ORDER-2018-144 : A Resolution urging the President of the United States, the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives to act on gun control legislation.

Transcript (~21 min @ 1:36)

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▶ 1:26 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: public participation is now closed we have two items before us this evening We'll start with Order 2018-144, a resolution urging the President of the United States,

▶ 1:38 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: the United States Senate, and the United States House of Representatives to act on gun control legislation. This is offered by Ward 3 Alderman Francis Wright, myself, and Jennifer Lemmerman.

▶ 1:52 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: I will read the language and open up the floor for comment from the committee.

▶ 1:57 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: urging the President of the United States, the United States Senate, and the United States House of Representatives to act on gun control legislation, whereas federal elected officials have continually been unwilling or unable to pass reasonable gun legislation despite multiple mass shootings, killing school children and other individuals with assault weapons. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Aldermen of Melrose, Massachusetts strongly urges the President of the United States, the United States Senate, and the United States House of Representatives to reinstitute the ban of the sale of assault weapons, pass legislation banning the possession and or use of so-called bump stock devices, reinstitute reasonable restrictions on who may seek to purchase or otherwise obtain firearms, as well as reinstitute reasonable background checks on all individuals seeking to purchase firearms, otherwise obtain firearms, or to license firearms. Further, be it resolved that upon its passage the city clerk shall forward a copy of the above resolution to the President of the United States Donald Trump, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senator Edward Markey, and U.S. Representative Katherine Clark.

▶ 3:09 Francis X. Wright Jr.: Thank you Madam Chair. I'm not a great believer in this body passing resolutions on matters that we don't have control of as a city. However, this This is something that I saw as affecting our whole nation, and there was a time in this country not too long ago when we had reasonable restrictions in place, and those were removed within the last decade or so, and we've seen this increase in mass killings, whether it's in California, Texas, Colorado, most recently in Florida, of course in Connecticut, and not too long ago, right next door, when Mako McDermott took out his AK-47 and killed eight of his fellow employees up in Wakefield. I come from a family of hunters. My father was a hunter. We had a shotgun in the house. I don't hunt, but I have relatives who hunt. I have nothing against hunting. I have nothing against owning a weapon for protection when needed,

▶ 4:35 Francis X. Wright Jr.: but we have an issue in this country with people seeming to want and need to have military-style assault weapons. And I've yet to see one being used in a positive way But I certainly, I think we've all seen them being used time and time again to mow down innocent children and innocent individuals across this country.

▶ 5:03 Francis X. Wright Jr.: So for this reason, I'm putting this forward. I think the federal government is unable to move on this as it has proven to be paralyzed on a lot of different matters. and we see our school children now gathering to address this corporations now have stepped up and they're addressing this individual residents across this country I was up in New Hampshire this weekend and I saw people standing on a corner with signs on the Saturday afternoon and up in the cold just holding signs saying address the need for military style weapons so I think as community leaders this is our opportunity to just let our voices be heard saying let's do something reasonable let's sit please sit down please figure this out please Institute something we can all live with and don't Don't be driven by fear, don't be driven by the NRA, don't ignore what's going on. Please consider all those people who suffer as a result of these weapons being sold without any type of restriction. That's my thought. That was my goal along with Alderman Lemmerman in filing this and I hope that this body will

▶ 6:39 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: support it thank you alderman wright um i would like to take just a moment to also

▶ 6:49 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: address my co-sponsorship of of this resolution um 115 000 americans are shot every year in this country and an american child is 17 times more likely to die from a gun from gun violence than

▶ 7:00 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: and his or her peers in all other high-income countries combined. So by definition, gun violence in this country is an epidemic of a public health crisis.

▶ 7:12 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Nearly 60% of high schoolers in the country right now say that they fear that a shooting could happen in their school.

▶ 7:19 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: So right here in Melrose, we know that there are students who are living with that fear. And we saw students standing up to join their peers around the country last week to say enough.

▶ 7:30 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: They were demanding that decision makers in this country hear them when they say that they need action, and when the weather in New England deterred that effort, they didn't let it stop them, and many of them went into Boston, and they brought their message to the State House. Despite the passionate efforts of members of the Massachusetts delegation and many of their peers in Congress, they have continually failed to pass reasonable protections that are supported by a majority of americans in this country and it's imperative that leaders at all levels speak up and demand more from them so i think our students are leading the way and through this resolution we have an opportunity to support them in that and to follow their lead

▶ 8:21 Speaker 2: and i i hope that we can do that remember the committee who wish to

▶ 8:28 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: motion for passage we have a motion to recommend for passage from alderman wright Second. Seconded by President Search. All in favor.

▶ 8:36 Speaker 1: Aye.

▶ 8:38 Speaker 2: Sorry.

▶ 8:40 Speaker 3: You can go ahead.

