Posted on 06/12/2012 11:16:52 AM PDT by marktwain
An ordinance that would prohibit the carrying of a concealed handgun in city-owned parks was pulled from the Russellville City Council's agenda Monday due to a discovered potential change with federal park guidelines.
Recreation and Parks Director Mack Hollis requested the ordinance he submitted on behalf of his department's board be pulled, citing in an email the Recreational Lands Self Defense Act of 2011 — a bill that has passed in the House of Representatives and is pending in the U.S. Senate that would prohibit the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) from barring weapons otherwise authorized under state law.
Of the 18 parks in the city of Russellville, eight are leased from the USACE. The remaining 10 that are city-owned curerntly have separate guidelines than those that are USACE owned, and the request to run the guidelines consistently came after an incident of confusion when an officer with the Russellville Police Department responded to a report of a man carrying a gun in a park and due to the separation of parks guidelines within the city, questions arose of its legality.
The ordinance was originally proposed by Hollis after the Recreation and Parks board requested a set of guidelines be enacted for city-owned parks that ran consistent with USACE guidelines, which currently prohibit the use or carry of any firearm on USACE-owned or leased property.The formerly-proposed ordinance would run consistently with those guidelines, prohibiting the carrying of any firearm in a city-owned park regardless of a concealed carry permit.
An ordinance prohibiting the possession of a handgun in a city-owned park had previously been discussed and read twice by the Russellville City Council, whereas an updated ordinance prohibiting the just the carrying of a handgun was expected to be discussed and read for the first of three times at this Thursday's meeting.
The council will meet at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
Read more: The Courier - Your Messenger for the River Valley - City pulls gun ordinance
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