Firearms, public safety debated
A proposal to allow openly carried firearms in El Paso County buildings might frighten citizens and government employees and foment violence, elected officials and county employees said Tuesday.
The officials said they support the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. But they said that right must be balanced with the need for safety and open government.
“I have been threatened, and so have members of my staff,” Assessor John Bass wrote Tuesday in an e-mail to county employees. “I’ve been asked if I know ‘what the business end of an AK-47 looks like’ and so forth…. Certain environments and atmospheres encourage a fear factor, and I believe this proposal is one of them.”
The county commissioners are looking into scrapping a 1996 policy banning the open display of firearms in government buildings. The possible change is being championed by the Pikes Peak Firearms Coalition, an influential gunrights group.
The commissioners said they will consult with other elected officials and county managers before voting to eliminate the policy.
Some change seems assured — three members of the five-person panel, Douglas Bruce, Sallie Clark and Dennis Hisey, told the coalition before they were elected Nov. 2 that they would vote to repeal the ban.
State law says anyone with a permit may carry a concealed weapon except in certain places, such as a courthouse. It leaves laws on openly carrying weapons in government buildings up to local governments.
An appraiser on the Assessor’s Office staff, Steve Schleiker Jr., said that allowing guns in his office could invite violence. A gun owner and former Marine for 11 years, Schleiker said he would not carry a gun in public.
“When it comes to public safety, especially when you come into an establishment like this, tempers can flare,” he said. “If an individual comes in here with a weapon, that’s just going to disrupt the whole situation.”
Another employee, Clarence “Skip” Jenkins, had a different view.
“If they walk in with a .45, a .38, it wouldn’t bother me at all,” he said. “But if they started getting erratic, that would be a problem.”
The county has seven elected officials besides the commissioners, and six of them maintain offices where the public can walk in. Some officials were less strident than Bass in assessing the policy change, but all said it could raise security problems.
Treasurer Sandra Damron said she’s concerned about her employees and the cash they handle from tax payments. Public attitudes toward guns are another issue, she said.
“The point is not ‘Do you have to fear people who are openly carrying a firearm?’ because I don’t think you do,” she said. “The question is perceptions on the part of people who may not be as comfortable with firearms as others. And you want county government to be open and accessible to everyone without fear of intimidation.”
Coroner David Bowerman said guns in his office are no problem, as long as he can see them.
District Attorney John Newsome supports the idea, but he wants to hear details on how it would be applied to his offices. Newsome oversees investigations and prosecutions, often dealing with people irked about the outcome of a trial.
Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink has asked the commissioners for additional security at his offices several times in the past two years, and the requests were denied. Balink said he’s optimistic a security guard will be assigned to his downtown office by the end of March.