Editorial: Leave guns out of parks

June 22, 2004
Elyria Chronicle Telegram

When the state's concealed carry law went into effect in April, the Elyria City Council voted unanimously to ban the carrying of guns onto city-owned property, including parks.

Now the state Legislature is considering whether to pass a law that would support Council's decision. State Sen. Eric Fingerhut, D-Cleveland, is among those sponsoring a bill that would allow municipalities to say whether guns can be carried into their parks or any other outdoor areas owned by them.

As is, the law restricts people from toting their guns inside buildings owned by the state or any political subdivision of the state, such as a county or city. The state attorney general's office has said that local ordinances, such as the one passed in Elyria, are not valid and could be challenged by a citizen or group.

Parks are places where people gather for picnics, for softball games, or just to bask in the sun. Children play in the parks.

Dan White, spokesman for Ohioans For Concealed Carry, said parks are "some of the most dangerous places. A lot of them are [in] high-crime areas."

What kind of crime is White talking about? We might see a little vandalism in our parks now and then, but the vandals certainly aren't threatening our lives to the point we need to shoot them.

Is White saying that bringing guns into our parks will make them safer? If so, how? And if the parks are so dangerous, should we equip our children with guns before sending them out to play?

Guns are out of place in parks. There's no reason for citizens to have them there. A ban on guns in parks would be difficult to enforce, but at least it would send the message that there are some places guns just don't belong.

Passage of the concealed carry law already has made our city streeys more dangerous. The law allows anyone who passes a background check and a training class to carry a gun.

The proposed amendment to the concealed carry law is a good one. Cities should at least be allowed to protect those areas set aside for recreation and relaxation.

Commentary:
This newspaper was one of the first to list the names of CHL-holders as though they are social pariah. We haven't seen any streets made more unsafe since April 8, but apparently the editors have. Their observation skills seem somewhat selective, however.

Note, for instance, that the editors don't address the question of why Sen. Ray Miller's bill, which Fingerhut is supporting, is necessary in the first place, if the Elyria City Council can just pass a law banning guns anyways. What this city council has done is illegal. The law says so, the state legislature says so, and the Ohio Attorney General says so. And yet this newspaper champions such law-breaking, so long as they don't like the law that is being broken.

Furthermore, the editors should have done a bit of homework before ridiculing Dan White's comments about crime in parks. You see, he got that information on crime in parks from a solicitation of co-sponsorship that was sent out by the sponsors of the bill the newspaper is now championing.

Click here to read their memo on the subject, in which Sen. Miller states that "there are more than 6,000 misdemeanor and felony arrests combined, per year, in Ohio state parks. Though not defined specifically in terms of
municipal parks, the statistic highlights a disturbing situation and trend
of violence in the State of Ohio."

Surely the editors didn't realize they were arguing with the very people who sponsor the bill the claim must be passed!

True, children play in parks. True also that women are raped in parks, that the elderly are mugged in parks, and that people are murdered in parks. These people deserve the human right to choose self-defense in parks.

Finally, it must be tough to be Sen. Eric Fingerhut these days. Despite all his ranting, raving, and rhetorical doomsday testimony about what would happen if Ohio passed a concealed carry law, HB12 was indeed passed into law in January. The bill he is latching on to now, which seeks to repeal Section 9 of House Bill 12 - will never become law. And as far as his campaign against U.S. Senator Voinovich goes, we hear the most common response around Ohio to the question of "Voinovich or Fingerhut?" is "Finger-who?"

To get in touch with The Chronicle-Telegram, call The C-T toll free within Ohio at (800) 848-6397. Direct Letters to the Editor to [email protected].

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The Dayton Daily News also recently published an editorial on this subject, saying that "the gun lobby should yield, or be made to, on these kinds of restrictions."