Mayor: City unlikely to address issues with its gun-related ordinances

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette

MAYOR BILL SHECKLES

Monday, Dec. 12, 2011 10 p.m. — The debate over Bardstown’s gun-related ordinances and their conflicts with state and federal law may be over in the mind of the mayor, but for those interested in gun control issues, the debate is still very much alive.

At a city council work session last week, Sheckles declared the ordinance question a “dead issue” since the city has posted new signs with corrected language that prohibits only concealed firearms in city buildings. The earlier signs prohibited all firearms regardless of how they were carried. Openly carried firearms are legal and the city cannot prohibit them.

Shelby County resident Stephen McBride has questioned the legality of four city ordinances  — including one that dates back to 1938. Two of the four ordinances in question attempt to regulate firearm possession on city property; the third regulates the transfer of firearms in the city limits;  the fourth prohibits concealed firearms in city-owned or leased buildings, as well as open, outside areas like parks and recreation areas.

The city ordinances in question, with links to them on the city website, include:

• 91.07 – Sympson Lake: Alcoholic beverages, controlled substances; firearms; and drugs.
• 92.11 (b) – Cemetery: Rules and Regulations.
• 130.02 – Offenses against Municipal Regulations: Use of firearms; sale of slingshots.
• 130.08 – Concealed deadly weapons in city buildings and premises prohibited

McBride notes that the state conceal/carry law gives cities the right to prohibit concealed firearms only in in city-owned or leased buildings — not in outside areas. Openly carried firearms are legal everywhere, even in city buildings and — as the city council has learned — even in council meetings.

City Attorney Tom Donan said Friday he had looked over some of the information McBride has provided, but he really hadn’t done more due to other more pressing needs for his time. “There’s a lot more important city business that I have focused on, and frankly, I just haven’t made this a priority,” he said.

Sheckles said  there was more important work for he and the council to address. McBride is welcome to attend council meetings, but for now the city had no plan to address McBride’s questions about the city’s firearm-related ordinances. “I consider it a moot point,” he said.

Donan said as far as he can remember, no one has ever been charged with violating any of the city ordinances McBride has questioned.

That isn’t the point, McBride said.

He is not on a campaign pushing any particularly view of gun ownership, he said. “Is it a good idea to allow people to openly carry a weapon to a council meeting? I’m not so sure it is,” he said. “But the law is the law, and regardless of what I think of the law or what the council or mayor think of the law, the city’s ordinances should agree with the law.”

When asked about Sheckles’ comment that the issue was over, McBride said “It sounds like the same man who wants to trample the Second Amendment now wants to deny me my rights to the First Amendment.”

NOT A NEW ISSUE. While McBride’s first appearance at an October Bardstown City Council meeting openly carrying a sidearm made banner headlines, his efforts to draw attention to the ordinance problems date back more than 18 months. For the past year and a half, McBride said he has been in contact with Bardstown officials by phone and e-mail about the issue, he said. He said he found the individuals he contacted courteous, but the issue was never resolved.

McBride recently contacted his state representative to discuss Bardstown’s ordinances, and he and his legislator subsequently met in Frankfort with a legal representative from the Kentucky League of Cities. McBride said this discussion prompted the KLC to issue an article titled “Considering Gun Control? What to Know Before You Pull the Trigger” to offer guidance on the types of firearm regulations cities may lawfully enact. McBride said he forwarded the KLC’s gun control article to the mayor and members of the council.

NOT UNCOMMON. McBride said it isn’t uncommon for cities to adopt ordinances with wording that conflicts with existing firearm laws. Over the years, he has contacted a number of Kentucky cities to alert them to problems with their firearm-related ordinances, and has been successful in prompting corrections to these ordinances. He said city officials usually don’t like to hear they have a problem with an ordinance, but they all have taken corrective action — with the exception of Bardstown.

So far the issue has generated some letters to the editor of the local newspaper, and McBride believes more people should speak out on this issue.

“It’s far from being a dead issue,” he said. “I’m not going away.”

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