ZIONSVILLE — Zionsville Mayor Emily Styron shared her frustration last week on Facebook over the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas that took the lives of 19 children and 2 adults.
The comments, made from Styron's personal Facebook account, appeared after a local jewelry store, Robert Goodman Jewelers opened up a discussion by encouraging others to vote and support gun-free spaces.
Styron had replied after a Facebook user named Joel Bardach commented on the store's post saying it's a "mental illness problem" and "Can’t get rid of the guns. Criminals don’t care."
Styron responded to his comment by saying, "Hey Joel Bardach … f*** you. I am so sick and tired of the stupid, useless rhetoric by jack a**** like you when it comes to gun regulation. F****** sick and tired of mass murders [of] OUR F****** CHILDREN… it’s time for the majority who know that gun permits and banning automatic weapons is COMMON F****** SENSE. So yeah, F*** YOU."
Styron later wrote to Bardach, "the f****** mayor of this town." and "you bet I’m angry… f****** a******."
Bardach told WRTV Wednesday morning, "I just thought it's sad, something as horrific as what we're looking at and experiencing that somebody who passionately wants to try and make the difference it's important to her to this is the best way she could express it and then expect anybody else to sit across to take her seriously. I just think it's sad that somebody in her position who might even at the local level the lower local levels might have a chance to cause a conversation would take that approach to think that it was a healthy way to go after it.”
Bardach lives in Westfield.
“She could have advanced her passion a lot further having done it a different way...it's an important topic I don't disagree with her, everybody should have something to say and they should say it loud and have the conversation but you're not going to get anything done like that,” Bardach said.
Styron defended her comments by posting on her official page, "Seriously people… you should be WAY more upset that elementary students were gunned down in their classroom than I used the F-word."
Styron told WRTV Wednesday afternoon, "I am not a person who is afraid to use language to emphasize how angry I am about something and that day I was absolutely totally and completely angry at this failure on behalf of our legislative bodies to make changes."
Styron said she does not think that anything needs to happen in regards to the Facebook post and comments.
“I think there's a whole hell of a lot that needs to happen with regard to gun reform and regulation," Styron said.
