BY FREDA MIKLIN
GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER
On February 7, more than a dozen Greenwood Village residents attended the regular monthly city council meeting to let their representatives know that they wanted to rid their residential neighborhood of a home business that is a retail seller of all types of firearms, including handguns, longguns, ARs:80%/stripped/complete, survival gear, and ammunition. They brought along a petition with 275 signatures of others who felt the same way.
On February 6, Sandy Carson, who has lived in her Greenwood Village home for 50 years and served on GV Arts and Humanities Commission continuously since 2015, told Channel 7 News’ Ivan Rodriguez that she’d been thinking of leaving the area because, “I discovered that there was a gun business so close to me. I’ve had many sleepless nights. I’m upset that nothing has been done about it. We’ve been told that he’s legal.” Rodriguez caught up with Jason Pratt, the owner of the gun business, but not the home itself, operating “a few hundred feet away” from Carson’s home. Pratt allowed Channel 7 News and its camera inside his business, Tomcat Tactical Firearms and Training (TTF). He told Rodriguez, “I would like them (neighbors) to come by and see how I operate.” According to Pratt, he was visited by GV police after receiving a complaint. After he assured the officers he held a Federal Firearms License, he told Rodriguez they said, “We support what you do. Everything you’re doing here is lawful.” That did little to assuage Carson’s concerns. She said, “My house is my haven. It isn’t anymore.” Rodriguez reported, “Carson and the hundreds who have already signed the petition say the debate is not about gun ownership, rather the sale of them in a residential area.” Carson explained her position further, saying, “If he (Pratt) wishes to have such a business, he could be in a commercial setting,” to which Pratt responded, “That would require me to invest a tremendous amount of time and money and grow the business beyond what I want.” Rodriguez said Channel 7 had reached out to GV city council members but none had responded prior to publishing his story.
On February 8, during the day before the GV city council’s regular Monday evening meeting, CBS News’ Karen Morfitt visited with neighbor Jackie Kirby, who wants to see the firearms business removed from her neighborhood. She told Morfitt, “We really want to make sure that we don’t become a safe haven because our rules are too relaxed…It’s about a feeling of being safe and I feel like the city needs to protect that.” The owner of the business, Jason Pratt, told CBS News that he follows the law and that he has already hired an attorney.
On February 8, at the regular city council meeting, Pam Schell-Varcony, who lives 0.3 miles from Tomcat Tactical Firearms, presented a petition to the GV City Council that she said contained 250 signatures from GV residents and 25 more from other concerned citizens. The petition said, in part, “We demand action to end sales of guns from a home in Orchard Hills 2. Tomcat Tactical Firearms must be shut down because it violates current GV City Code: This home gun sales business is offensive and a threat to the safety and enjoyment of our neighborhood, in violation of Code section 7-1-30(5). This home gun sales business stores dangerous and combustible materials, in violation of Code section 16-22-130(a)(11). This home gun sales business displays merchandise in a manner as to be visible from outside the dwelling… In violation of Code section 16-22-130(a)(2).”
Schell-Varcony continued, “This petition comes from a sincere concern of neighbors who cannot accept the notion that nothing can be done about this serious issue. By putting this petition into the record, we give the Council a clear legal basis to take action… I never imagined that I would be speaking to you in a setting like this but I also never imagined that a neighbor would run a business selling tactical firearms out of his house, advertising on Google maps with links to a graphic website.” She noted that the website “offers guns that are legal in any state,” as well as “gun parts for assembly, which I understand requires no background checks.”
Schell-Varcony said she has lived in her home for 18 years “and treasured the peace and serenity of our neighborhood and Orchard Hills Park.” She described an incident that she said happened a couple of years ago when she was sitting with her disabled son on her back porch, “which faces this house.” She heard gunshots and looked over an open field to see a target set up and target practice going on. “Imagine how jittery we feel after that, realizing that our neighborhood has a large store of guns and ammo and is actively seeking gun buyers to come to our neighborhood. And imagine how unsettling it is to think of what easy prey that house is for burglary, for mishaps with guns and ammo, and other things that are beyond what I and my family should have to fear my neighborhood. The city must enforce its laws to rid my neighborhood of this dangerous business that is destroying the comfortable enjoyment of my Greenwood Village home. The city must keep such dangerous businesses out of all Greenwood Village neighborhoods.”
