Posted on 12/16/2011 5:07:48 AM PST by marktwain
During the most recent legislative session, state Senator Kit Jennings (R-28) of Casper sponsored permitless carry legislation to expand the Right-to-Carry across Wyoming, only to see his hometown now fight to restrict it. Last week, the Casper City Council voted 5 to 4 in favor of an ordinance to ban the open carrying of firearms during city council meetings. While nothing has ever occurred to necessitate this proposed ordinance, the city council is one step away from making this ban a reality and will decide its fate on third and final reading at their next meeting scheduled for Tuesday, December 20. The council will meet at 6:00 p.m. in the Casper City Hall located at 200 North David Street.
This proposed ordinance is not only unnecessary but it is a blatant violation of Wyoming’s firearm preemption law and would open the city to potential lawsuits and litigation. Under current law, it is illegal for people to carry a concealed firearm in government buildings, while open carry is still allowed.
Please contact members of the Casper City Council and your state legislators and urge them to respect the state firearm preemption law and protect your Right-to-Carry by opposing this proposed ordinance in Casper.
You may find contact information for the Casper City Council by clicking here. To locate your state legislators, please click here.
What’s needed is to find out which council members are pushing this and either have them recalled or pro-firearms members of the community run against these dolts in the next election.
Question from a foreigner. Are guns allowed inside banks in all right-to-carry States? I remember being in Arizona years and years ago and of course I was surprised to see citizens toting guns (I was also surprised to see a drive-in church). I had to deal with some people who had side arms on display and I flippantly said: “Hey that’s not fair, I want one too!” They pointed me to a nearby gunshop. But going to the bank, I saw that they had to leave their weapons outside. Or at least that’s what I remember.
BTW, I’m not against guns. I used to be until I thought about it. So it’s just pure curiosity.
Not even the police?
Most banks are private property. The owner of the private property gets to decide whether to allow armed citizens inside.
I have often carried in banks and credit unions in Arizona.
Police are armed at the council meetings, they have a special dispensation, because they are controlled by the city council.
What the city council is saying is: We are in charge, not you! The city council are employees of the people, not the other way around.
Consider, what is going to happen if the Council does something that gets someone so angry they are going to come after them. If the angry citizen is thinking clearly, they are not going to come after them in the meeting, in front of dozens of witnesses, having walked through parking lots and hallways with video surveillance. That's just asking to get caught. So in this case, having armed people about is a wash, doesn't matter.
If your angry, violent citizen is out of control, do you really want them to come to the meeting and find a bunch of unarmed ready-made victims (you and potentially other citizens)? No. In that case having armed, responsible citizens around will act as a powerful deterrent, and a force to bring any confrontation to a swift conclusion.
A better plan would simply be to act smart, and in the best interests of the citizenry and you won't get anyone that kind of angry.
Thanks. I thought it was the law. Makes sense though.
May I trouble you for another question?
America has the BATF, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, (and explosives), which to an Italian ear sounds very strange. I mean putting Champagne in the same general category as a Mauser (or TNT).
But what surprised me is that there are “dry” counties. Wikipedia says:
33 states have laws which allow localities to prohibit the sale (and in some cases, consumption and possession) of liquor. Three states, Kansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee, are entirely dry by default.
To me it’s unthinkable that - say - a construction worker - can’t kick back and knock down a beer after straining and sweating in the sun all day... or for that matter, that someone can’t take a bottle of Riesling with him on a picnic.
I read that the County that invented Bourbon (in Kentucky) prohibits its sale (as radical as Chianti being banned in Tuscany)... Shouldn’t notions of freedom kick in, considering prohibition and its repeal being in the USA Constitution?
The situation is complicated by our federal form of government, which was designed to keep a balance of powers in order to preserve liberty.
In addition, "dry" counties often have numerous exemptions for private consumption of alcohol. Private possession of alcoholic beverages is likely legal, but commercial sale of them is prohibited. Some "dry" counties have the equivalent of "bars" which are private clubs where you keep your own alcohol and you are charged for the space to sit and drink it.
Thanks marktwain and sorry for the Off Topic. Wyoming for me is cowboy and Indians, shootouts and barroom brawls and wildlife documentaries. I’m sure the great people there will figure out what’s best for them and probably even have a good time doing it.
You are welcome. Freerepublic is not obsessive about being on topic.
If it is not a problem, what country are you in/posting from?
From Rome, Italy. Which is facing interesting times, though our elections, for obvious reasons, hardly matter.
