The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Tuesday afternoon exited the morning’s executive session and resumed its regular meeting in order to discuss one item: whether or not to amend the city’s ordinance on weapons in the wake of a rash of shootings in recent months.

One of the most recent shootings inside Vicksburg’s city limits took place Tuesday at the Fastway gas station at the corner of Clay and Cherry streets just after 10:30 a.m. and while the board was holding its morning meeting just blocks away.

Tuesday’s proposal would have changed Article VI. of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Vicksburg by amending Sec. 17-160. Discharging Firearms, effectively upping the possible term of imprisonment for the misdemeanor offense of discharging a firearm illegally from “up to 90 days” to “up to six months” in jail.

City Attorney Lee Thames said Vicksburg’s current ordinance already includes a fine for the offense “not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000),” a provision Mayor George Flaggs Jr. took issue with, as it is higher than the state of Mississippi’s statute for the same crime.

“The state statute provides for a $500 fine,” Thames said. “We already exceed the state by doing $1,000.”

Flaggs said no movement to amend the ordinance could be made until the City of Vicksburg falls in line with state guidelines, although questions remain about the legality of  whether or not the city has the authority to deviate from Mississippi’s standard statute.

“Why do we want to admit exceeding the state statute?” Flaggs asked. “I don’t care who did it. Why are we doing it? It absolutely, emphatically can’t exceed the state’s statute.”

Flaggs said Thames would need to rework the proposed ordinance amendment to be presented again at the board’s next regular meeting Monday, Dec. 16, in order to correct the amount of fines levied against offenders if the board wants to see jail time upped to a max of six months, adding he did not recall the fine being initially approved.

“What we’ve got to do is amend this,” he said. “We’ve got to stay within the state statute. If we find ourselves in violation, it just makes sense to me to amend what’s there. I don’t understand why, or how, we can get to a point where we violate our own statute. And I voted for it. That makes no sense to me.”

While Thames maintained Vicksburg’s current fine doesn’t violate state law, he said a reworked ordinance amendment will be prepared for the next meeting. 

Thames said the average fine currently levied by the city in Vicksburg Municipal Court for a first offense for discharging a firearm inside the municipality is $672.25.

The full video from both the morning and afternoon sessions of Tuesday’s meeting may be viewed on The Vicksburg Post’s Facebook page.