{"id":25549,"date":"2024-09-28T10:16:28","date_gmt":"2024-09-28T16:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-city-council-says-no-to-guns-in-city-buildings\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:20:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:20:03","slug":"cortez-city-council-says-no-to-guns-in-city-buildings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-city-council-says-no-to-guns-in-city-buildings\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez City Council says no to guns in city buildings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Coronavirus
Coronavirus protocols for Tuesday night\u2019s Cortez City Council meeting included temperature screenings, mask wearing and social distancing.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Cortez City Council on Tuesday night voted 4-3 to reject a move to opt out of a state law that disallows guns in city buildings.<\/p>\n

The state law passed earlier this year and has been effective since July 1. Notably, it left a provision to allow individual local governments the power to opt out.<\/p>\n

The Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners unanimously voted to opt out of Senate Bill 24-131<\/a> in June, so firearms are still allowed in county-owned buildings.<\/p>\n

However, in some city-owned buildings, \u201cunlawful carrying of a firearm in a government building is a class 1 misdemeanor,\u201d according to state, and now city, law.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt only applies to three areas: this chamber, any other room in which council is meeting and the executive offices of council and the chief executive,\u201d said City Attorney Patrick Coleman at the meeting.<\/p>\n

It also includes the municipal court and election-related parts of that building, but those were already considered \u201cno carry zones,\u201d Coleman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought there\u2019d be more tension, but everyone was respectful,\u201d former Cortez Mayor Mike Lavey said about the meeting.<\/p>\n

There was disagreement, however, among the public and council members alike.<\/p>\n

Before council members shared their perspectives on the issue, the public had a platform to speak during public comment.<\/p>\n

The first person to speak said she hoped the council opted out, \u201cjust as the county commissioners did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c(Criminals) do prefer soft targets, which they find in gun-free zones,\u201d added the next citizen.<\/p>\n

Lavey spoke next.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we need to have armed citizens in public buildings,\u201d said Lavey. \u201cI\u2019m not saying that people may not be competent in their use of firearms, but it\u2019s a very difficult situation to put yourself in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lavey went on to say he\u2019s had a lot of experience with firearms, as a petty officer in the Navy, a special deputy at the Sheriff\u2019s Office and courtroom security, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve ever gone through any of these trainings \u2026 it takes a split second-decision, which will affect your life and the person in front of that barrel,\u201d Lavey said.<\/p>\n

After Lavey, a community member voiced concerns of \u201cgreater government control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we get rid of the freedom to carry our firearms in public buildings that we, the people, are supposed to be in control of, that just gets rid of a little bit of freedom,\u201d he said. \u201cPretty soon, we\u2019re not going to be able to carry our firearms within city limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our Second Amendment. We don\u2019t want to lose that,\u201d another person said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI too am concerned about safety in public spaces. I am not convinced at all that allowing firearms in public spaces is the way to do that,\u201d the final person to share said.<\/p>\n

In a real-world situation where an attacker threatened community in a public space, there\u2019s so much adrenaline and stress, which is opportunity for innocent people to be hurt, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood intentions without proper training feels like a recipe for disaster,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not against the Second Amendment at all, but I do feel there is a time and a place for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next, the council members took turns voicing their views on what to do about concealed or open carry weapons in their chambers.<\/p>\n

Council member April Randle called the legislation \u201cpolitically inspired\u201d and \u201credundant.\u201d<\/p>\n

She cited laws already in place that prohibit firearms within 100 feet of polling locations, ballot boxes, in courts and other federal buildings.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut despite all of these laws, and despite the fact we currently have thousands of gun free zones in place in this United States of ours, we continue to suffer from gun violence and mass shootings,\u201d Randle said.<\/p>\n

She said accepting state law and disallowing guns in their chambers \u201cmakes us soft targets\u201d and that 97% of mass shootings between 1998 and 2018 took place in gun-free zones.<\/p>\n

The statistic is similar to a 2014 report from the Crime Prevention Research Center<\/a> that former President Donald Trump cited in 2018. This report says from 1950 to 2016, 98% of mass shootings were in gun-free zones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe oft-cited figure comes from a study by a gun rights advocacy group that gun violence experts say is flawed,\u201d according to The Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no definitive data on how many \u2018mass shootings\u2019 occur in \u2018gun-free\u2019 zones, because there is no consensus on how to define either term, experts said,\u201d according to a fact-check article by AP News said.<\/p>\n

Mayor Rachel Medina said, \u201cI feel we have already addressed safety by having Chief (Vernon) Knuckles attend every single one of our meetings in the last four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medina added that for \u201cmore contentious\u201d meetings, they bring in additional officers to \u201ccreate a safeguard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil chambers and City Hall is an important place for citizens to freely speak. I know many would be uncomfortable stating opposing opinions to openly armed individuals,\u201d Mayor Pro Tem Lydia DeHaven said.<\/p>\n

Council member Dennis Spruell said, \u201cWe don\u2019t need to depend on the police for our defense. We need to defend ourselves,\u201d thus supporting the opt-out.<\/p>\n

Council member Bill Lewis followed Spruell in opposition. He said shooters choose a specific location where they had been bullied or fired from a job.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a country that has more guns than any other countries. We\u2019re also a country that has one of the highest fatalities and homicides with guns. Where more guns are coming into the equation, the more volatility and risk for someone getting hurt,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to completely agree with what Bill just said,\u201d Council member Matt Keefauver started.<\/p>\n

Keefauver said guns are already not allowed in schools, hospitals, banks and universities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is \u2018redundant,\u2019 I don\u2019t see the harm in saying no,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Council member Robert Dobry was the last to speak, and said there ought to be a \u201ccompelling interest\u201d to the public to make this law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see how this law makes anyone safer. I felt the same amount of safety before this law existed as I do currently,\u201d Dobry said.<\/p>\n

City Attorney Coleman had drafted an ordinance in preparation for the Tuesday meeting to allow council to opt out of the state law.<\/p>\n

When Spruell made a motion for a second reading and public hearing of the ordinance to opt out of the state law, Randle and Dobry said yes.<\/p>\n

Medina, DeHaven, Lewis and Keefauver voted no.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the ordinance fails,\u201d said Medina. \u201cA new council can make a new decision on this, but today we\u2019ve made a decision on this, and we thank you for being here and we\u2019re going to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Where more guns are coming into the equation, the more volatility and risk for someone getting hurt,\u2019 Lewis says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1429,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez-city-council","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78987,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25549\/revisions\/78987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25549"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}