The Kalamazoo County Commission has rejected a proposal to recognize a “gun violence awareness” day in June. The board was down two commissioners Tuesday when it took the vote. Five of the nine present did support the resolution. But the Board’s rules require six votes for a measure to pass.
The proposal called for “responsible gun ownership” and keeping guns “out of the wrong hands” while avoiding policy specifics.
Commissioner Kevin Wordelman introduced the resolution. He says he was moved by February’s mass shooting in Kalamazoo.
“I was really angry and I really wanted to do something about it. Legally as a commissioner there’s very little we can do about it. So there are some cultural, symbolic and other important things we can do,” he said.
Audience members – including some who said they’d had family members killed by guns – said the proposal was a non-partisan endorsement of gun safety. Commissioner John Gisler did not see it that way.
“At best this resolution is a meaningless feel-good thing. I’m afraid it’s worse than that, though. It’s an unfortunate attempt to make a political statement based on a terrible local tragedy,” he said.
Other board members found fault with the resolution’s statistics on gun deaths, said the term “gun violence” demonizes firearms and said guns were being unfairly singled out from other weapons.
A similar resolution proposed on Monday at the City of Kalamazoo was approved.
