Idaho, as with most states, has a preemption statute that guarantees uniform gun laws across the state. The laws have proven to be very popular, allowing gun owners to move freely without worrying about complying with a patchwork of laws from county to county, city to city. All states have some form of preemption law in place. In New York, courts have ruled that the State handgun licensing law preempts local ordinances. In the case of Twin Falls, Idaho, an old ordinance prohibited carrying guns in county parks. The ordinance was in direct violation of state law . . .
The matter was brought to their attention by the Second Amendment Foundation, and commissioners voted unanimously to repeal the offending language. From magicvalley.com:
The change brings the county in compliance with a 2008 state law that forbids counties and cities from passing gun laws stricter than the state’s, except to restrict where you can fire a gun….
Commissioner Leon Mills said he took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, and the new law does that.
A local resident stood to oppose the law.
“What about my right to be in a public park, in a public place, that is free of guns?” asked Anne Martin.
This may come as a surprise to Ms. Martin, but there is no such “right.” To even ask the question is to demonstrate a profound misunderstanding of the definition of a right. To illustrate the fallacy of the question, consider it in regards to another right, free speech. The analogy would be, “What about my right not to hear speech that I disagree with in a public place?” If anyone had such a “right”, it would destroy the right to free speech. The “right” that Ann Martin desires isn’t a right, just the power to control others’ actions.
The Second Amendment Foundation is working to have these illegal ordinances repealed around the country.
©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Kudos to the SAF.
The comment from Ms. Martin amuses me. Does she really think that a piece of paper will magically stop a bad guy from bringing a gun into a park? Or anywhere else?
I am sure she believes in ponies and rainbows too
She is probably a unicorn person.
I believe in ponies an rainbows too, since I’ve actually seen both.
I just don’t believe anyone has a specific right to either.
Yes. Yes, she does.
And *that* is what’s truly frightening…
Actually, it was the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance (http://www.idahosaa.org) behind this, not the SAF.
Kudos to the Idaho group. This is the grassroots up, place by place, follow the law approach that worked in Michigan in the concealed carry movement- read “Rise of the Anti-gun Media”, and is working in CA, county by county, to hold Sheriffs to a uniform standard. Real citizens, working in local grassroots groups, to require politicians to follow the law, in horizontally integrated fashion, across the nation, enabled by SAF money for litigation, and 5 million real citizens funded NRA intel and lobbying to stay on top of and keep State legislators honest to their promises, beats top-down Progtard Propaganda SockPuppets funded by liberal Billionaires, like Bloombergs Everytown/MDA/MAIG, every time.
Keep spreading the word- great article Dean.
What about my right to be in a public place, in a public park, that is free of Anne Martin?
Hey, wait. Maybe the repeal of this ordinance will take care of that.
“What about my right to be in a public park, in a public place, that is free of guns?” Sounds like a great idea, what about my right to live in a country free of idiotic statists, fascists, communists, socialists. and other freedom hating morons such as yourself?
“What about my right to be in a public park, in a public place, that is free of guns?” asked Anne Martin.
Anne, it’s an excellent opportunity for you to work on your coping skills.
Anne Martin, sure you can be in a park that is free of firearms, and then walk out of the park by numerous people concealed carrying. Oh, that’s right. You live in a fantasy world where signs and laws prevent bad people from doing bad things.
Let me take a wild guess and say that Anne Martin has moved into Idaho in the last five years or she has moved from Mccall, Hailey, or Boise. Most of Idaho has some good 2A people. Libs like to crowd around a few areas and sadly it looks like Twin Falls has an invader.
I go through Twin Falls often. Nice big Snake River Canyon there.
For any of you who remember Evel Knievel, Twin Falls is where he attempted, and failed, on September 8, 1974, with much media fanfare, to leap the mile-wide chasm of the Snake River Canyon on his specially engineered rocket motorcycle.
Another interesting tidbit about Twin Falls is that it is possibly the only place in the world where it is legal to BASE jump (parachute) off the bridge over the Snake River – about a 400+ foot drop from the Perrine Bridge leading into the town from I-84. Most days, if you pull off into one of the handy viewing areas to park, you will see someone climb up on the railing and jump off, popping his/her chute after a brief drop, then steering to the bank of the river in the canyon.
Twin Falls County has a pretty libertarian approach to this – “if you want to jump off the bridge, go ahead (no permit needed), but if we have to send the sheriff’s rescue launch out to pull your broken body from the Snake River we will charge you.” BASE jumpers have moved from all over the world to Twin Falls, just so they can jump off the bridge whenever they feel like it. some guy set a record for most jumps in a day from the bridge. A few years back I met a woman from Australia who had moved to Twin for the bridge jumping.
All of which makes the now-revoked Twin Falls city ordinance banning guns in parks really surprising. The local progs must have slipped it in at a city meeting when everyone was on vacation.
we have to fix a few outdated local ordinances here in Georgia every once in a while as well…
“What about my right to be in a public park, in a public place, that is free of guns?”
No such “right” exists. And if people would quit making up phony “rights” as a way to exploit others (no true right can be a claim on the resources of other people, Anne) we’d all be a lot better off. Anne, and her ilk, can go sit in the corner until she learns the correct meanings of words.
Could we get some help in New York State from the SAF? They are winning stuff all over the country but won’t help us out in NYS…
why bother asking that around here? most of everyone around here will just tell us we deserve what cuomo did and if we don’t like it why not move?
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