Over the weekend I received multiple emails asking if I’d heard about the Seattle Mayor, Greg Nickels, spouting off about wanting to ban Concealed Pistol License holders from carrying concealed on city property. In a short answer, yes, and thanks to all who queried.
Here’s the dilli-yo: I didn’t write about the asshole who fell through the cracks and got his CPL, and then years afterwards was acting the fool by attempting to draw a pistol from an ankle holster during a fistfight at the Folklife Festival the other weekend because I didn’t’ want to jinx PacNW gunnies by wondering aloud on these here interwebs just what stupid gun laws Nickels was going try and enact to “keep the people of Seattle safe.”
Personally, I’d ban the Folklife Festival first. But I’m not in charge there.
However, as I discovered Friday night when this news hit the wires, I shouldn’t have bothered to hold back. Nickels and his Chief of Police, Gil Kerlikowske, are two of the gun-ban attemptingest bigots every to occupy City Hall.
On the plus side: What Nickels wants to do is patently illegal, as Washington State Law preempts all local laws (hit that link, read Sections 2 and 3). He can issue executive order after executive order, eight days a week until downtown Seattle slides into Elliott Bay. The first time an SPD Officer tries to enforce it, the city has a lawsuit on their hands. Likewise, I believe that his EO’s have no standing for civilians (aka: non-City employees) and carry no weight beyond that line.
Also, the local media isn’t really taking too much effort to promote his agenda. This relatively pro-gun article on the subject of Open Carry ran in National News section of Sunday’s Seattle Times.
However, on the downside: The Washington State Supreme Court is currently more left-leaning than ever before. Groups like CeasefireWashington regularly hob-nob with certain Justices. If a suit against the city gets to the current residents of the bench, things could get ugly. Also, Nickels is exactly as ideologically driven as Philly’s Mayor Nutter and will very likely try to do something stupid.
So, what can we do to attempt to hold this back?
Write well and write often would be our first option. The City Council doesn’t really like Nickels, and while some of them wouldn’t mind it a bit if he was successful in this round of exceptional bigotry, filling up their email and ringing their phones will get him called in for a talk in front of their august body.
Mayor Greg Nickels: (206) 684-4000
Seattle City Council Members
Tim Burgess: (206)684-8806
Sally Clark: (206) 684-8802
Richard Conlin: (206) 684-8805
Jan Drago: (206) 684-8801
Jean Godden: (206) 684-8807
Bruce Harrell: (206) 684-8804
Nick Licata: (206) 684-8803
Richard McIver: (206) 684-8800
Tom Rasmussen: (206) 684-8808
(Thank you to Ray Cater for saving me the work)
After that, it will be a courts game. Even with Democrat super majorities in the Legislature and their owning of the Governor’s Mansion, this is an election year and I do not see anything being given to Nickels from them. IIRC, Washington State does still have the highest per capita NRA membership in the nation and the State Dems know these things.
If I were not as calm about this as I am, my emails and phone calls would have included the fact that people slip through the cracks and gain employment in the Seattle Police Department (a department that, reliable sources say, is so desperate for officers that they will hire people who have been “let go” from another policing agencies).
Also, I would also have mentioned that if Mayor Greg Nickels wants to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, his first and wisest move would be to fire his Chief of Police.
Stay calm. Breath naturally. Call and/or Write. Wait for the next move.
Thoughtful post, Phil.
Okay. I take 1/8th of all the Snarky Comments I have said about the Times and PI. If you read this updated article:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/366336_guns10.html?source=rss
It makes the Mayor sound like a dork. For example: “The review is supposed to be completed in 30 days, with the next step likely to be an attempt to tighten rules regarding concealed weapons for people who are not law-enforcement officers.”
I like the word “attempt” and “supposed”. It sounds like the two reporters are very dubious. In deed, it the article makes the Mayor seem like a dork:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/soundoff/comment.asp?articleID=366336
To me this is weird. It’s like someone flipped a bit and now the press is neutral/net-positive. Could it be some of the journalists are starting to arm themselves? One has to wonder.
I just wrote the author of the article, pointing her to some local resources other then “Gun Week” guys.
I also thanked her for a mostly informative article.
Another article with a great quote:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004466873_webguns09m.html
“The reason for this order is simple,” Nickels said at a news conference with Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske. “Our parks, our community centers and our public events are safer without guns.”
I sent the reporter for the Times a question if she had asked Girlakowske if he had found his gun yet. SPD cops say that even mentioning it in HIS presence is a firing offense…I have met the man and he gives me the creeps.