YPSILANTI, MI -- Ypsilanti is in the process of relegating gun retailers and ranges to often undesirable locations in the city alongside strip clubs, massage parlors and pornography shops.

The City Council, with three members absent, voted 4-0 on March 19 to pass the new zoning ordinance, after a first first reading. A second reading and another opportunity for public comment is scheduled for April 2. If the ordinance passes a second time, the zoning limitation takes effect in 30 days.

Mayor Beth Bashert, Councilwoman Nicole Brown, Councilman Steve Wilcoxen and Councilman Anthony Morgan cast the yes votes to further restrict zoning for gun-related commercial businesses.

Current zoning laws allow for gun retailers and ranges to operate in the same commercial districts as general stores and recreation businesses.

There are currently no gun retailers or ranges in Ypsilanti, City Planner Bonnie Wessler said.

While the state is responsible for regulating the licensing, manufacturing, sales and ownership of firearms, municipalities are allowed to limit where gun-related businesses may open.

Two citizens spoke against the proposed ordinance, including Mark Hergott. He called the time spent crafting the zoning ordinance, a process that began in early 2018, an “egregious waste of resources.”

“This seems to me as if this is signalling the virtues of a particular national political platform to people that might be paying attention and nothing more than that,” Hergott said.

“I think to some extent there is a little bit of ... virtue signaling," Bashert said at the March 19 meeting. “But I actually think it’s a reasonable virtue, that reasonable regulation of guns is a reasonable expectation to have and zoning is one way we can model what we think the values of our city are."