Town Hall and Gun Show
On Saturday, I hosted my first Town Hall of the year. Due to the high number of emails and phone calls I have received about gun control (representing a variety of perspectives), I decided to start with a conversation about Community Safety. I hosted a panel with the following:
· Law Enforcement – Sheriff Kirk Taylor
· Parks and Wildlife Commission – John Singletary, Chair
· Pueblo City Council – Steve Nawrocki, President
· Pueblo City Schools – Randy Evetts, Safe Schools Project Director
· School District 70 – Ed Smith, Superintendent
The whole idea behind the panel, for me, was to hear from district residents about this hot button issue that we will certainly grapple with in this legislative session. I reached out to Spanish Peaks because I wanted a mental health perspective and was disappointed when they cancelled at the last minute. While I was reminded by disability activists in the room that mentally ill people are no more likely than anyone else to pick up a gun and go on a shooting rampage, I do think that not having a mental health professional present left a significant gap in the conversation. I will continue to struggle with these issues with my colleagues in the legislature and I would ask our constituents to continue to reach out and inform us about your common sense solutions to community safety issues. KOAA had some great coverage of the event. I did have an interesting exchange with a man who regularly attends my town halls and who invited me to accompany him to a gun show later that afternoon. I took him up on that offer and met him out at the State Fair Ag Building for a tour of the gun show.
