JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba is coming under fire for a temporary ban on the city’s open carry law amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The mayor said the measure isn’t aimed at those who can legally owned guns, but he wants to ensure that the killing of innocent people and children stops.
“The calls that I have received have in large part have been from people who neither live in Jackson, nor are suffering from the consequences of their children being killed. And so when someone calls me from Texas, or Alabama, and they’re expressing their great disdain, or even someone who lives in rural parts of Mississippi, who don’t face this threat, and what that demonstrates to me is that we’re more concerned with the idea of guns, than the actuality of children dying in the streets,” said Lumumba.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch released the following statement about the ban:
“Cities can’t usurp the authority of the State’s elected Legislature and violate the Constitutional rights of the people. I support the 2nd Amendment and will enforce the laws of this State.”
Attorney General Lynn Fitch
Other state leaders protested the decision on social media.
