A sign hangs in the reception area of Mayor John Hamilton’s office that reads “Whistleblowers Welcome.” This slogan was that of John Linnemeier, who ran against Hamilton in the primary election. Hamilton said he asked permission to hang it in his office because Bloomington needs people to step up and say when something is wrong.
Hamilton, Mayor of Bloomington since 2016, has long been vocal about his views on gun rights. In July 2016, he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times titled “Pistols at the Pool, Machine Guns on Parade and Nothing We Can Do.” The piece expressed his frustration with the little action that Indiana localities can take against gun violence.
Hamilton sat down with the Indiana Daily Student to discuss his views on gun regulation both locally and across the country. The mayor's responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.
IDS: What has your relationship with guns been since becoming mayor of Bloomington?
Hamilton: Happily, in Bloomington we haven’t had massive tragedies. We’ve had some murders and some gun victims certainly since I’ve been here, but I think more it’s my connection with the national debate that’s going on. When I go to mayor meetings, there’s a “club” of mayors that you don’t want to belong to.
The mayor of Orlando, now the mayor of Las Vegas and the mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, and San Bernardino, and Aurora, Colorado, and Newtown, Connecticut. You try to think about the things we can do to diminish the chances of our people not being safe.
IDS: What kind of power do cities and mayors have in this debate?
Hamilton: Indiana has a very aggressive, and I believe very misguided, law that suggests that any local laws that regulate weapons or ammunition are illegal.
Exactly what that means, there’s still some debate. There are some deep, historical, centuries-old laws and principles that let public officials protect against intimidation by armaments and weaponry.
There are some old English laws from the 15th century that go way back. You can imagine, the idea that the public needs to protect itself from armed gangs or intimidation. There’s some of that legacy that still exists in our country. Some states have incorporated it directly. We have not.
IDS: Has Bloomington been increasing its emergency response since tragedies like those in Las Vegas, San Bernardino, Aurora and elsewhere have taken place?
Hamilton: One of the things I try to think about is what are the factors that can try to diminish the chance that somebody who may take some dire and terrible actions, how do we decrease the chance that nobody notices that person? We have people who are reaching out to people who are disaffected or distressed or mentally ill or under strains that can drive people to very bad places.
IDS: What have you done as mayor in response to gun violence?
Hamilton: Our legal powers are very restricted. We’re trying to make sure that we’re exploring what all those may be and that we’re thinking about and planning for the future to be ready for things we might need to be ready for. If Newtown and Aurora and Las Vegas won’t break this logjam, it’s clear that we’re going to have really a hard and long effort.
I have a sister-in-law, a member of my family who is a teacher in the Newtown school system. She knew the principal who was killed. She was involved in that.
I drove through Newtown, I think this summer. It’s a terrible feeling. It’s a little town like any other little town in Connecticut, but they’re imprinted on our memory now as a symbol of casualties of our obsession with guns.
IDS: What gun legislation is currently being looked at?
Hamilton: We can’t pass legislation locally, but there are really important issues. For example, campus carry is a huge issue that we’re playing defense on. I work with the University to try and protect the rights of the state to restrict guns on campus. There’s an effort currently underway to get rid of handgun concealed-carry permits. That’s a terrible law and I’m making my voice clear about that.
The Indiana General Assembly has been very active in pro-gun legislation, in anti-common sense regulations on sales to people with criminal records, people with protective orders against them, people with felony convictions, people with serious mental illness issues, and it’s from my perspective irresponsible not to deal with some of those issues differently.
IDS: If you could sit down with Bloomington today, what would you want your constituents to know about guns?
Hamilton: There are so many basic things we can do. We all agree on so many steps that should be put in our cars to make them safer, but we don't seem to be able to agree on guns.
IDS: How would you describe the state of gun violence in America right now?
Tragic, unnecessary and I hope sometime in the future people look back and ask ‘What were you thinking?’ We have the kind of daily carnage from daily gun violence in our country that, if we had a jumbo jet crashing every week and killing 500 people on board, the country would be in uproar.
That’s the equivalent of what we have every week with gun violence, it just happens in smaller groups, usually. But it’s the same impact on all of the families.
