Knoxville, letter to city council - posting parks

[meadsteve]

Below is a slightly editedversion of a letter I sent to Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam and ask him to share it with the entire City Council. He e-mailed it to the Council and put me on distribution (see below). That allowed me to obtain the e-mail addresses of all of the Council members that have e-mail (all but one) and a contact point for the one that didn't have e-mail. Folks in Knoxville should e-mail these folks pointing out that there are about 12,000 permit holders in the City of Knoxville alone watching very carefully how they vote if Knoxville chooses to vote on posting parks.

Please provide this to anyone with a Knoxville address.



Mayor Bill Haslam - mayor@cityofknoxville.org

Barbara Pelot - rpeolt@aol.com
Chris Woodhull - Chriswoodhull@bellsouth.net
Joe Hultquist - Joseph49@bellsouth.net
Bob Becker - bob@bobbecker.org
Joe Bailey - JDBailey@cityofknoxville.org
Marilyn Roddy - MRoddy@cityofknoxville.org
Rob Frost - robfrostcitycouncil@comcast.net
Steve Hall - InteriorFinishes@msn.com

Cindy Mitchell - CMitchell@cityofknoxville.org (Secretary for Mayor???)

Councilman Booker - no e-mail.
***********************************************************************************
________________________________________
From: Mayor [mailto:Mayor@cityofknoxville.org]
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 11:05 AM
To: Barbara Pelot; Chris Woodhull; Joe Hultquist; Bob Becker; Joe Bailey; Marilyn Roddy; Rob Frost; Steve Hall
Cc: Cindy Mitchell; Mead, Steven J (SMI)
Subject: forwarded information
I received an email from Steven J. Mead asking that I forward this information to all Council members. Since Councilman Booker does not receive e-mail I will ask Cindy to put a copy in his box.
Bill
************************************************************************************************************************************
Guns in City Parks? An Open letter to the City Councils

Much is being said about a new law that allows state-licensed Handgun Carry Permit holders to retain their handguns... initially when entering all State Parks (and similar areas) and then in September when entering city and county parks that have not been posted by local authorities. This law and a new federal law allows permit holders to have their handguns in all federal parks and wildlife refuges in February 2010. These laws seem crazy to some people, until they actually research what the laws actual do. They do not just open up our parks to people that feel like carrying guns there. They simply allow carefully screened and particularly law abiding persons, who are already licensed to carry handguns in Wal-Mart, Home Depot, McDonalds, Shoney's, liquor stores, malls, restaurants, on the street, and most places in public... to also retain them while in public parks. There are over 220,000 permit holders in Tennessee, about 12,000 in the City of Knoxville. Most folks don't even realize they are around ... because they simply don't cause any problems. In a recent presentation by TN Sen. Doug Jackson before the full Senate he noted that during all of 2008 only 12/10,000th of 1% of Tennessee's permit holders have been charged with conduct that could (if convicted) require their permits to be revoked. Most of that tiny fraction were non-violent crimes and only a small fraction of the others involved weapons. To keep a carry permit in Tennessee you have to live a particularly clean life...No drugs, No DUIs, No mental problems, No drinking problems, and even must pay your child support on time.

For local governments to understand the responsibility associated with posting parks they first must understand that the posting being considered only applies to permit holders. It is and remains illegal for general members of the public to possess weapons at any park in the state - including state and federal parks. Parks on school property remain closed to permit holders, as in the past. The "No Weapons" signs posted in the state parks will all stay right where they are. For state-owned areas the only change is that those signs will no longer apply to permit holders. Laws on using, displaying, or firing firearms are unchanged. When the law prohibiting weapons in parks was initially passed local parks were exempted from having to post because of the very significant cost. State parks are generally entered through a few well controlled gates which can be posted - and then with a couple signs at "key locations" inside.. they were done. Local parks on the other hand often do not have that nice entry control and the number of signs required to post effectively could be very large. While the law allowing posting by the local governments does not specifically address it, other state law generally requires signs every 50 feet or so to post property without controlled entry. You have probably seen signs for "No Trespassing" or "No Hunting" displayed like that. Costs for cities could be substantial to erect and maintain required signs.

Then there is the constitutional wrinkle. The TN Constitution [as interpreted by the State Attorney General (OP. 08-19) and the courts] allows laws restricting the "wearing of arms" only if they can be shown to "prevent crime". With the U.S. government recently publishing in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations a lengthy nation-wide study (including resolving 125,000 comments) which concluded that state-licensed handgun carry permit holders carrying their firearms in parks improves overall safety and reduces crime; and the U.S. Congress and the President passing a new law (Coburn Amendment) allowing permit holders to carry in all National Parks and Wildlife Refuges for the stated purpose of improving safety and preventing crime ; and the State legislature passing a law to allow permit holders in all state and federal "public parks, natural areas, historic parks, nature trails, campgrounds, forests, greenways, waterways or other similar public places" that are owned or operated by the state, a county, a municipality or instrumentality thereof... with the stated purpose to prevent crime - it becomes very difficult to make a case that restricting permit holders from any park will prevent crime. While the State legislature did give local governments the power to post parks, they did not and can not authorize them to violate the state constitution. To post against otherwise legal possession of firearms by state-licensed permit holders they must show a compelling public purpose which includes preventing crime in order to meet the constitutional requirement.

Then there is the liability wrinkle. Case law across the nation up to the U.S. Supreme Court has held that when persons, companies, or government entities restrict the ability of citizens to defend themselves, and they know (or should have known) that criminal attack was foreseeable, that they become legally responsible for their safety and liable for any damages resulting. Our parks are often where crime occurs. Previous state law prevented permit holders from carrying in parks and that law presumed that doing so prevented crime. States are hard to sue because they have almost unlimited legal resources. for cities and counties that is not the case. Even if cities win, the cost could be great.

Then there is the common sense wrinkle - if all of the studies nation-wide demonstrate that allowing permit holders (not the general public) to retain the handguns which they legally carry almost anywhere else in the state (including malls, stores, restaurants, public streets; and all state or federal owned parks, natural areas, historic parks, nature trails, campgrounds, forests, greenways, waterways or other similar public places) why could one think these same finger-printed, background-checked, and proven safe and law-abiding individuals are going to go crazy in a local park. Experience has shown that while posting "No Guns" may be effective for keeping out law-abiding citizens it has either no effect on criminals or may even attract them. In the parks that are not posted, you will not be able to see any change except perhaps the expected drop in crime. Criminals avoid places where their victims or some law abiding citizen nearby may be armed.

And finally, the re-election wrinkle. Permit holders tend to be more politically active and vocal than the average citizen. By the next election there will be well over a 14,000 permit holders in the City of Knoxville. Elected officials that choose to vote for ordinances prohibiting their constitutionally protected (and legislature approved) right to self defense may expect to see those folks actively involved in their opponents campaigns. Your opponents will have the lists of every permit holder by zip code or city which are readily available on the internet. Try it yourself - just go to http://www.commercialappeal.com/data/gunpermits/ and type in a city name or a specific zip code, click on search, and you'll get the alphabetical listing of most of the permit holders. I say most, because I know a number of current permit holders that don't show up on the list. Also keep in mind that the TN Department of safety expects to issue at least 100,000 new permits this year alone.

Respectfully,

Steven J. Mead
104 Walton Lane
Oak Ridge, TN

[jcbdc]

Would it be OK to read this to our local commission meeting next month.

Joe