Next to speak was Edie Widoff, who, for 27 years, has been a GV resident and elementary and special education teacher in the Cherry Creek Schools. She said that when she heard about a gun store in the Orchard Hills neighborhood of GV, she contacted her city council representative, Judith Hilton, who Widoff reported told her “that there are other such operations in our city, as well,” and that, “in 2017, she (Hilton) tried to address these situations but nothing substantive was done.” Widoff continued, “I am here tonight to ask you to try again to find a way to ban all home gun stores from our residential neighborhoods.” She suggested that the council utilize SB21-256, passed last year and signed by Governor Polis on June 19, 2021. That law declares that, “Officials of local governments are uniquely equipped to make determinations as to regulations necessary in their local jurisdictions; The regulation of firearms is a matter of state and local (emphasis added) concern; Unless otherwise expressly prohibited pursuant to state law, a local government may enact an ordinance, regulation or other law governing or prohibiting the sale, purchase, transfer or possession of a firearm, ammunition, or firearm component or accessory that a person may lawfully sell, purchase, transfer, or possess under state or federal law.” Widoff added that the petition presented by Schell-Varcony, “Shows that there are hundreds of people from all sides who support you in taking action.” She noted that, “This is not about curtailing gun rights. Gun stores do not belong in our neighborhoods… Please think about our students. They deserve leaders who will stand up and say…you can trust us… We will do what it takes to keep you safe.”
Ethan Widoff, 25, a lifelong GV resident, who is director of Jewish Student Life at CU Boulder, told the city council that his sole purpose was to “move these goods-based, higher-traffic and higher-risk professional businesses out of our neighborhoods and into properly zoned areas.” He continued, “In the simplest terms, do you believe it is morally right for a gun store to exist in your neighborhood?…Simply consider the values upon which you stand.”
Gary Kleeman, who was a member of the GV City Council until 2011, asked that the council take action, “So that there will no longer be any gun shops in our neighborhoods.” He continued, “We all highly valued the tranquility and peacefulness of our homes and appreciate all actions that the city takes in order to preserve and maintain the high quality of life that we have in our residential areas.” He said that when he found out that there was a gun shop in the Orchard Hills neighborhood he contacted Judy Hilton, who told him that “it was one of the first items brought to her attention” when she was elected in 2017, but, he noted, she provided “no clear solution or strategy that was being taken by the city to remedy the situation.” Hilton was first elected more than four years ago.
Kleeman went on to express his opinion that current GV law “provided valid rationale as to why the city could and should revoke the home occupation business license that had been granted to Tomcat Tactical.” He pointed specifically to Section 7-1-30 of the GV Municipal Code, which he noted defined a nuisance as “any activity or operation that is offensive to the senses of the ordinary person so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property.” According to Kleeman, the 275 signatures on the petition that was presented to the council “offer undeniable proof that numerous residents consider this situation to be a nuisance and as such, unlawful per city code.” Kleeman concluded by reminding the council about the 2015 incident in his neighborhood when a person attempting to evade law enforcement broke into a random home and, using just one gun he found there, engaged police in an 18-hour armed standoff involving multiple SWAT teams.
Lorraine Wickstrom, who lives 0.6 miles from TTF, said she believed that the proprietor of TTF was “a law-abiding citizen who hasn’t been having excessive traffic” and that “we can get a lot further with conversations than holding meetings like this.”
TTF proprietor Pratt said he was concerned about gun violence and that none of his customers had committed gun violence. Many of his customers, he said, “are moms who demand action…because they want to be able to protect themselves.” Those words drew a reaction from people in the room because Moms Demand Action is a national organization working for public safety measures to protect people from gun violence. It has eight million supporters and a chapter in every state.
