Kerrville City Council votes to prohibit firearms at meetings; Garcia objects

For a workshop meeting, the Kerrville City Council had an interesting Tuesday morning when it decided to prohibit firearms from all city meetings at City Hall.

Following a threatening email to the City Council, leading to the arrest of a Mountain Home man, council members decided to examine security procedures at their meetings. Initially, the workshop item was at the urging of Councilmember Roman Garcia, who wanted to return gallery seating to pre-pandemic levels.

However, the broader item turned out to be one about safety after council members Joe Herring Jr. and Brenda Hughes, and Mayor Judy Eychner reported the threatening email to the Kerrville Police Department. Robert Henry Hurt allegedly sent an email that said he wouldn’t mind seeing an AK-47 assault rifle used against the City Council. In Hurt’s email, he said that only Garcia should face no harm.

During a closed-door meeting, the City Council heard from Police Chief Chris McCall about the tools for blocking firearms from being brought into public meetings. While Texas has some of the loosest gun laws in the nation, there are many prohibitions from bringing guns into public spaces, including those where open meetings occur.

Kerrville’s first step under the penal code would be to post signs prohibiting firearms in City Hall. The Texas Municipal League also addresses some loopholes, but the first step is posting signs.

After returning from a closed session, the Council voted 4-1 to approve the placement of signs restricting firearms in all city meetings. Garcia objected to the plan, casting the lone dissenting vote.