AURORA — Signs prohibiting the open carry of firearms will be placed at the front door of the Aurora Municipal Center after two occasions in which people with guns visibly strapped to their belts attended City Council meetings.
The order was approved by the City Council at a study session Monday.
“This is only a situation where you’re openly carrying a weapon — which is allowed by the constitution — but it disrupts basically everything going on in the city,” said councilman Bob LeGare, chairman of the Public Safety Committee. “I have a great deal of respect for the Second Amendment … but I have very little patience for people who come in to make show and disrupt city operations.”
At a City Council meeting Feb. 2, two young men walked into the Aurora Municipal Center, each with a pistol strapped to his belt, and joined the crowd gathering to watch the meeting.
Officers supervised the men in the front lobby, as one was known to have baited cops in the past by openly carrying a gun in public. Nothing happened at the meeting and it was their right to openly carry a gun on the premises.
On March 16, the same two men and a woman returned, all wearing guns.
Some council members said council was being too reactive over the incidents, and that the group would likely not return again.
“I just think that we’re really being eager to consider this,” councilman Bob Roth said.
Other members said that bringing the guns into city hall to ruffle feathers was intentionally antagonistic and should not be allowed.
The signage will only apply to the municipal center building at 15151 East Alameda Parkway. It is illegal to have an open carry in some public places, such as parks and open spaces.