▶ 8:44 Scott M. Forbes: Before I get out here and institute my vote, you know, I read this a bunch of times. I really don't want to get into a Second Amendment battle here in the horseshoe. think that we need to have reasonable gun legislation here in the country I think you see it on a federal level in the state level level and obviously we everyone is talking about it on a local level I do have a problem with the way the amendment is written I don't think we should reinstitute the ban of assault weapons because that that assault ban was 20 years ago when it was written I believe is from 1993 to 2004 I think that we've come a long way since then There are many other versions of the AR-15 that's out there. There's a lot of high-capacity magazines that are out there. If they're going to be grandfathered in, which was in the original legislation, then we're still going to have a problem. I feel like that this amendment should probably say that we need to have or pass reasonable gun legislation regarding the sale of assault weapons and not reinstitute a 20-year-old piece of legislation. I think we need to come to the table with something new. We need to come to the table with something that's fair and balanced. There's a lot of legal gun owners in this country. As a veteran of 22 years, I've been around weapons my entire life. My family owns weapons, my friend owns weapons, and they own weapons that are, you know, of the AR-15 variety, but they are legal gun owners and they're responsible. I know that that's a discussion that needs to be have, I'm willing to have that dialogue. I'm not saying that I'm against it, but I just feel like that for the sake of this resolution, I would feel more comfortable saying that we need to pass reasonable legislation regarding the sale of assault weapons, not initiating a ban of legislation that was written 20 years ago. Thank you.

▶ 10:32 Speaker 4: Thank you.

▶ 10:38 Monica C. Medeiros: On discussion, I have, first, I'm kind of wondering in process, I had printed out this

▶ 10:45 Monica C. Medeiros: resolution a few weeks back when we first had it before us and when i printed it out today i see that there's a whole third paragraph yeah that's been added but i don't see any we didn't we haven't talked about this before and i don't see any indication that's been amended the third paragraph

▶ 11:05 Speaker 1: should be there and that was an error so the third paragraph should be as you do read it i believe

▶ 11:13 Michael P. Zwirko: the third paragraph point of order madam chair did you read the version that we just voted on that have the third paragraph thank you i was just wondering when that got there because it

▶ 11:21 Monica C. Medeiros: it you know there's no indication that this has been amended or any change has been made in

▶ 11:31 Francis X. Wright Jr.: thank you uh to address alderman madaris's question as i believe the city clerk was attempting to um that is the draft that was originally submitted uh i believe the city clerk is telling us that she made a ministerial error and left out that

▶ 11:47 Speaker 1: paragraph it was left out when it was typed yeah okay so at some point it was

▶ 11:53 Monica C. Medeiros: changed from what was originally no it's never been never been changed well I

▶ 11:59 Monica C. Medeiros: mean it's it was changing what I saw and what I printed obviously so at some point it was changed when I you know I can't say that's what I'm asking I guess

▶ 12:14 Monica C. Medeiros: but you know that's one thing but you know this is this is very vague you know and we talk about

▶ 12:26 Monica C. Medeiros: reasonable reasonable anytime you use that you don't know what what does that mean that could mean in many things in many different places but primarily you know I alderman Rita touched upon this and i don't feel comfortable using this forum in the melrose board of aldermen to make this to start you know going down a slippery slope of discussing national political issues and you

▶ 13:00 Monica C. Medeiros: know this is something that have the president has called for a ban on bump stocks i really find it unlikely that this resolution is going to change the votes of Catherine Clark or Elizabeth Warren or Ed Markey on anything that they're going to do in Washington. Most of these issues have been addressed at the state level.

▶ 13:29 Monica C. Medeiros: When I think about those things and about what does this mean, it seems to me that this This is using a recent political, a recent tragedy, human tragedy, to politicize and grandstand, and I just don't want to be a part of that. I don't think that's the appropriate use of this forum, and I don't feel comfortable doing that.

▶ 13:58 Monica C. Medeiros: So when we vote on this, I'm going to vote present, and I don't feel comfortable to use this here. I think the kinds of things that we can do here, I mean, when you see such a tragedy as the most recent one, you know, it's only God knows what goes through an individual's head. But it does seem that we see instance after instance of people who don't feel part of the system, that feel like the system has failed them, that they haven't had it out. And this is the kind of thing that I think we can work with locally. think we've done a good job in uh with the use of interface as a sort of a helpline and referral service that the whole community can use that parents should be able to know where they can get help and you know i think we need to focus on the schools and providing opportunities and within our community and and that's where i'm going to choose to go moving forward but i'm not

▶ 14:53 Francis X. Wright Jr.: going to be supporting this today thank you thank you alderman wright um thank you i wasn't intending to speak again but i'm extremely insulted that i'd be accused of grandstanding

▶ 15:06 Francis X. Wright Jr.: politically on the dead bodies of 17 students i've been on this board for 13 years and i've

▶ 15:19 Francis X. Wright Jr.: never been so insulted I'll leave it at that as far as reasonable goes we don't have we're not in a position to dictate the terms of gun legislation so that's why it says reasonable let's ask them to sit down as adults Republicans and Democrats and figure something out that's reasonable and they've just been paralyzed on this issue for years for over a decade just sit down figure something out. Be reasonable as the Congress of the United States used to be. So whether

▶ 15:53 Francis X. Wright Jr.: it's your point or whether it's Alderman Forbes point or my point or Alderman Lemon's point,

