Norfolk delays decision on gun ban in city buildings, citing confusion with legal language

Norfolk’s City Council won’t be voting Tuesday on a gun ban in public buildings and parks because of concerns the ordinance as written could be read as making it illegal to carry a gun on any public street or sidewalk.

Hours before the meeting, the city attorney requested that it be pulled from the agenda to be reworked.

At 12:27 p.m. Tuesday, about four hours before the city council meeting was set to begin, the city announced it would remove the legislation from the evening’s agenda “to allow further deliberation and revision,” according to a statement from City Attorney Bernard Pishko posted on the city website.

In an email sent to council members Tuesday, Pishko said some language in the ordinance was unclear and had prompted some questions from members of the community.

“The current language has caused confusion and alarm and needs revision,” Pishko wrote.

The section in question read “The intent of this chapter is to prohibit the possession, carrying, or transportation of any firearms, ammunition, or combination thereof in public buildings; public parks and outdoor recreational facilities; public recreation or community center facilities; and public streets, roads, alleys, or sidewalks or public rights-of-way and other places of whatever nature owned, operated, used, or controlled by the City of Norfolk as authorized by the General Assembly.”

The seeming blanket banning of guns on public streets and sidewalks riled some, but Pishko wrote that the reference to public rights-of-way was tied to a later section — one which would prohibit guns at city-permitted events that would take place on city streets or sidewalks like First Fridays on Granby Street.

A law passed earlier this year by the General Assembly allows the city to prohibit guns on public streets during city-permitted events, but does not give cities the latitude to ban guns on all city streets or sidewalks regardless of time or place.

Ryan Murphy, 757-739-8582, ryan.murphy@pilotonline.com