Pratt said his customers are also “health care workers who want to protect themselves going to and from work late in the evening” and mothers who “want to be able to protect their home and their children while their husbands are away.” He said that they were more comfortable coming to his home to buy guns from him than going to a store. He also said that his customers can take an eight-hour gun course in his home “and then we can go to a gun range.” He described his inventory as very small, saying, “I have fewer guns than most individuals own in regular homes.” Pratt described the efforts of those who wish to get rid of his gun store in their residential neighborhood with these words: “What we have here are individuals who want to invoke ideas that the rights of an individual are not important, that the mob has the right to instill their will on individuals.” He added that, in addition to law enforcement, some members of the GV City Council have come to see his home gun business.
On its website, TTF describes itself as, “Your custom gun store in Englewood/Greenwood Village!” It goes on to say, “Tomcat Tactical Firearms is your premier, customer oriented, boutique gun store. We were the first and only on Coronado Island! Now relocated to Denver, Colorado! We specialize in fulfilling your custom order from a wide selection of ‘free state’ firearms and build-ups from our suppliers.” Further explaining why it was moved from Coronado Island, the website says, “Unfortunately with the California State Government attack on our Constitution and the 2nd Amendment we have been forced to relocate our business to Colorado.”
To entice buyers, Tomcat Tactical says, “I can assist you with building up your own AR-15/M-4/AR-10/AK that is… fun to shoot and perfect for home defense, hunting, shooting competitions, or plinking at the range!”
Hours of the business, whose exact address in the Orchard Hills neighborhood of Greenwood Village, less than one-half mile from the Sundance Hills neighborhood swim and tennis facility, is listed on its website, are Friday: 5pm-7pm, Saturday 12pm-7pm and Monday-Thursday: by appointment.
After the February 8 city council meeting, which only lasted for another five minutes after the speakers about TTF finished, The Villager reached out to all the members of the GV City Council to ask for their reaction to the speakers and the two news reports.
Neither Libby Barnacle nor Donna Johnston, who represent GV district 3 where TTF is located, responded to us. Mayor Pro Tem Dave Kerber and Anne Ingebretsen, who both represent district two, most of whose active voters live in the Greenwood Hills neighborhood, did not respond either. We did hear from the rest of the GV City Council.
Mayor Lantz said, “As you know, the petition contains several legal assertions and assumptions. These need to be examined before City Council will be able to provide any response.”
Councilmember Dave Bullock told us, “I suggested to Mayor Lantz that we have a follow-up meeting so that Council can discuss all that was presented that night. He agreed and I am sure it will be put on a study session agenda in the near future.” Bullock’s district one partner, Paul Wiesner, said, in part, “Each side presented well thought out arguments for and against Tomcat’s business location. This provides Council great view points to consider before formulating a course of action going forward. Council will have to weigh all these view points along with the current municipal laws with the City’s attorney. I also expect I will receive some additional feedback from my constituents with the recent news release and your upcoming article. These too will factor into decisions made going forward. The Mayor will set the timeline but it will take time to collect all the feedback, review current code, look at best practices implemented by other municipalities before any action is taken. Thank you for reporting on important topics such as this. These articles you and others write provide information to our citizens and encourages them to participate in the formulation of policy that governs their city.”
District four representative Judith Hilton said, “In 2017 a resident brought a concern about a home business that sold firearms to my attention. I investigated it with Chief Varney and learned about the federal, state, and local regulations that govern such enterprises. I understand the fear of firearms of some, but believe that the oversight, regulations, and lack of complaints are also relevant.” Newly elected district four Councilmember Tom Stahl said, “I thought it was an informative meeting on Monday. I appreciated hearing from both sides of the issue and from Mr. Pratt as well. I have been reviewing the petitions and look forward to discussing this issue further with concerned citizens and my fellow council members.”
fmiklin.villager@gmaill.com