Editorial: Gun battle goes local
Once the state House and Senate work out a compromise, guns will be legal in all state and local parks
Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Now that the state legislature has virtually assured Tennessee citizens that there will be more guns popping up in state and municipal parks, the focus now shifts to local elected bodies to curb this appetite to mix firearms with family fun.

We can only hope that elected leaders in Memphis, Germantown, Bartlett, Millington, Lakeland, Collierville, Arlington and Shelby County will gather the list of parks under their jurisdiction and vote to keep guns away from these places.

This move is necessary, unfortunately, because the state Senate voted this week to allow people with handgun carry permits to take their firearms into every state, city and county park in Tennessee.

It means weapons could soon become as commonplace at community softball games as a catcher's mitt.

The bill approved by the Senate, however, differs from one passed earlier in the House. In the House version, local governments have the option of voting to permit guns throughout, or in parts of, their parks.

The Senate bill automatically establishes that right, and requires local government bodies that oppose the law to conduct separate votes to ban the weapons at each of their parks.

The House and Senate must reach a compromise before the bill is sent to the governor, but with so much gun fervor floating around Nashville, expect the final bill to look more like the Senate version, which passed by a 24-8 vote.

Among Memphis area senators, only Jim Kyle, Beverly Marrero and Reginald Tate voted against the guns in the park bill. Sens. Mark Norris, Paul Stanley and Delores Gresham voted in favor. Curiously, Sen. Ophelia Ford abstained.

Even if Gov. Phil Bredesen vetoes the legislation, which he should do, it would only be symbolic because the General Assembly has more than enough votes to override it.

So the onus will be on the various local governments to bring reason to this ill-advised move. According to local Web sites, Germantown has about two dozen city parks. Bartlett has 25 and Millington has 10. Collierville has 14 parks within its borders, Arlington has two and Lakeland six. Memphis, meanwhile, oversees 167 parks.

No one has put forth any credible argument that violent behavior is so rampant inside these parks that permit holders should legally start packing their pistols along with their picnic baskets.

The sooner municipal governments move to bat this legislation out of the park, the better.