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Judge: Seattle parks gun ban is constitutional
Friday, March 12, 2010
Last updated 12:42 p.m. PT
By CASEY MCNERTHNEY
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
A federal judge has ruled Seattle's ban on carrying firearms in city parks and community centers is constitutional.
Plaintiff Robert Warden, of Kent, sued the city and Mayor Greg Nickels, challenging the constitutionality of the rule created by the Seattle Parks Department that makes it illegal to carry concealed firearms or display firearms at certain parks facilities where "children and youth are likely to be present and . . . appropriate signage has been posted to communicate to the public that firearms are not permitted at the facility."
The park rule was created after former Nickels issued an executive order on June 6, 2008, directing city departments to create rules and policies to "prohibit the possession of dangerous weapons, including firearms, on city property."
Ont Nov. 14 -- a day after Warden e-mailed reporters and city staff members saying he intended to carry a handgun into the Southwest Community Center -- he did so with his Glock-27 .40-caliber sub-compact pistol.
Parks Department employee Lisa Harrison asked him to leave, and he did.
"I'm not here as a Second Amendment activist," Warden said that day. "I'm here as a citizen who believes in the rule of law."
Warden had supporters, including National Rife Association members, who said Nickels was out of line with the gun ban, something prompted after a shooting injured two bystanders at the 2008 Northwest Folklife Festival.
Nickels said the ban was intended to protect children. Warden objected to that reasoning.
In her order dated Thursday, U.S. District Judge Marsha J. Pechman granted a motion to dismiss the suit in full, writing that Warden's "Second Amendment claim fails for the simple reason that the Second Amendment does not apply to the City of Seattle under current 9th Circuit law."
Pechman said Warden's equal protection claim is without merit.
Warden's "state constitutional claim is flawed because (he) has not demonstrated why the regulation is not permissible under the prevailing state law," she wrote.
Last month, King County Superior Court Judge Catherine Shaffer ruled in favor of the Second Amendment Foundation, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Washington Arms Collectors, NRA and five individual plaintiffs, stating the gun ban is in direct violation of Washington state's firearm pre-emption law.
Plantiffs say the statute is intended to keep local governments from trumping state firearms laws.
Judge: Seattle parks gun ban is constitutional
Friday, March 12, 2010
Last updated 12:42 p.m. PT
By CASEY MCNERTHNEY
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
A federal judge has ruled Seattle's ban on carrying firearms in city parks and community centers is constitutional.
Plaintiff Robert Warden, of Kent, sued the city and Mayor Greg Nickels, challenging the constitutionality of the rule created by the Seattle Parks Department that makes it illegal to carry concealed firearms or display firearms at certain parks facilities where "children and youth are likely to be present and . . . appropriate signage has been posted to communicate to the public that firearms are not permitted at the facility."
The park rule was created after former Nickels issued an executive order on June 6, 2008, directing city departments to create rules and policies to "prohibit the possession of dangerous weapons, including firearms, on city property."
Ont Nov. 14 -- a day after Warden e-mailed reporters and city staff members saying he intended to carry a handgun into the Southwest Community Center -- he did so with his Glock-27 .40-caliber sub-compact pistol.
Parks Department employee Lisa Harrison asked him to leave, and he did.
"I'm not here as a Second Amendment activist," Warden said that day. "I'm here as a citizen who believes in the rule of law."
Warden had supporters, including National Rife Association members, who said Nickels was out of line with the gun ban, something prompted after a shooting injured two bystanders at the 2008 Northwest Folklife Festival.
Nickels said the ban was intended to protect children. Warden objected to that reasoning.
In her order dated Thursday, U.S. District Judge Marsha J. Pechman granted a motion to dismiss the suit in full, writing that Warden's "Second Amendment claim fails for the simple reason that the Second Amendment does not apply to the City of Seattle under current 9th Circuit law."
Pechman said Warden's equal protection claim is without merit.
Warden's "state constitutional claim is flawed because (he) has not demonstrated why the regulation is not permissible under the prevailing state law," she wrote.
Last month, King County Superior Court Judge Catherine Shaffer ruled in favor of the Second Amendment Foundation, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Washington Arms Collectors, NRA and five individual plaintiffs, stating the gun ban is in direct violation of Washington state's firearm pre-emption law.
Plantiffs say the statute is intended to keep local governments from trumping state firearms laws.