Not even for a moment. That voice on your phone is lying to you.
Just as ballots began landing in voters’ mailboxes, Seattle mayoral candidate Mike McGinn’s campaign launched recorded phone calls Friday accusing rival Joe Mallahan of “siding with the NRA” because he questioned the wisdom of a city ban on guns in parks and community centers.
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The calls, recorded by a McGinn volunteer, say: “Seattle is in the middle of a gun-crime epidemic, but Joe Mallahan is siding with the NRA and extreme Second Amendment groups to repeal Seattle’s gun ban in parks. That’s right. Parks. Joe Mallahan wants to make it legal to bring loaded firearms to playgrounds, pools and community centers.”
That’s a reference to an executive order from Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels banning guns at those public facilities.
The ban, which took effect this week, has been criticized by Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna, who says state law pre-empts cities from imposing such bans without authorization from the Legislature.
Nickels’ office argues the city has a legal right to limit gun possession as a condition of entry to particular public facilities, especially where children are present. People carrying guns at such facilities would not face criminal penalties but would get a civil-trespass warning.
Second Amendment groups already have vowed to sue over the measure.
McGinn says he fully supports the ban as a way to try to prevent incidents like one last year at Seattle’s Northwest Folklife festival, when a man with a history of schizophrenia shot and wounded three people.
Mallahan has made statements supporting the intent of the ban, but questioning whether it is an effective way to reduce gun violence.
Mallahan IS, apparently, the smarter of the two candidates. However, he has not stated he will rescind the order, only that he “may”.
They went at it over these calls during their debate yesterday.
In a race for Seattle mayor in which the two candidates agree on much, they traded criticisms Sunday about the few issues they differ on, including the Alaskan Way Viaduct, management experience, and — in a new line of attack — a gun ban in city parks.
The sharpest exchanges in the KIRO-TV debate occurred when Joe Mallahan, clearly angry, accused foe Mike McGinn of making “baldfaced lies” in recorded phone calls in which the McGinn campaign accused Mallahan of “siding with the NRA” in backing a “repeal” of the ban.
“Mike and his campaign chose to conduct a lie campaign,” said Mallahan, adding that his wife received one of the calls. “Mike, the Seattle voters deserve an apology. I deserve an apology.”
When asked if he would defend in court the ban enacted by Mayor Greg Nickels, Mallahan said he may not, because it is “not a pragmatic way of addressing public-safety concerns.”
While I’m no longer a resident of the City of Seattle, and while other folks local to me may not be residents, because of the city’s status as a harbinger of things to come, this election is still very important.
It truly is a sorry state of affairs to have to say that Mallahan is the better of the two candidates. However, “may” is better than “No”, and touting your business experience (aka: being a VP at T-Mobile) impresses me slightly more than touting your “environmental work” and community organizing.