Armed and ready for the council meeting? No way!!!
I know I’ve been in a bubble lately but am I reading this right? My fellow Ho Co Blogger Tom Coale posted this last week. There is no prohibition against bringing firearms into county-owned buildings on Howard County like the library, the courthouse, county hall (George Howard Bldg.)? Seriously??? This is sum bull!! Ok. Bull is not PC language so let’s just call it an oversight.
I know the NRA pep squad sees nothing wrong with packing heat while you’re paying your water bill but I do. And I would venture to say that many, many other citizens in Howard County do too. We’re not talking about protecting your family in your private residence. We’re talking about public safety. If last year’s mall shooting hasn’t shook you up about the dangers of guns in Howard County, look again. Acts of violence can occur anywhere at anytime for any reason. And no amount of police presence can deter some misguided friends from carrying out their missions. So why allow them to enter a building armed with a weapon designed to take a dozen people out in less than 120 seconds? Let’s make it a little harder to do that, shall we?
Carrying guns into public buildings, concealed or not, is a public health threat. How many cases of mass shootings and near mass shootings we’ve seen in public places such as courthouses, libraries, government buildings, and schools have we seen in America? People flip out for all kinds of reasons these days. They kill intended targets as well as bystanders. You know what they most if not all have in common? No one saw it coming. Now we have the chance to lessen the odds of innocent lives being taken away unexpectedly so let’s do that. Remember that old adage about an ounce of prevention??
I sincerely hope this oversight can be swiftly remedied with legislation from the County Council. I know they will make it work. They must make it work. After all, I wouldn’t want to walk away from a jury duty one day with a bullet in my chest as a party favor. Not a good look.
#hocopolitics
