With three new faces around the table Tuesday night, Brookhaven aldermen met to discuss the institution of a municipal gun ordinance in response to Mississippi’s House Bill 2.

     City Attorney Joe Fernald drafted the ordinance banning all weapons on any municipal property throughout the city of Brookhaven. Tuesday night, Fernald presented the document to the board, and it was unanimously approved.

     The statute reads: “The Board of Alderman state that it is their purpose to protect those who avail themselves of Municipal Services on Municipal property and guarantee their safety from violent or threatening behavior at those facilities by anyone who openly carries a weapon on those facilities.”

     Mississippi House Bill 2 allows an individual to carry a firearm or weapon without a permit as long as it is not concealed. 

     The city ordinance comes after Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing’s decision to ban the possession of weapons within the Lincoln County-Brookhaven Government Complex. Rushing discussed the county ordinance with the board of supervisors Monday.

     According to a recent opinion by the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, Rushing holds the authority to institute a ban of weapons in the courtroom under the recent legislation.

     Brookhaven’s Municipal Court Judge Raymond Boutwell recently decreed the ban of weapons in the city courtroom, located downstairs within the government complex, in response to the recent legislation.

     The board of aldermen’s ordinance would further protect municipal property outside of the complex, including The Jimmy Furlow Senior Center, the City Barn, city parks and playgrounds, the airport as well as all recreation department offices.

     In his draft, Fernald defined such properties with a “sensitive place” designation.

     “These areas offer opportunities for commission of violence towards children and their parents, injury to municipal employees from angry citizens, and citizens who frequent the facilities for their own needs,” the ordinance states.

     “I have marked these places as sensitive areas,” Fernald said Tuesday. “But I don’t know if the Supreme Court will deem them that way.”     

     The “open carry” legislation was set to take effect Monday but was halted by an injunction by Hinds County Circuit Judge Winston Kidd.

     Despite Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood’s request to the state Supreme Court to overturn Kidd’s injunction, a panel of three justices ruled Tuesday to allow the injunction to continue (see separate story on page one).

     Tuesday’s ruling in Jackson may have set an early tone on the constitutional debate, but on the local level ordinances such as Brookhaven’s can still be judged on a case-by-case basis.

     “I wish I could tell you what they are going to do up in Jackson,” Fernald said to the board.