City Council Meeting

Jim Gillespiepublic commentGood evening, Mayor Reed and members of council. I'm Jim Gillespie, and I reside at 3604 Colony Road in the city of Fairfax. This is to express my support for revising the city's ordinance to restrict firearms at city-permitted events or events that would otherwise require a city permit and to revise the penalty from a Class 4 to a Class 1 misdemeanor. The city has many events at which carrying a firearm serves no useful purpose and can be a risk. As the police chief recently noted, carrying a gun at a public event can result in the weapon being used in the mistaken belief that the carrier or others are at risk or in an emotional state. For those of you who attended Fall Festival this past weekend, can you imagine any valuable or useful purpose in a gun in the midst of 40,000 people?

Even more worrisome is the risk of a mass shooting or assassination. Our events are attended by thousands of people and many prominent officials. Strengthening our ordinance would result in event attendees knowing that weapons are never permissible, thus leading to faster reporting to the police and that may crucially reduce response time. Concealed carry permit holders should not be exempted because the purpose of a concealed carry permit, personal protection, is not relevant to these large public events. We cannot have gunfights at the fall festival. You can't protect yourself with a gun with 40,000 people around you. Also, Virginia recognizes concealed carry permits of states with lower requirements.

Sarah Creelpublic commentGood evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Sarah Creel, and I stand before you tonight to ask you to pass the proposed amendments to the Firearms Ordinance without delay. My family and I have lived in Fairfax City for 23 years and have enjoyed many different events in the city. Rock the Block, the Independence Day Parade, Fall Festival, and more. Fairfax City is a great place to live. As some of the other speakers have said, the city lags behind legislation passed by surrounding jurisdictions over the past several years, and you can fix this. A brief side note here. In August 2024, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia upheld Fairfax County's Common Sense Gun Safety Ordinance prohibiting guns in parks

Rachel McQuillenThank you. I just wanted to say thank you to all the staff and the city's parks and rec department for the fantastic job that they did on the fall festival this past weekend. I know that a lot of our volunteers were out there very, very early in the morning to set up, and it was a wonderful day. Everything went flawless, a huge turnout. so thank you to all of them for their hard work I also want to wish everybody at Fairfax High School a happy and safe homecoming weekend coming up it's always an exciting time in our city and we're looking forward to attending the parade and all of the events that come with the Fairfax High School homecoming thank you