Asheville calls for assault weapons ban; mayor says she would go further

ASHEVILLE - The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to tell state and federal leaders to ban assault weapons, saying in a resolution that "on average, nearly two dozen children are shot each day in the United States."

It was the first council meeting since the latest mass shooting, which left 17 children and educators dead at a Florida school Feb. 14.

Members of the public, including three students, spoke before the vote at City Hall, some agreeing with the council and others calling for different approaches they said would be more effective or more politically feasible. 

"From what I've witnessed throughout my short lifetime, it is apparent that weapons like those are only catalysts for anguish and suffering," said Sean McDowell, an 18-year-old Roberson senior, who supports an assault weapons ban and tighter background checks.

But adult speaker Charlene Thibodeau said she didn't think a ban would help as much as other measures, such as metal detectors and a "highly-trained" security officer at each school.

"The violent among us will find a way to hurt us even if we take away all guns," Thibodeau said.

MORE: Henderson County sheriff joins Trump school-safety talk, supports arming school officials

MORE: Giving schoolteachers guns problematic but not out of question in WNC

Mayor Esther Manheimer said she plans to meet Wednesday with Asheville City Schools Superintendent Denise Patterson and Police Chief Tammy Hooper about school security. Any changes would be the decision of the school board.

Manheimer told attendees her husband is a public school teacher and she has three sons in public schools and she supports increased school security.

"But personally I’m fairly exasperated about the conversation that doesn’t have anything to do with guns and what we’re going to do in terms of regulating guns."

Manheimer said she would like to go further than an assault weapons ban and cited a USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll done last week of registered voters nationwide that showed 63 percent say semiautomatic weapons should be banned.

"But it is because of the NRA and its influence that politicians are not able to make a decision that otherwise represents a majority of the population," she said.

The council has limited ability to control guns, unlike the General Assembly and Congress, so "exercising our voice in this conversation" is one of the few things Asheville leaders can do, she said.

In 2013 the Republican-controlled General Assembly lessened local government powers, saying counties and cities couldn't ban people with concealed carry permits from bringing guns to city parks. That led one gun-rights group to threaten suing the Asheville over park signs.

Manheimer said she is continuing to monitor the discussion among legislators.

District Attorney Todd Williams responded to the shooting with a proposal to change state law and increase penalties for bringing a gun to a school. A conviction now can amount to court fees, a fine and unsupervised probation, Williams said, a lighter sentence than making a false threat of bringing a gun to school.

Supporters include two local Democrats: state Sen. Terry Van Duyn, whose District 49 covers central and northern Buncombe County, and North Carolina House member Susan Fisher, representing most of Asheville and other parts of central Buncombe in District 114.

Republican state legislators have said they will focus on school safety and will look at options such as arming school personnel, an idea favored by President Donald Trump.

Polled by the Citizen Times after the Florida shooting, seven superintendents from Western North Carolina counties opposed arming teachers, while one, in Yancey County, said it might work under the right conditions. Eight superintendents did not respond.

In the past week, at least three threats were made to schools in WNC, two of which led to lockdowns.

Since January, Asheville City Schools have recorded at least four threats made directly to a school, student or faculty member, according to the Asheville Police Department.

Earlier this year, a threat made on Snapchat led to a lockdown at Roberson High.

A student at Franklin School of Innovation was taken into state custody Monday after reports he sent a Snapchat video saying he planned to bring an "AK" to school.

In 2016 there were two school threats recorded by the Asheville Police Department.

Republican congressional leaders rejected calls for tighter gun restrictions Tuesday despite an in-person pitch from Florida high school students leading a newly energized gun control movement. 

The students-turned-activists have called for a ban on assault weapons, a ban on high-capacity ammunition clips and wider background checks, among other steps. Many Democrats support those measures and said Congress should act to prevent another mass shooting.  

At Tuesday's council meeting, Roberson senior Caroline Bowers pointed to the actions of the Florida students and said despite past legislative unwillingness and gridlock changes are possible. 

"I'm proud to be part of a generation where in the week of a school shooting that rocked their community my peers are planning marches on Washington, rallying on the street and addressing their state legislators," she said.

Instead of focusing on a ban, Bowers called for a 10-day waiting period on gun sales, a minimum purchase age of 21 and access to school and psychiatric records for background checks.

Students across WNC are planning to participate in a March 24 event called March for our Lives, a rally organized by students nationwide. Other events and walkouts will take place next month with the goal of keeping gun reform in the spotlight.

Fellow Roberson student Jamie Cummings said raising the sale age and a waiting period were the most realistic goals given the NRA's influence.

"Once these small steps have been taken we can move forward to the more involved time-consuming steps," Cummings said.

Those would be "in-depth" background checks, she said, including school disciplinary records and mental health exams "and finally tackling the nationwide ban on assault weapons."

Henderson County gun control activist Eva Ritchey, though, said the ban is the right focus now. Ritchey said she was part of the 2004 Million Mom March in Washington timed to demonstrate in favor of the former assault weapons ban that Congress let expire that year.

She said those types of weapons "are not for self defense. They are for mass slaughter."

"I applaud you for stepping up," she said.