to schools sparks debate at city council meeting

By MARIA RAKOCZY maria@themadisonrecord.com

MADISON – The issue was not even on the council meeting agenda, but the upcoming opening of Rocket City Armory drew a grand total of 26 members of the public to voice their perspectives in the public comments section of the meeting last week.

Rocket City Armory is a firearms repair and gunsmithing shop planning to open this year at 111 Plaza Blvd in Madison. They will also carry an inventory of new and used firearms.

Some Madison parents are worried the proximity of the armory to Midtown Elementary School, Primrose Preschool, and the future Big Blue Marble preschool will be a safety hazard to the students with gun violence incidents at schools on the rise.

“I think that the gun store is a bad idea. I’ll be honest. I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to determine that putting a gun store within spitting distance of elementary school children is a bad idea,” one concerned parent, Alex Vaughn, stated.

Councilwoman Maura Wroblewski voiced her opposition to the business’ location and suggested as a compromise that the armory establish operating hours around the school calendar.

“They have not received their business license yet, and we as a council could stipulate that they limit their operating hours from not being open during school hours,” Wroblewski proffered. “I think this is something that we as a council could consider at our next work session.”

Mayor Paul Finley explained that the city currently has no legal ability to block the business.

“With any zoning, if it meets the criteria for that zoning, we are required to accept that. The things that can change that are basically, if it is determined a nuisance,” Finley stated.

“There’s four criteria, if for whatever reason, Rocket City Armory didn’t meet, the city council would have the ability to talk, have a public hearing, and take the business license, which is exactly what we did with Three Springs.”

In light of the Discovery Middle School shooting, Finley promised, “One of the things tonight that we won’t come to an agreement on is gun control.

That’s just not going to happen. You can have discussion. You guys have opinions. The second thing we won’t do is we won’t legislate evil because that’s

See CITY COUNCIL Page 2A you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”