Head up ass and full speed ahead!
After a shooting at last year’s Northwest Folklife Festival left three people injured, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels vowed to outlaw guns in city buildings, parks and Seattle Center.
The proposal has languished for almost a year, with the state Attorney General’s Office saying the mayor lacks the authority to prohibit guns on city property, a Second Amendment group threatening to sue and questions continuing as to what the policy would really accomplish.
With another Northwest Folklife approaching on Memorial Day weekend, a spokesman for Nickels said the mayor is moving ahead with an executive order this spring and is prepared to defend it in court.
Even if the order is not in place, the May 22-25 festival will be gun-free through the city’s lease with festival organizers. Signs posted at the Seattle Center event will remind people not to bring guns, and security will be trained to take firearms away or ask people to leave, says Alex Fryer, a Nickels spokesman.
The new city order would apply even to people who have a state permit allowing them to carry a concealed weapon. Without a permit, it’s already illegal in Washington to carry a concealed weapon in public.
Fryer said the city’s parks are already safe, but he pointed out that the shooter at last year’s Folklife Festival had a permit to carry his weapon.
“We believe that our parks and community centers and open spaces are safer without guns,” Fryer said.
So do the criminals, Mr. Fryer. So do the criminals.
While I wouldn’t wish that someone would sneak a gun into the property, you know and I know, that someone will. And if they get the urge to do something “bad” in this newly created gun free zone, something “bad” will happen. And it will happen repeatedly until someone else with a gun shows up or the murderer runs out of ammunition.
If the parks and community centers are “safer without guns”, are they going to disarm the Seattle Police Officers and King County Sheriff Deputies who work security for the event? And if not, doesn’t that poke a big gaping hole into his position? After all, the community of CCW holders has a lower rate of illegal activity than the LEO community.
But why stick to facts when you can make-believe you’re starting a little gun-free utopia?
Okay, so who wants to be the test case 😉 I’m over on the sane side of the state, so it’s too far for me. Maybe there’s an open carry group that would like to show up? Eventually I’d like to see Nichols convicted of conspiracy to deny constitutional rights and put in jail. Pretty please?
The amazing thing is these are the same people who are opposed to declawing your cat.