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Mayor buys machine guns:'Jilt .iThis is WhitewrightWHITEWRIGHT, Texas lUPl) — The mayor and the municipal judge are under fire over the purchase of four machine guns — enough automatic weapons to shoot every man, woman and child in the tiny farming community in less than half a minute.The mayor defended the purchase, made with donated funds, by saying the weapons would be useful in case of riot or nuclear attack.'But the City Council, a lot of the people in the town of about 2,000, and even the police chief don’t agree.Chief D.L. Montgomery said it was ludicrous and asinine for a city the size of Whitewright to possess ftp; automatic weapons.He said he would not use them against civilians and if the Red Army marched across the Red River at the nearby Oklahoma border: “I would be at the house waiting for the troops to arrive.The council wants City Judge Robert Sale to resign from the $200-a-month job they appointed him to in May 1980, sayiag theybelieve he recomriiended the purchase ‘of the -new gUhs With $1,386 from an undisclosed donor.But Sale, also a county justice of the peace, said when reached at the local Dairy Queen Wednesday night he has no plans to quit and: All I know is what I’ve read in the paper and seen on TV.Some residents say Mayor Felix Robinson also should step down for not telling the council about the purchase of the 9mm Ingram machine guns — each capable of firing 1,600 rounds a minute. Robinson said he was following his policy of notifying the council only about pur-phases ,The guns were held by the Grayson County Sheriff’s Department for safekeeping Wednesday.This whole thing is so unusual it’s plum ridiculous, said City Councilman Clarence Tiliett Jr. This is quite some blow to a small town like this.”Tiliett said the gunsbut the City Council had no inkling of the purchase until Alcohol, Tobacco andFirearms agents removed the guns from themysterious donor andhanded them over to Montgomery last month.Due to the fact it was being investigated, he had asked us to hold off any discussion and not to make any decisions until we could get some rulings from some law enforcement agencies, said Tiliett.“That’s why it was very quiet. We were not trying to cover up anything,When authorities said they could not find any criminal violations, the matter became public at Tuesday night’8 councilmeeting.When resident Elbie Calloway asked what the weapons would be used for, Robinson responded: In case of riot or nuclear attack.Calloway retorted: We are a population of less than 2,400^ Four automatic weapons would annihilate this town. This is not New York; this to Whitewright, Texas.’
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NA, 19 Oct 2020
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