City Council Reaffirms Ban on Guns in Parks

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The Chattanooga City Council voted 8-0 to reaffirm an existing ordinance banning guns from city parks during its session, yesterday. The Council vote comes one week after Governor Phil Bredesen signed HB 716 into law—lifting a statewide ban on firearms in parks. The General Assembly legislation contains a provision giving municipal governments the ability to 'opt-out' where their own jurisdictions are concerned. Tuesday evening, Parks and Recreation administrator Larry Zehnder informed the Council that the Hamilton County Commission will be considering the issue Wednesday evening, and asked the Council to reaffirm its existing ordinance.

Mr. Zehnder said, "Tomorrow, the County Commission will be discussing the issue of guns in parks again. In the City of Chattanooga, we have an ordinance that deals with [this] that we can impose on our parks. It relies on the fact that you cannot take guns into our parks, here locally." He continued, "Would the City Council be so inclined to pass a motion to continue our present procedure, prohibiting guns in our local parks?" For several weeks, Mayor Ron Littlefield has said that he wants the Council to reaffirm the existing ordinance. During the Council session, interim City Attorney Mike McMahan said that he believes the state law will go into effect on July 1. Given the short time frame for local, legislative action, council members were eager to comply with Mr. Zehnder's request. Councilman Jack Benson said, "I'm glad you brought this up because we want to get right on top of it immediately. We don't want a day to go by where we're on limbo on this." Councilman Peter Murphy, the Legal and Legislative Committee Chair, questioned whether the existing ordinance will be in compliance with the new state law's opt-out clause. He raised the possibility of drafting a new ordinance tailored specifically to HB 716. "One of the things we need to determine is whether the ordinance we have on the books, suffices," he said. "Even if our City Attorney has an opinion on it after reading it, this is going to be a question that's coming up in 95 counties across the state that may already have these ordinances in hundreds of municipalities." Councilman Murphy continued, "Perhaps, I should inquire to several of the members of our state delegation, and get a [state] Attorney General opinion, because I don't want to, for example, pass a resolution saying we agree with our current ordinance, and then find out two years from now, that there's a challenge to it." Since City Council ordinances require two weeks public notice before going into effect, Councilman Benson asked the City Attorney if the council has time to reconsider a new ordinance. Mr. McMahan replied, "You could declare an emergency, and make it effective immediately." Councilwoman Carol Berz urged the Council to go on record, saying that the body upholds its current ordinance, and revisit the language at a later date. She said, "I think what Mr. Zehnder is asking for is that we go on record, and say, 'we definitely uphold the law we have right now' as it meets legal requisite. And I think we're also saying that whether or not we pass a new law, the sense of this Council is that we don't want guns in our public parks. There's nothing to prohibit us from going on record saying that." She added, "I think we need to go on record and say that we're against guns in our public parks. Period." Councilwoman Berz made a motion to that effect. The motion was seconded by Councilmen Russell Gilbert and Andrae McGary. The motion passed 8-0. Councilwoman Sally Robinson was absent. Cliff Hightower and Kelly Gauthier report that the City of Red Bank will also opt out of the 'guns in parks' bill.