“This could be the beginning of a new era of leadership for Lexington, this time fighting gun violence,” said Town Meeting member Rita Goldberg.

Town Meeting voted, 105 to 62, for a nonbinding resolution asking the Board of Selectmen to inform legislators that state laws regulating “assault weapons” are inadequate, and to launch a townwide discussion about gun violence.

LEXINGTON — The Minute Man statue may stand guard on the Battle Green with musket in hand, but residents of this town known as the birthplace of the American Revolution decided Wednesday that it’s time to talk about toughening gun laws.

Town Meeting member Robert Rotberg originally proposed a bylaw that would have banned the possession, manufacture, and sale of certain types of semi-automatic weapons and large-capacity magazines in town. But after getting significant pushback in town, and no support from the Board of Selectmen or Police Chief Mark J. Corr, he opted instead for the nonbinding resolution.

Even so, the resolution’s passage came as a disappointment to gun rights advocates.


“We thought Town Meeting would listen more to the citizens here tonight, and those who have spoken out against this before tonight,” said Lexington resident Michael Barg. “It’s a shameful time for Lexington. It’s a step in the wrong direction, and it sends the wrong message.”

The debate over Rotberg’s proposals has not only riled gun rights advocates from out of town, but pit neighbor against neighbor within Lexington, according to many who spoke Wednesday night about the harsh tenor of the discussion. Too often, they said, it mirrored the type of unyielding ideology being seen in Washington.

The emotional debate also led Corr to ramp up security for the night, posting several police officers at each door and requiring every person entering Battin Hall at the Cary Memorial Building to go through metal detectors, which the town contracted for the night from Bay Colony Investigators Inc. of Wayland.


The vote in favor of Rotberg’s resolution came after nearly two hours of orderly incident-free debate.

Afterward, as the hall cleared, Corr said he had no regret taking the extra precautions. “I didn’t know what to expect, 20 people or 500,” he said. “You can never be too careful.”

About 150 people filled up to the second-floor seats, where local residents who are not elected Town Meeting members, as well as those from out of town, are required to sit.

The Minute Man statue overlooks Lexington’s Battle Green Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff/File

The predominantly male crowd was made up of town residents on both sides of the issue, as well as gun rights advocates who came to oppose any attempt to chip away at their rights.

“Lexington is where it all started, so it kind of strikes home,” Stephen Finnegan of Franklin said before the meeting. “We’re here trying to defend what we were up against more than 200 years ago.”

Finnegan wasn’t the only person who traveled from out of the town to oppose Rotberg’s resolution. His co-worker Eric Jones was there from Shrewsbury, as were gun owners from Lowell and Hanscom Air Force Base.

But most of the Town Meeting members and residents who spoke favored the resolution, saying gun violence has reached a point where they can no longer stand back and do nothing.

Lexington resident Leslie Zales said she grew up in Maine with a father and brothers who all hunt and kept guns in their home, but told Town Meeting members it’s time for people to become educated about the issues around gun violence.


“Then we can ask ourselves if there’s more we can do, here in Lexington, to protect our citizens, especially our youth,” she said. “Is there a common ground? I believe there is and we can find it here in Lexington if we can find it anywhere.”

Town Meeting member Franklin Smith told his colleagues that he understands many were unhappy with the original proposal and want to “just start over.”

“But here we are, we can’t pretend the debate has not started, and we can’t pretend that we are not now in the spotlight,” he said.

“I fear that if we cannot pass this minimal resolution, the town of Lexington will be seen by the many eyes that are now watching us as the town that couldn’t even come together to take a stand for less gun violence and more conversation,” he said. “That’s not who we are as a town, that’s not how we want to be portrayed.”

While the resolution is nonbinding and the Board of Selectmen has no legal obligation to convene a committee to begin a community discussion about assault weapons and gun violence, the chairman, Joseph N. Pato, said the board historically follows the wishes of Town Meeting.

“It means that Lexington has come out in favor of talking about guns, and gun violence,” said Rotberg, founding director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Intrastate Conflict and president emeritus of the World Peace Foundation.


Robert Rotberg spoke in favor of his nonbinding resolution asking the Board of Selectmen to inform legislators that state laws regulating “assault weapons” are inadequate. Dina Rudick/Globe Staff/Globe Staff

Ellen Ishkanian can be reached at eishkanian@gmail.com,