▶ 16:04 Francis X. Wright Jr.: I'm just asking the 500-odd members of Congress, Senate, and House to sit down and be reasonable

▶ 16:14 Francis X. Wright Jr.: and address a situation that has people with mental health issues being able to walk around in without any id without any check and buy an ar-15 and go out and mow down a group of individuals be it at a nightclub or a school or at their workplace so if that's political grandstanding

▶ 16:34 Francis X. Wright Jr.: i'll do it just as the high school kids i suppose are politically grandstanding

▶ 16:44 Francis X. Wright Jr.: and the corporations are politically grandstanding and the people who are standing on the corners are politically grandstanding then yes that's what i'm doing that's what i'm doing i'm trying to prevent more people from getting mowed down with military style assault weapons so we can sit around and we can wring our hands and we can talk about how we're going to solve it with mental health counseling but we don't have any money for mental health counseling we certainly don't on the local level and the federal government is cutting that funding and the state doesn't have any money to increase the funding for it. We can stop people from wearing shoes when they walk through an airport because once somebody lit a shoe bomb, but God forbid after multiple shootings that we in any way try to check and make sure someone's mentally stable or has an ID when they buy a military-style assault weapon. so yes I'm politically grandstanding if that's your definition thank you yeah I

▶ 17:58 Scott M. Forbes: was I was just wanted to ask the alderman Rita to make of the order if he'd be willing to amend the order to it for it to say to pass reasonable legislation regarding the sale of assault weapons instead of reinstituting the assault weapons ban for the comments that I made earlier before it's an old ban it needs to be torn up more of these types of weapons have been created and more discussion needs to be had whether you're Democrat Republican whether you for the Second Amendment or not for the Second Amendment people need to come together and have that discussion so I was just willing if the maker of the

▶ 18:41 Francis X. Wright Jr.: order be willing to amend it well if I may I'm sure thank you I appreciate all them in Forbes request I don't have an objection to that I mean I prefer it the

▶ 18:49 Francis X. Wright Jr.: way it is but it's up to this board you know I think if we could perhaps show

▶ 18:57 Francis X. Wright Jr.: the Congress what reasonable means and find a a something we can live with then yes I'd be happy to support an amendment

▶ 19:12 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: that a motion to amend in that case i think we would need we do have a motion on the table right now to for passage so we would need uh president's work to agree to withdraw his second um followed

▶ 19:26 Scott M. Forbes: by alderman wright i'd be happy to yes all right so i have a motion to amend uh the resolution replacing uh to reinstitute the ban of assault weapons and insert to pass reasonable legislation regarding the sale of assault weapons second we have a motion to amend by alderman forbes second

▶ 19:49 Speaker 5: by alderman poysel on discussion just could you say that one more time alderman forbes yes uh to

▶ 19:51 Scott M. Forbes: remove um where it says to reinstitute the ban of assault weapons and in its place insert to pass reasonable legislation regarding the sale of assault weapons all in favor of the motion to

▶ 20:19 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: amend all opposed motion passes we now have the amended resolution before us uh prison circle i

▶ 20:33 Speaker 6: did have you in line before that thank you madam chair um you can see how emotional this issue

▶ 20:40 Michael P. Zwirko: even in this chamber out in coffee shops out on street at work in school on the sidewalk can be

▶ 20:49 Michael P. Zwirko: And we like to think that these things don't happen here. And then a couple of weeks ago, we had a tragic incident in Winchester just next door. And as Alderman Wright previously mentioned, about 10, 15 years ago, the gentleman in Wakefield. I appreciate the motion to amend that was made by Alderman Forbes to tighten the language. I think that's a good spot on his part.

▶ 21:16 Michael P. Zwirko: I just wanted to say that we each come at this issue from different angles. Some of us may have served in the military. Some of us may have grown up hunters. Some may shoot skeet. Some may never own a gun, may never want to own a gun. That's fine. You don't have to. You have the right to. But the reality is, is that we're at a point now where it almost seems insurmountable, where children and even young adults and adults like myself wonder if when I go to a mall, that's going to be the last time that I go.

▶ 21:50 Michael P. Zwirko: And I'm sure, you know, maybe at the end of the day that the folks that are listed in Paragraph 3, they won't change their opinion, but this is a good discussion to have and I'm proud to have it.

▶ 22:03 Speaker 6: Thank you. Okay.

▶ 22:06 Speaker 2: We have an amended resolution in front of us.

▶ 22:10 Speaker 2: Is there a motion?

▶ 22:11 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Motion to pass the amended resolution. Is there a motion to pass the resolution as amended by Alderman Tramontozzi?

▶ 22:14 John N. Tramontozzi: Second. Seconded by Alderman Bewtra. All in favor?

▶ 22:17 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Second. Seconded by Alderman Bewtra. All in favor? Aye. Second. all in favor aye any opposed present motion passes will be taken up at the

▶ 22:39 Speaker 2: full board meeting the second item on our agenda this evening 2018-145

▶ 22:45 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: petition to the great and general court to enact a special act to further amend section 310 vacancy in office of mayor of the city charter sponsored by alderman