Westport’s RTM — the Representative Town Meeting — usually tackles local topics. Our elected officials debate and vote on budgets, contracts and sewers.
Every once in a while, the RTM ventures onto national turf.
In 1972 — following a petition signed by 1000 residents, and a 3-hour debate — the RTM endorsed a resolution calling on President Nixon and Congress to “take immediate action to withdraw from the war in Vietnam.” The vote was 17 to 15.
In 1982 the RTM passed a Sense of the Meeting Resolution urging the US and Soviet Union to agree to a nuclear arms freeze. That vote was 24 to 2, with 7 abstentions.
On Tuesday, January 8 (7:30 p.m., Town Hall), the RTM will discuss this item:
To take such action as the meeting may determine, upon the request of at least 20 electors of the Town of Westport, for the RTM to place an item on an upcoming agenda … involving a request to support gun control legislation in the United States and urge the President and federal legislators, as well as Connecticut state legislators, to enact a ban on automatic and semi-automatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazine clips. Furthermore, to support closing the “gun-show loophole” that allows people to buy guns at trade shows and from private dealers without background checks.
That discussion will not be about guns themselves; its focus is whether the RTM should discuss the topic at an upcoming meeting.
If recent comments on “06880” are any indication, both sides will come out firing.