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Longmont city councilmembers debate installing metal detectors in city buildings

Christensen and Martin expand their thoughts on the topic
Civic Center Exterior (2 of 2)
Longmont Civic Center

A city councilmember worries putting metal detectors to prevent guns from being brought into city buildings will lead to Longmont resembling a combat zone and cut the public off from local government.

“I just don’t think this is the right approach to take right now,” Councilmember Polly Christensen said Friday. It would add to the general feeling that America is becoming an armed camp, Christensen added.

She said as soon as word emerged the city may explore the use of metal detectors, she received a proposal from a security firm offering its services. The company helps “organizations like yours with gunshot and acoustic threat detection systems protecting your campus from acts of terrorism, criminal activity, and active shooter situations,” according to an email from Christensen.

Longmont officials routinely receive solicitation emails and most are not seriously considered, Christensen said. 

Still, “this is the kind of emails we are now getting,” Christensen said. “Longmont is not a ‘combat zone’ with a need for ‘constant threat detection.’”

Christensen, along with Mayor Brian Bagley, voted against a proposal to direct city staff to examine what municipalities can do to prohibit the use of concealed carry firearms in city-owned or -leased public spaces.

The motion, made by Councilmember Marcia Martin last month, also asks city staff members to look at what technology could be used to block concealed carry in city-owned spaces.

A majority of the council voted for Martin’s motion, which gave no timeline when the city staff could bring their conclusions to the city council for a possible vote.

“The effect of my motion was to enable the staff to take this action if they want to, without significantly adding to their burden of work unless they choose to prioritize it,” Martin said in an email.

City Manager Harold Dominguez and the Acting Chief of Public Safety Rob Spendlow encouraged her to make the motion, Martin said. “Mr. Dominguez managed cities in the past where these measures became necessary because of the threat level from armed groups specifically against city workers,” she said.

Christensen said the financial cost to install metal detectors and staff at all entrances to city hall and all other public buildings would be extraordinary. “The cultural cost would be far greater; we would be accepting (a) bunker mentality and the idea that we can do nothing about public attacks and gun violence except pathetically pat-down and X-ray everyone who enters our public buildings.”

She said Longmont should instead support background checks, share secure databases, back open carry laws, semi-automatic definitions and laws and pursue the prosecution and regulation of domestic terrorist groups. The country also needs to re-examine its entire approach to mental health treatment and funding, Christensen said.

Such moves would be difficult. “But difficult does not mean we either back down or armor up,” she said in her email.

Martin said "I do not expect to hear anything more about the motion-to-direct until budget time. At that point, we will hear one of the following, I expect: 

  • The extra protection doesn’t justify the expense and the plan is to do nothing;
  • Extra protections such as bullet-proof glass in service areas should be added, but few or no installations to eliminate concealed carry;
  • #2 plus a plan to restrict concealed carry when events, where a large number of people gather on city property, occur. This means some metal detectors would be acquired, but not staffed except on special occasions.

“I have no expectations that the city would choose to exercise the state-allowed ability to restrict concealed carry to the fullest extent of the law,” Martin said in her email. “That would be both expensive and logistically difficult.”

None of the proposals, she said, “could possibly have the effect of turning the city into an “armed camp.”

Rather, the King Soopers shooting in Boulder offers an opportunity for Longmont to be proactive in deterring people from the habit of carrying weapons, and to show concern for public servants, Martin said.

“Making habitual carry just a little more inconvenient is a baby step away from what I consider to be an unhealthy focus on firearms to be a solution to anything,” she said.

CORRECTION: The story now says concealed carry firearms "in city owned or-leased public spaces. The story also includes a direct quote from Councilmember Marcia Martin that says: I don't expect to hear anything more about the motion-to-direct until budget time. At that point, we will hear one of the following, I expect:"