Letter: Weaknesses in Proposed Gun Shop Bylaw

The following is a letter to the editor

POOR LOCATION: When faced with the question of where to allow gun shops, other communities restricted them to inconspicuous areas, and off of the main roads. When Acton was faced with gun shops wanting to open on their main streets, Acton restricted them to light traffic roads in the back corners of town.

Sudbury’s proposed bylaw would do the opposite. It would allow gun shops in ID-4 on heavily traveled Route 20, between the Wayland line and the Coolidge, a 55 and better housing development, with the gun shops facing the road. The proposed bylaw would make gun shops in Sudbury more prominent and visible, not less prominent and visible.

Providing gun shops, which also sell ammunition, with a desirable location on a busy street would tend to attract them. Allowing gun shops on Route 20 would normalize their presence to our children.

Gun shops located in ID-4 on Route 20 would be less than 1,000 feet from residences, day care, child care, a children’s center, a dance studio, a swimming pool, the rail trail, summer camp, bars, restaurants, a long-term care facility (Bear Mountain) and Buddy Dog.

SHORTEST SETBACK: The ‘setback’ is the distance between a gun shop and a ‘sensitive area’, such as a school, daycare facility, senior housing, playgrounds, parks and rail trails.

The usual setback distance in neighboring towns is 1000 feet or 500 feet. Newton’s setback is 1,000 feet, Maynard’s is 500 feet, Plainville’s is 1,000 feet from any K-12 school, and Acton’s is 500 feet.

Giffords Law Center, an organization focused on ending the epidemic of gun violence and an advocate for gun safety, filed a legal brief supporting zoning bylaws that keep gun stores out of ‘sensitive areas.’ Giffords has said a setback of 500 feet is modest, safe, legal, and constitutional. The Sudbury Select board now proposes a zoning bylaw with a setback of 250 feet, half that recommended by Giffords. The proposed bylaw is inconsistent with Giffords’ recommendation and allows gun shops to locate too close to sensitive areas.

The Select Board considered a setback distance of 500 feet, but reduced it to 250 feet specifically to create a location for gun shops in Sudbury, ID-4 on the east end of Route 20.

At 250 feet Sudbury would have, by far, the shortest setback among our neighboring towns, and half that of Acton’s.

Sudbury deserves the equal protection and measure of safety other towns have with 1,000 or 500 foot setbacks.

LOOPHOLE: There is a loophole in the proposed bylaw that could allow a gun shop to sue Sudbury and force its way in. Acton’s bylaw does not have such a loophole.

OTHER LOCATIONS WHERE GUN SHOPS COULD OPEN: Any of the other 5 industrial districts, under the right conditions.

LAX SECURITY PRECAUTIONS: Real time security monitoring of gun shops should be required with a private security firm, or with the Sudbury police, similar to a residential home system.

INADEQUATE INSURANCE: The limits of coverage should be substantially higher, with limits of 5 million/10 million dollars.

SUDBURY A NAMED INSURED: The Town of Sudbury should be named as an insured on the insurance policy.

NO SECTION ‘2261b’: A section noted as ’2261b’ is referenced in the zoning bylaw submitted to town meeting for approval, however it does not exist in the bylaw.

For these reasons Town Meeting should reject the faulty gun shops bylaw, Article 16, and seek to develop other legal measures to keep Sudbury safe and gun shop free.

—Leonard Simon, Sudbury