Associated Press
YARMOUTH, Mass. — A Massachusetts town official is drawing criticism for pulling a fake handgun at a candidates’ forum this week, even though he warned people that it was a toy.
Aubrey “Bud” Groskopf, a selectman in Yarmouth on Cape Cod, used the gun Monday to illustrate his point that environmentalists are “pointing the gun at our temple” to force the town to build sewers.
Before he took out the plastic gun, he said: “What I’m about to take out is fake.”
One man tells the Cape Cod Times he bolted from the room.
Selectmen Chairman Erik Tolley, acting Town Administrator Peter Johnson-Staub and Police Chief Frank Frederickson released a statement Wednesday condemning the stunt.
Groskopf said he succeeded in drawing attention to the issue.