Tennessee governor signs bill allowing handguns in parks

[Little Tich]

Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) - Licensed handgun owners are allowed to carry their weapons in parks throughout Tennessee under a bill signed by Governor Bill Haslam on Friday, even if local governments would like to ban the practice.

Haslam, a Republican, said he had reservations about an early version of the bill, but signed the final measure that made it clear that guns are not allowed at school-related activities taking place in parks.

Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and other local leaders strongly opposed the bill.

"Public safety is always my greatest concern," Dean had said in a letter to the chairman of a House committee that studied the measure. "Therefore, most simply stated, I believe that allowing guns in Nashville's parks is a very bad idea."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/tennessee-governor-signs-bill-allowing-handguns-parks-001304539.html

[davidthegnome]

1. Who the hell brings a gun to a park?

This is a bad idea for sooo many reasons.

As much as I appreciate responsible gun owners, not all gun owners are responsible - and I expect that the irresponsible type is the more likely to show up at a park fully armed and loaded. I remember the park I played at as a child fondly. If I could, and if it could hold my adult ass, I'd love to go back and swing on one of the swings some day. But if there were people there walking around with guns, I think I'd be more likely to avoid it - and certainly to tell my children to avoid it.

Must we go armed everywhere? I suppose it is conceivable that someone might try to harm you or your children at a park, it is conceivable that having a fire arm at that time might dissuade the attacker, but what is more likely is that it would escalate such a situation. I mean, isn't this why we're supposed to have police? Security? Or (dare I suggest it?) simple common sense?

There are some places where I think guns are a bad frigging idea - I think they are an especially bad idea at places frequented by young children who are there to have fun.

In any event... I don't think I'd recommend a picnic at a Tennessee park to anyone at all. It's pretty damned sad that people are so scared they can't go to the park, or take their children there, without going armed.

[OldRedneck]

2. AMEN!!!

Agree with everything you say.

The people who will carry firearms into parks are not frightened -- they are ignorant mouth-breathing jackasses who believe carrying a gun around with them makes them a REAL MAN.

Here are photos of typical idjits who carry firearms everywhere they go.




?w=512




Just the kind of trash I want to share public parks with.

[davidthegnome]

5. I work for a store in a very rural area.

Real salt of the earth type folks... fishermen, farmers, hunters, etc. tend to be our customers. Most of them are pretty decent - but occasionally, I see people who look a whole lot like those idiots in your photos there. People who are... well, uhm, hmm... different in a unique, disturbing way which fills one with a desire to laugh, run away screaming, or throw things at them. (Or all three at once)

It's almost like they're auditioning for world's dumbest rednecks. "Guns gawd and freedumb. Yer know, I see yer live bait there, good thing yer got it too. Cause, yer know, I'm a master at baitin' a fishin' hook, every time I do it, brother Jimbob... he goes ta me, "Whoohee! Boy, yer a heckofabaiter, a masterbaiter is what yer are."

That joke was a lot funnier when I used it last week... I need new material.

[Shamash]

10. There are by gov't estimates, about 11 million concealed carry permits in the US

Which would be about 1 in 20 adults and probably 30% of those are Democrats. Think about those odds as you count passing cars on your drive home or passerby as you walk down the sidewalk. If those concealed carry people (for whom your pictures above are not typical) are not scaring you into a fresh pair of underwear on an hourly basis while you are out in public and blissfully ignorant of their presence, why should they have to detour around a public park?

It's not about "bringing a gun to a park". It is about not being criminalized for walking across a park if you already have a license to carry (open or concealed handgun carry in Tennessee requires training, a written exam, fingerprinting and a background check). And there are still exceptions to the law to prohibit carry during things like school functions being held in a park, so if your local school is doing soccer practice there, the prohibition remains in force.

And FYI, the law is about licensed handgun carry in public parks and I can't see a single handgun in any of your "typical" pictures...

I think that covers most of your fear, ignorance, stereotyping and misreading of the law. If there is anything else you are wrong about that I failed to address, let me know.

[They_Live]

15. I don't want guns around me or my family

licensed or not. and we like to go to parks.

[Shamash]

16. Substitute "blacks" for "guns" and "pool" for "parks" and tell me what you sound like.

Not wanting something around you and your family that you have an irrational fear of*, or because you just plain dislike it is not a justification for banning it and is not a liberal value.

*The statistical risk to you and your family from a concealed carry person is less than the risk you take by driving your family to that park.

[graegoyle]

18. Substitute "black" for "gun"?

When was the last time someone's skin "accidentally" shot and killed a child?

[3catwoman3]

3. "Who the hell brings a gun to a park?"

Probably the same people who feel it necessary to bring them to church.

[Lodestar]

4. Lots of GOP running for office and the NRA needs its back scratched before it dips into its pockets.

[world wide wally]

6. What was the need for this law besides making more money for the NRA?

[Zambero]

7. Where next? Petting zoos?

Eventually we could see crazed events patterned after the 60's love-ins, only they would be a "shoot-ins", with nervous squirrels scurrying about, and the likes of Ted Nugent performing his godawful racket decimating the flowers and shrubs.

[GGJohn]

8. And yet in the other states that allow this,

none of that is going on.
Hmmmm, I wonder why?

[valerief]

12. Well, they're already allowed in daycares. nt

[LiberalElite]

13. Bring a gun to my place of employment and get fired -

I like it like that.

[pintobean]

9. Basically, this only affects gun owners

who were abiding by the law that prohibited guns in parks.

[valerief]

11. I want to see them in the state houses of the states where they sign these fuckin' laws. nt

[RecoveringJournalist]

14. ^^^^^THIS^^^^^

[ileus]

17. Remember trouble doesn't make an appointment.

[Vinca]

19. One more reason not to spend vacation dollars in Tennessee.