May 19 Special Meeting On Second Amendment Rights

The “Upcoming Meetings” section of agendas for the last two town council meetings have included a “Town Council Special Meeting” for May 19 at 7 p.m. at the Charlestown Elementary School.

All other upcoming meetings have an explanation of the purpose of the meeting, but this scheduled meeting, at a location usually reserved for large crowds, appeared to have no purpose at all.

At the April, 28 meeting, when asked what the meeting was about, Councilor Carney stated that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss “a Second Amendment resolution in support of Second Amendment rights.” It’s unknown why this information wasn’t included in the last two agendas, nor in the meeting announcements.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

On April 8, RI Gun Owners, a firearm advocacy group, listed Charlestown as one of ten Rhode Island towns that had or would be passing resolutions in opposition to gun control legislation. Despite not being listed on the Town Council’s descriptions of upcoming meetings, the purpose of Charlestown’s May 19 meeting appears to have already been well known to at least one statewide organization.

This year Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee has proposed an assault weapons ban, and the state legislature introduced House Bill 5436 with the same purpose. The various communities that are passing resolutions in support of the right to keep and bear assault weapons are acting in response to these legislative proposals.