City Council Minutes 2022 06 07 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes June 7, 2022 Page 5 of 9 Liz P, Louisville, stated the past years have been filled with mass shooting and nothing is ever done. As a community we need to help each other and these laws reflect the wishes of this community. She urged approval of common sense gun laws. Kathy Hagan, Erie, stated more guns and self -regulation has not solved our problems and we continually hear about more shootings. If the federal government will not do anything local communities need to. Those states will the weakest gun laws also have the highest rates of gun violence. Something needs to be done, she urged approval. Karen Fohrman, Louisville, stated she is a teacher in Louisville and agrees with the earlier comments about school safety. She urged approval of the ordinances as statistics show we need to go in a new direction to address gun violence. A waiting period to purchase a gun could have saved the life of her brother. These rules are moderate and make sense. Ash Taylor, Louisville, stated he supports these ordinances. People in other countries do not worry about assault weapons. He stated it is a false dichotomy that we can't have basic regulations and still allow guns. These rules are common place in other countries. If we can't address this at the federal level we must do so locally. Councilmember Most stated she hears from her own daughter how scared she is of school shootings. She stated there is a way to have common sense rules and guns rights at the same time. As elected officials we need to do whatever we can to keep people safe. The time to act is now. Mayor Pro Tem Maloney stated he took an oath of office to uphold the constitution and he takes that seriously, and that includes the second amendment. We can all agree on the horror of recent mass shootings. He stated there is a place for local rules on this issue as the state and federal governments have failed to act. He supports the ordinances as this is an opportunity to have some influence. He stated he respects gun ownership but we have to do something. Councilmember Fahey stated statistics show that the when the federal ban on assault weapons lapsed there was a significant increase in gun violence. We need to act; if not us then who will. We need to motivate the state and federal governments to do more as well. Councilmember Dickinson stated he used to be a school teacher and he knew kids who lost their lives to gun violence. If we can't get the state and federal governments to do this we have to do what we can. We need common sense rules like we have for other things like driving. He stated he heard from many gun owners how responsible they are with their guns and that is all we are asking for. This is not a response to recent shootings, this has been building over many years in response to so many things. Councilmember Leh stated there has been one shooting after another and it is almost too much to contemplate. He stated he appreciates those who own guns and are law abiding. These ordinances are not about confiscating guns they are to create reasonable