Opinion: Voting against the license to carry exclusion

To the Editor:

There is an important warrant article that will be taken up at the June 3, 2025, Town Meeting. If more residents knew about it, I would refer to it as “controversial” given the differences of opinion about guns, gun laws, and gun ownership in this country.  

Article 26 in the Dartmouth Town Warrant asks Town Meeting members to vote on the following: License to Carry Exclusion of Municipal Administrative Buildings on Town Property. 

“To see if the Town will vote to exclude municipal administrative buildings from being a “prohibited area” under M.G.L. Chapter 269, Section 10, thereby allowing possession of a firearm, loaded and unloaded, as defined in Section 121 of Chater 140 of said buildings.”

Clear as mud, right? Slated for a vote at Town Meeting, the outcome of this vote by a relative few will affect everyone. (It’s not clear that this article will be presented to voters at large.) I imagine that the about 5,000 licensed gun owners are more informed of this exclusion than most of us who live our lives here in Massachusetts who are thankful that we don’t live in states like Texas. I even wonder if even some licensed gun owners are in favor of this exclusion.

At the very least, it may be too soon to place this article before Town Meeting. It’s hardly persuasive that other communities in Massachusetts have already voted for this exclusion. Even when doing research on countless articles about MGL 269, Section 10 accompanied by opinions from mostly law firms and Second Amendment advocates and detractors, the NRA, etc., the level of content pro and con is mind-blowing.

As a town meeting member, I will vote against this “exclusion.” Not enough information has been revealed nor reported. At a recent Select Board meeting, a majority voted against this exclusion, 3 against 2, yet it’s an article sponsored by the Select Board. That suggests to me that even the Select Board hadn’t done its homework. In fact, Chair Heidi Brooks indicated that she wanted to survey town employees, an action that should have been done well before now. My assumption that very few residents even know about this warrant article, never mind its implications.

As you make up your own minds, consider this summary of prohibited areas for firearms as it stands today. The underlined statement (mine) in paragraph (i) generally explains what this vote will allow.  Ask yourselves, will you be or feel safer?

Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 269, Section 10 “prohibited area” shall mean any of the following locations:

• (i) a place owned, leased, or under the control of state, county or municipal government and used for the purpose of government administration, judicial or court administrative proceedings, or correctional services, including in or upon any part of the buildings, grounds, or parking areas thereof; provided, however, that a “prohibited area” shall not include any state-owned public land available to the public for hunting and provided further that a municipality may vote pursuant to section 4 of chapter 4 to exclude its administrative buildings from being a “prohibited area”; or
• (ii) a location in use at the time of possession for the storage or tabulation of ballots during the hours in which voting or tabulation is occurring or a polling place or early voting site while open for voting or within 150 feet of the building entrance door to such polling place or early voting site.

Diane Gilbert,

Dartmouth Precinct 8