Drizzt
Member
Official fights gun ban proposal
School board wants firearms ordinance expanded
By SYDNEY B. LEAVENS
Monitor staff
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DEERFIELD - Until recently, school board member Don Gorman sometimes wore a pistol to board meetings at the Deerfield Community School, concealed underneath his clothing.
Gorman carried the gun to the school, as well as on errands, not for protection, he said, but to exercise his Second Amendment rights. A Libertarian, Gorman believes banning guns at the school would violate those rights.
"We're giving up too many liberties, and that's one I defend absolutely," he said. "I have a permit to carry a firearm, and on any given day I might be carrying a firearm. I'm not playing cowboys and Indians with the damn thing. It's purely a constitutional issue."
The majority of the school board, however, feels the guns should go. Board members have asked selectmen to expand a 1998 ordinance banning firearms from town buildings to include the school. If selectmen approve the measure after presenting it at a public hearing Thursday, those found with a firearm in the school will face a $500 fine for the first offense, $1,000 for each additional one.
The measure is not an attack on Gorman or other gun owners, said Kevin Barry, the school board's chairman. Indeed, Gorman said school board members did not know he brought his gun to meetings until he mentioned it in protest of their plans. Rather, the proposal is intended to protect the safety of students, Barry said.
While the school district has an ordinance preventing students from carrying weapons to school, it has no similar measure to prevent those who are not students from doing so, board members discovered during a routine review of school policies this year. The 1998 ordinance that board members hope to amend does not include the school. At the time the policy was enacted, the school board was concerned it would prohibit antique firearms or replicas of guns from being used for school plays, Barry said.
"Basically it's a safety factor for the students," he said. "Right now, the police have no way of reprimanding the person from having a weapon in the school."
Barry sees no reason why anyone should need to enter the school armed.
"If (a person) has a licensed firearm . . . there's just no need to carry it into the school," he said.
Gorman - who often brought his pistol to the State House during his eight years as a legislator - disagrees. Out of respect for the board, he hasn't carried his gun to school since the proposal was raised, he said. Nor does he bring the weapon on his weekly visits, by yellow school bus, to the school. (On his own initiative, Gorman has been observing classrooms since he was elected to the board last March.)
Gorman's main concern, he said, is that the policy would prohibit the educational use of guns at the school, for firearms safety courses or self-defense classes for women.
No such classes are currently taught at the school, officials said. If they are in the future, police Chief Robert Wunderlich imagines instructors could apply to school administrators for special permission to use guns, he said.
Most of those who have voiced concerns to Wunderlich about the proposal, he said, have been hunters, who worry they will be arrested as they drop off their kids at school on the way to hunt. According to Selectman Andy Robertson, the ordinance that will be discussed at Thursday's public hearing would prohibit guns only from the school building, not from school grounds.
Even so, Wunderlich sees no reason why hunters cannot leave their guns at home.
"The town is large, but it's not so large that they'd have to take a half day to go back home and pick up their firearm," Wunderlich said. "They can't hunt on school grounds, so why bring a weapon on school grounds?"
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(The board of selectmen will hold its public hearing on the amended ordinance on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. in the George B. White building. Sydney Leavens can be reached at 224-5301, ext. 309, or by e-mail at [email protected].)
http://www.cmonitor.com/stories/news/local2003/deerfieldguns_2003.shtml
School board wants firearms ordinance expanded
By SYDNEY B. LEAVENS
Monitor staff
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEERFIELD - Until recently, school board member Don Gorman sometimes wore a pistol to board meetings at the Deerfield Community School, concealed underneath his clothing.
Gorman carried the gun to the school, as well as on errands, not for protection, he said, but to exercise his Second Amendment rights. A Libertarian, Gorman believes banning guns at the school would violate those rights.
"We're giving up too many liberties, and that's one I defend absolutely," he said. "I have a permit to carry a firearm, and on any given day I might be carrying a firearm. I'm not playing cowboys and Indians with the damn thing. It's purely a constitutional issue."
The majority of the school board, however, feels the guns should go. Board members have asked selectmen to expand a 1998 ordinance banning firearms from town buildings to include the school. If selectmen approve the measure after presenting it at a public hearing Thursday, those found with a firearm in the school will face a $500 fine for the first offense, $1,000 for each additional one.
The measure is not an attack on Gorman or other gun owners, said Kevin Barry, the school board's chairman. Indeed, Gorman said school board members did not know he brought his gun to meetings until he mentioned it in protest of their plans. Rather, the proposal is intended to protect the safety of students, Barry said.
While the school district has an ordinance preventing students from carrying weapons to school, it has no similar measure to prevent those who are not students from doing so, board members discovered during a routine review of school policies this year. The 1998 ordinance that board members hope to amend does not include the school. At the time the policy was enacted, the school board was concerned it would prohibit antique firearms or replicas of guns from being used for school plays, Barry said.
"Basically it's a safety factor for the students," he said. "Right now, the police have no way of reprimanding the person from having a weapon in the school."
Barry sees no reason why anyone should need to enter the school armed.
"If (a person) has a licensed firearm . . . there's just no need to carry it into the school," he said.
Gorman - who often brought his pistol to the State House during his eight years as a legislator - disagrees. Out of respect for the board, he hasn't carried his gun to school since the proposal was raised, he said. Nor does he bring the weapon on his weekly visits, by yellow school bus, to the school. (On his own initiative, Gorman has been observing classrooms since he was elected to the board last March.)
Gorman's main concern, he said, is that the policy would prohibit the educational use of guns at the school, for firearms safety courses or self-defense classes for women.
No such classes are currently taught at the school, officials said. If they are in the future, police Chief Robert Wunderlich imagines instructors could apply to school administrators for special permission to use guns, he said.
Most of those who have voiced concerns to Wunderlich about the proposal, he said, have been hunters, who worry they will be arrested as they drop off their kids at school on the way to hunt. According to Selectman Andy Robertson, the ordinance that will be discussed at Thursday's public hearing would prohibit guns only from the school building, not from school grounds.
Even so, Wunderlich sees no reason why hunters cannot leave their guns at home.
"The town is large, but it's not so large that they'd have to take a half day to go back home and pick up their firearm," Wunderlich said. "They can't hunt on school grounds, so why bring a weapon on school grounds?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(The board of selectmen will hold its public hearing on the amended ordinance on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. in the George B. White building. Sydney Leavens can be reached at 224-5301, ext. 309, or by e-mail at [email protected].)
http://www.cmonitor.com/stories/news/local2003/deerfieldguns_2003.shtml