I’m an intense Obama-hater, a Catholic, anti-abortion, unabashed Sarah Palin fan and a hater of big government.
So far, among the Republican candidates I am most impressed by Newt Gingrich, though I can see why that might be a problem for someone who hates big government... but my theory is that transformations need to be done by those who know the process.
I am drawn to Ron Paul, but I came to the conclusion that he’s a pied-piper (security threats are real and facing them comes with a price). But his small govt. positions are unfortunately music to my ears - so I hope he does well, but doesn’t win.
If I were an American, I’d be scared stiff of a third party candidate opening the road to another term of Mr. Receding Oceans and Healing Planet. I guess I’m a birther (though I doubt that movement will every get anywhere). I mean it’s clear to me that he lied about it and there was a cover-up. Just as Jon Corzine is lying his butt off these days.
Philosophically I’m for small... in fact, observing events in Italy, I see Communism and Big Finance Capitalism deeply in cahoots. China is the new model.
I guess in America I’d be a social conservative.
I think it’s a pious illusion, if not superstitious to believe that Democracy and freedom can hold up without religious values being maintained (family, marriage, prayer, neighborhood, church). So I’m a culturalist, which means not only defending borders (obvious), but refusing entry to Muslims.
But mostly I’m here to learn and have fun. (and sometimes argue and get sent to hell).
Salute!
In Wyoming?????????
It is private property. The owner of the private property may place restriction on the carry of firearms. Some laws require the posting of signs if carry is prohibited.
In my home town, I can remember going to the bank with my father. While there, another customer brought their shotgun in, handed to the guard, got out some cash and walked down the street to the gunsmith to get his shotgun worked on. No real fuss was made about it.
We've got a Wyoming state bill in the works to deny all state funding to cities that pull this sort of crap. That's just one of several nifty little surprises we have for Cheyenne.
Stay tuned. This little episode is FAR from over.
Perhaps my memory has gone astray but I thought someone here posted that a lot of Californians have moved to Casper and this kind of contamination soon followed.
That's indeed a part of it, but there's a good bit more than that.
I’m sure the great people there will figure out what’s best for them and probably even have a good time doing it.
We're working on it, and we generally do. Why don't you come out for a visit? It's mighty pretty country.
Thank you, archy, what a pleasant surprise! I’d love to go and bring my wife and daughters (the younger one is into horseback riding so you can imagine how happy she’d be!) and they all speak English.
I’m sure there’s more than the silly stereotypes I’ve been trained to imagine. More than 40 years ago, I went from N.Y. to Colorado on a greyhound and I found so much kindness, I mean hearts as big as barns as soon as I started moving into “flyover” country that it was embarrassing. Over here everything is so small, populated and full of history that the sight of the spaces you’re used to is at first unsettling.
Tonight instead of arguing and picking fights with strangers, I’m gonna read up about your state.
http://www.thingstodo.com/states/WY/famous_people.htm
The only famous Wyomingite (I had to check - I thought it was “Wymomingan”) I know is abstract painter Jackson Pollock (Jack-the-dripper)...
...and William Buffalo Bill Cody. The latter had the Italian cowboys, called the “butteri” (now defunct) boasting and blustering for years when he took his show on a European tour and lost in a contest of rodeo skills.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttero#Buffalo_Bill_and_the_Butteri
A tall tale? Probably. But the man was so beloved in Italy, especially thanks to children’s books, that in 1942 when Italy was at war with America, the publisher invented a new back-story for him, claiming that he was “in truth” an Italian immigrant called Domenico Tombini, born (like Mussolini) in the Region of Romagna. It was a ruse, an out and out lie, which allowed the publisher to avoid the inevitable censorship he’d had have to face with books about an American hero.
William Buffalo Bill Domenico Tombini Cody! Ha!
When you remember that Italy was the land of Spaghetti Westerns for many years, it’s not as crazy as it sounds.
Now I’ll talk it over with my family. One daughter will be visiting her best friend since childhood in Ibiza and the other is planning a trip to Leipzig, Germany (the old lady is from Cologne)... but Wyoming... the place is so beautiful that I’d be tempted to add 4 more illegal aliens to America’s long list!
When you go to Wyoming, be sure to ask your host if he knows anyone who shoots guns there, as you would like to shoot one. You will likely be overwhelmed with invitations. I organized recreational shoots for a number of Japanese engineers and military officers while they were working at Yuma Proving Ground, and they loved it.
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