know what guns can do," Lindberg said. But on Tuesday, Miron drew support from several political foes. GOP opponent Domenic Costello, who lost to Miron in last year's mayoral contest, and former Democratic Town Council Chairman Robert Calzone, who lost the party's mayoral nomination to Miron, defended Miron's right to carry guns into Town Hall.
"These days, with all the threats and violence in our society, I believe a mayor, or anyone else, has the right to carry guns anywhere they want, as long as they keep them concealed and have a permit," said Costello, a former Bridgeport police officer.
He is setting the proper example, legal concealed carry in a dangerous world. We can't coddle our children so much that they don't understand how dangerous a world we live in these days. I wish they would have interviewed me, 280 or romma 
