Commissioners Mike Hart (Vice President), Thomas E. “Tim” Hutchins, Kelly D. McConkey (President), Steven R. Weems and Earl F. “Buddy” Hance.

PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. — At their June 23 meeting, the entire Republican Board of County Commissioners for Calvert County voted on a resolution proposed by former Deputy County Administrator Wilson Parren, which would look at banning the carry of firearms and contraband on county property.

As it sits, the commissioners adopted a policy at that meeting which would include employees and visitors from bringing firearms onto county property, but the discussion is far from over.

Parren, 70, told TheBayNet.com that he thought the policy for citizens and visitors would come back as a future item, likely sometime in July.

“The purpose of the policy was to clarify when people can and can’t carry on county property, to make it consistent with all definitions,” Parren said. “[A significant part of the inspiration] came following the shooting in Virginia Beach, and how they had to tighten security. At that time until now, we had no policy in place.”

During what was an arguably messy discussion at the meeting, Commissioner Tim Hutchins drove home why he felt a policy needed to be in place, even after Commissioner Earl “Buddy” Hance raised some additional concerns.

“You don’t know whether that person [coming onto county property] has a domestic violence prohibition,” Hutchins said at the meeting. “After a while, you get back to this issue of ‘the police are the final arbiter here’ and we put them in the box to decide certain things at certain hours of the day or night… You try your best to make it very clear and as prospective as possible, and let them know that in this particular case you can’t come on Calvert County property as outlined herein that circumstance, unless there is an exception.”

Although Parren’s policy passed and will include an appeal process for employees who might have a life-threatening need to carry and exemptions for various law enforcement agents, community backlash will likely drive the commissioners to revisit the “visitor” section sooner than later.

Even though no agenda has been published yet, Commissioner Mike Hart said in a Facebook post that the policy will be revisited at their July 14 meeting, where he will vote to “go back to having NO policy in place.”

Other commissioners have also chimed in across social media.

“A policy can be changed anytime,” Commissioner President Kelly McConkey said in a Facebook comment. “We received no input from anyone while the policy was being decided. I personally did not realize the real effects that it poses. So I am man enough to realize that it needs to be fixed. I hope my fellow commissioners will vote to get rid of the policy altogether.”

Now, an admin of “Calvert 2A Sanctuary Group” on Facebook stated that they had spoken with the commissioners and are anticipating the policy to be reversed when it is taken up at the next meeting.

Meetings are broadcast online at 10 am. Click HERE to watch.

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