LEBANON, Ohio — A proposed ordinance would allow councilmembers and visitors to carry concealed firearms at meetings of the Lebanon City Council. Councilwoman Wendy Monroe, who owns a gun shop and shooting range, expects it to pass without a problem.
“Nobody has raised any objections to me whatsoever,” she said Wednesday night. “Which I think is a good sign.”
The ordinance specifically strikes an existing ban on "weapons and weapon-like objects" in council chambers during meetings. It isn’t motivated by safety concerns, she added; there’s never been an incident at a meeting of which she’s aware. If the measure is passed, the council won’t buy additional insurance.
“We just think that it’s a right,” she said Wednesday. “We want people to exercise that right, and we needed to pass this ordinance in order to make that happen.”
Lebanon would become only the second city in Ohio, behind the small Richland County city of Shelby, to allow guns in its government meetings.
According to Monroe, gun ownership is “just a way of life for many of us in other aspects of our life, and we would like to be able to continue to do that.”
