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At a time where 1 person out of every 5 lives below the poverty line according to Census.gov and in a place where Crimemapping.com shows more than 100 crimes reported per week, the City Manager and Council appear desperate to draw attention away from these problems… problems that affect our friends and families across the city. With the introduction of an ordinance to ban firearms in city buildings and in parks, Council is about to own the responsibility of personal safety for every person that works in or enters one of these areas. While criminals roam the streets, gang members attack one another and families struggle to pay rent or put food on the table, the business we should be discussing is hardly banning guns.

Gun Violence by criminals has been a major issue in the City.  Guess where we do not see acts of Gun Violence? Roanoke’s Municipal buildings. What if instead, the City proposed an ordinance that banned the use and carry of firearms during a drug deal? Or during the commission of a crime of violence? Wait, you guessed it: CRIMINALS DON’T FOLLOW THE LAW. Instead, Roanoke intends to disarm the single mom who takes her children to the park and carries a firearm because she has received threats from a vengeful ex-husband. It will compromise the safety of the young professional that runs the greenway after dark. It will endanger the Firefighter who is on a 24-hour shift ready and willing to save your life, now unable to defend his own. 

You can rest assured that this ordinance, if passed, will give every visitor to a Municipal Building or Park a target on their back— compliments of Roanoke City Council. And what safety will we gain in return? Unless perpetrators of gun violence in our Valley suddenly decide to respect the law, the answer is: not much.

But there is hope for that single mom at the park, the young professional on the greenway, and the firefighter down at the station: Since you can’t have your guns anymore, you can rely on City Council members who are now the only thing between you and the criminals.  While we use, and rightly so, titles like Mr. Mayor, Vice-Mayor, and Council Member in this chamber, if you are a municipal employee, citizen, or visitor just learn the names of the Council Members who votes “aye” when you are looking down the barrel of a criminal’s gun and cry out for one of them!

Finally, I’m a realist.  I know that you may feel you have to do this. I know that you have the power to do this. I know that some of your donors are probably requiring you to do this. But can you honestly say that the city funds needed to enforce this – that those dollars are better used on no-gun signs, metal detectors, and security personnel INSTEAD of on the people of Roanoke that elected you into these positions and need you now more than ever? 

The ordinance will simply have a greater impact than you know, and my fear is that impact will be felt not by criminals, but by the innocents who were disarmed by this council.