Concealed Carry Vote Postponed
The right of self-defense is under attack by Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, and major changes to local ordinances could have been voted on at last night’s Board of County Commissioners meeting.
Thankfully, Commissioner Matthew Ridenhour succeeded in buying opponents of proposed restrictions on concealed carry in public parks some additional time to lobby.
According to Ridenhour, “I made a tactical decision to request that the parks concealed carry restriction be deferred to the next regularly scheduled board meeting, and that it be made a regular agenda item, not a consent item.”
The motion passed.
This request by Ridenhour was preceeded earlier in the day by an email sent to his fellow board members.
In this email, he laid out in detail the existing rules that legal gun owners must follow in order to both purchase a handgun and carry it concealed. He then summarized with,
“Folks who desire to legally carry a concealed weapon go above and beyond the average handgun owner, and have proven themselves to be law-abiding, trustworthy citizens. Currently there are approximately 19,000 concealed carry permit holders in Mecklenburg County–approximately 1.9% of the population.”
He proceeded to point out his belief that the new ordinances are “too restrictive” and failed on a test of common sense.
“As it stands now, a woman walking through the greenway may carry a concealed gun. However, if she needs to go inside to use the restroom, she must go to her car, lock the handgun in the car, go inside and use the restroom, and then go back out to her car, get her handgun, and continue her walk. Surely if we trust her to be outside in the park with a handgun, we can trust her to go inside and use the restroom with her handgun?”
Moving forward, a substitute motion is being worked on that addresses some of the Board majority’s concerns while not being overly restrictive of lawful gun owners rights.
In the meantime, all are encouraged to continue to contact their members of the County Commission. This clearly is a public safety issue, with the passage of these changes making law abiding citizens less safe.
Patricia.Cotham@MecklenburgCountyNC.gov Chair
Kim.Ratliff@MecklenburgCountyNC.gov Co-Chair
Matthew.Ridenhour@MecklenburgCountyNC.gov
wjames@carolina.rr.com
george.dunlap@MecklenburgCountyNC.gov
dumontclarke@mvalaw.com
vilma.leake@MecklenburgCountyNC.gov
Trevor.Fuller@MecklenburgCountyNC.gov
karen.bentley@MecklenburgCountyNC.gov
Matthew is wrong on one point. Firearms are NOT currently allowed on the greenways. See here:
http://charmeck.org/mecklenburg/county/ParkandRec/Greenways/Pages/Rules.aspx
Well, the larger point is still accurate. She could be jogging down the road perfectly safe, but heaven forbid she wants to cut through the greenway…then all of a sudden she’s a criminal. Makes no sense.
Of course, my point was more technical than one of disagreement to the general point.
Just to clarify, when I wrote “as it stands now…”, at that point in the email I was referring to the proposed ordinance, not the current law.
You are of course correct, carrying a concealed weapon on greenways is not legal, which puts our local ordinance at odds with the state statute. This is why we are even having this discussion.
MR,
Thanks for the clarification – now it makes more sense. And I am glad this conversation is being had if for no other reason than to educate. I admit the whole issue is muddy at best to me, from preemption of state law, to what amount of regulation crosses the line into infringement, etc.
Of course, me being an anarcho-capitalist, the most simple and prosperous solution is to privatize ALL property except for actual government buildings and hardware. That way the land owner makes the rules and the market determines land use.
I challenge the BOCC to try and obtain a Carry Conceal Permit, before they chastise law abiding citizens defending their 2nd Ammendment rights.
[…] UPDATE: A vote on the Concealed Carry proposal was deferred until the board of commissioner’s next regularly scheduled meeting; details available here. […]