Chapel Hill adopts strict gun ordinance

The News & Observer, April 14, 1992

By RUTH SHEEHAN, Staff writer

CHAPEL HILL -- Joseph A. Herzenberg threatened to use his toy pistol to compel his fellow Town Council members to adopt the state's strictest gun control ordinance Monday night.

But he didn't need it.

With just a few words of praise and no debate, the council unanimously approved an ordinance that prohibits the possession, display and use of firearms on all town-owned property, at street fairs and on public transportation such as buses and taxis.

The ordinance took effect immediately.

Passage of the ordinance -- though unprecedented in the state -- was seen mainly as a symbolic gesture in the normally placid college town.

And although local gun enthusiasts expressed outrage at the effort, calling in the National Rifle Association for advice, not a single resident commented during the council's perfunctory deliberations Monday.

The ordinance is drafted to avoid a direct challenge to the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which cites the right to bear arms.

And it carefully dodges provisions in the state constitution and state law forbidding municipalities from passing ordinances to govern the purchase, sale or possession of firearms.

The power of municipalities to control the carrying of weapons is more ambiguous, but Town Attorney Ralph D. Karpinos assured council members that the ordinance is well within their purview.

Currently, state law prohibits guns in school yards and on college campuses, and the town of Chapel Hill has an ordinance that makes it illegal to carry a gun in public parks.

Herzenberg -- who has been pressing for the tighter gun controls for almost three years -- said the ordinance would simply set further limits on the places where people can legally carry firearms and other dangerous weapons.

Council member Julie M. Andresen applauded the measure, noting that street fairs and guns are a dangerous mix.

"It makes a lot of sense not to have people carrying firearms around in that situation," she said.

Karpinos said the town's transportation division recently got a call from someone asking whether he could carry a gun on the bus from Chapel Hill to Durham. Until now, Karpinos said, the answer would have been yes.