Nickels: Ban guns in places where kids go
SEATTLE -- Mayor Greg Nickels has proposed a ban on guns in parks and playgrounds to protect children, and members of the public have two weeks to comment before the new rules take effect.
Sixteen months after the deadly shooting at Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center, the mayor has come up with the solution: ban guns at parks and other city places where kids and young adults gather.
"So we are saying when you come to a park, when you come to a playground, a wading pool, leave your gun behind," he said.
But there are detractors.
In the words of Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation, "The mayor doesn't own parks; the people do."
And, Gottlieb adds, what the mayor is trying to do is illegal.
He points out two state lawmakers asked the attorney general last year whether a city in Washington state has the authority to enact a local law that prohibits possession of firearms on city property.
The attorney general said the simple answer is "no."
"When this rule goes into effect, and we really have a law we can sue, we will being suing," Gottlieb said.
But Nickels doesn't believe the city is acting beyond its power.
"Private property owners have the right to say you can't bring a gun into this mall, this store or this home. We're simply asserting the same right that private property owners have," Nickels said.
The mayor says in 14 days, the parks will be safer. The Second Amendment Foundation says in 14 days, it will sue.
The mayor has signed an executive order banning guns in city buildings, which took effect immediately.
The city will take public comment on the proposed gun ban over the next two weeks. People can submit comments by Oct. 4, 2009, at www.seattle.gov/firearmsrule.
Sixteen months after the deadly shooting at Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center, the mayor has come up with the solution: ban guns at parks and other city places where kids and young adults gather.
"So we are saying when you come to a park, when you come to a playground, a wading pool, leave your gun behind," he said.
But there are detractors.
In the words of Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation, "The mayor doesn't own parks; the people do."
And, Gottlieb adds, what the mayor is trying to do is illegal.
He points out two state lawmakers asked the attorney general last year whether a city in Washington state has the authority to enact a local law that prohibits possession of firearms on city property.
The attorney general said the simple answer is "no."
"When this rule goes into effect, and we really have a law we can sue, we will being suing," Gottlieb said.
But Nickels doesn't believe the city is acting beyond its power.
"Private property owners have the right to say you can't bring a gun into this mall, this store or this home. We're simply asserting the same right that private property owners have," Nickels said.
The mayor says in 14 days, the parks will be safer. The Second Amendment Foundation says in 14 days, it will sue.
The mayor has signed an executive order banning guns in city buildings, which took effect immediately.
The city will take public comment on the proposed gun ban over the next two weeks. People can submit comments by Oct. 4, 2009, at www.seattle.gov/firearmsrule.