Eastland Texas REJECTING NO-GUN ZONE

The Eastland City Council discussed future firearm polices at the Thursday night City meeting.  

This discussion developed from a proposal to ban concealed handguns from the city council chambers and city hall.  The proposal would allow for a “gun free” zone to be established and signage being placed on the city property.  The proposal never had a motion to pass or a second to vote on.  

Mayor, Larry Vernon voiced his views on city employees and office personal having a firearm on their body.  Mayor Vernon stated he would feel safer knowing that law abiding armed citizens would be around if any disgruntled, crazed or terrorist individual was causing harm and the situation could be thwarted eliminating casualties.  If employees were to have open carry license or concealed license it would be appropriate as they would be licensed, legal, and trained to own and operate their firearm. 

 It was discussed the water works personnel might not be able to carry open carry as it might intimidate residents to see an armed worker on their property of street.  Concealed carry would be fine in this case.  It was discussed that many workers might not want to carry their firearms anyway while working on waterlines or roads as it might cause damage to their firearm.

Eastland Chief of Police, Billy Myrick said he would not have any issue with folks having firearms and would welcome it.  The assistance to his force in case of any tragic situations might be helpful.  Chief Myrick urged the city council to issue ID cards for the city employees that work on residential property or streets so citizens are not alarmed if they see a firearm on them.  This would be helpful in case of outages or service interruptions when employees must knock on home doors. 

No actions were taken at this time due to the council waiting on the open carry laws to pass.