Longmont Mayor Brian Bagley changed course Tuesday night, choosing not to read a proclamation designating Sept. 17 as “Firearms Awareness and Safety Day” in Longmont.

The anticipated proclamation drew at least 20 supporters to the city council meeting and left many of them disappointed by the mayor’s inaction.

Bagley indicated he felt the proclamation, sought by Second Amendment rights advocates, would further fuel local divisiveness over gun issues.

Before announcing he would not issue the proclamation, the mayor did not notify Jerry Britton — the Longmont resident who Bagley said approached him in July with a request for the proclamation — or any of the people Britton recruited as co-sponsors of the resolution.

Bagley said he decided even if he read the version he edited from Britton’s original submission, it would amount to saying that “I’m taking a side” on the gun-issue debates.

As mayor, he said his job is one of trying to bring city council and the Longmont community together, so, “I’m not going to read the proclamation tonight.”

Bagley said his proclamations — each of which typically states he is issuing them “by virtue of the authority vested in me and the city council of the city of Longmont” — are supposed “to make people feel good” about the organization or event or position to which they are related.

After he issued a Gun Violence Awareness Day proclamation in May, one that was sought by the Longmont chapter of Moms Demand Action, he said a number of community members questioned why he issued a proclamation on behalf of that group and not one recognizing Second Amendment rights.

Bagley said he thought the original language submitted by Britton was too divisive in emphasizing a celebration of firearms ownership and the Second Amendment. He said he told Britton “I will change it so that it’s something everyone could agree with.”

The mayor said he intended his editing to result in a proclamation that emphasized the serious responsibility of gun owners to safely store and use firearms.

The language of the final version of the proclamation Bagley revised and was scheduled to read on Tuesday would have acknowledged “the importance of firearm ownership and firearm safety.”

It also would have stated that, as mayor, he encourages “all citizens to practice the four rules of firearms safety, to support their local communities’ efforts to prevent the tragic effects of gun violence, and to honor and value human lives.”

The proclamation, as submitted by Britton specified the four rules of firearms safety are: “treat every gun as if it were loaded; keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction; keep your finger outside of the trigger guard until ready to fire, and be sure of your target and what is in front and behind it for the safety of all.”

Britton, along with Rod Brandenburg, the owner of Grandpa’s Pawn & Gun shop in Longmont, and about 20 representatives or supporters of Rally for Our Rights, a Second Amendment advocacy organization, looked on as Bagley explained his decision to read his edited version of the proclamation.

When given the chance to comment, several expressed frustration at Bagley’s decision.

“I’m disappointed in you,” said Longmont resident and Rally for Our Rights supporter Lance Cayko. “We’re all here because of the proclamation.”

Cayko said that while Bagley said his decision was based on a desire to bring the community together — and to get people on opposite sides of gun issues talking and listening to each other — “I don’t think it will.”

Bagley, during his explanation of why he would not read the proclamation, encouraged gun-rights supporters to participate in a meeting Longmont-based churches and faith organizations are holding tonight to initiate a community conversation on gun issues.

That meeting at the Longmont Museum, whose sponsors have said is intended to bring people with different viewpoints together, presents a challenge for “both sides of the issue to come together to talk and listen,” Bagley said.

He suggested the community gathering could result in a new proclamation suggested by the meeting’s participants, one Bagley indicated he might be more willing to read aloud at a future council meeting.

“I know a lot of people came here tonight to hear me read this proclamation,” Bagley said, adding he instead was urging all sides to listen to each other Wednesday night and then, “Let’s issue a proclamation together.”

Cayko, however, said, “You’re asking us to compromise,” something he said gun-rights supporters have already done.

Rally for Our Rights has held six demonstrations in which group members tried to talk to “people on the other side” of gun issues, but Cayko said gun-control advocates “haven’t listened.”

Patrick McClintock said the proclamation was about “our inalienable rights to self defense.”

Brandenburg said gun shops and pawn shops like his “are not the problem” that gun-control advocates suggest. He said criminals don’t buy their guns from such shops, “they steal them.”

People concerned about students’ safety who want to prevent shootings in or near schools should get parents’ groups involved in working with law enforcement to organize school patrols, Brandenburg said.

“Set an example in Colorado. Set an example in the United States,” Brandenburg said. “You’re barking up the wrong tree in going after gun owners.”

Britton, who did not speak during Tuesday night’s meeting, in an interview after Bagley’s announcement said, “I’ve never seen a proclamation turned down. We didn’t even get the edited version.”

Britton said he had not RSVP’d in time to ensure he would be able to attend tonight’s community meeting at the Longmont Museum.

But Rally for Our Rights representative Lesley Hollywood said many of the proclamation’s supporters who attended the Tuesday council meeting had RSVP’d and would attend the forum.

John Fryar: 303-684-5211, jfryar@times-call.com or twitter.com/jfryartc