Medina Parks closed to legal carry.

[C. Richard Archie]

The City of Medina’s Board of Aldermen voted 3-1 this evening (Friday, August 07, 2009) to deny their Citizens the Right to Carry in it’s controlled property (same list of venues that every other Municipality which has received the "workup" from the Municipal Technical Advisory Service, with the exact same wording we have seen in other Cities, Public Municipal Parks, Natural Areas, Historic Parks, Nature Trails, Campgrounds, Forest, Greenways,Waterways, or other similar places).

Frank Baker, Wayne Sheehan, and Cathy Parrett voted to sustain the MTAS (there is that name again) sponsored Resolution denying their Rights under HB 0716 (Parks Carry). Alderman Terry Shelton was singular in his support of the Constitutional Rights of his constituents.

Only one other person beside me spoke against the Resolution. The meeting was reset from it’s normal Monday night schedule due to till health of the Mayor, and was held at 5:30 Friday afternoon.

The general basis of support for the banning from the Alderman was voiced by Wayne Sheehan, that school use of the Parks precluded the Right to Carry. He said that the Parks in Medina were basically the same as schools, due to their use by students. I left him with a print out of my Op-Ed piece which points out the fallacies of not trusting HCP Holders to obey the law. He commented that till the law was changed, he would continue to support restricting the Constitutional Rights of HCP Holders.

I fail to see how School use of areas other than ball fields, (which was the gist of Mr. Sheehan's argument) is rational. I have lived in the area, (one county south of Gibson County) and have had children in these school systems, and have never been appraised of the use of a waterway, greenway, nature trail or forest by a school for a function. I have no idea what a "similar place" is. I suspect that the City of Median has no clue either, but simply parroted the MTAS stance. In the twelve years I attended school in Gibson county and the years I taught there, I was never part of an outing to anything other than a City park, and that for base ball games only.