Marion ordinance prohibiting openly displayed firearms in municipal buildings defeated

The defeat Thursday night of a proposed Marion ordinance prohibiting openly displayed firearms in municipal buildings did not mark a turning point in local efforts to regulate the carrying of weapons, according to gun rights activist Sean McClanahan.

“Despite success this week in Marion and Kalona, we are not seeing a let-up” in attempts by cities and counties to prohibit handguns in their facilities, said McClanahan, president of the Iowa Firearms Coalition, which lobbied successfully for the state law that changed Iowa from a “may issue” to a “shall issue” state on Jan. 1.

Attempts by local governments to pre-empt state law will continue “until the Legislature strengthens the pre-emption section of the law,” he said.

“Either that, or we are going to take someone to court,” McClanahan said.

Meanwhile, he said, gun rights activists will continue to attend en masse public hearings on pre-emption attempts, as they did Thursday night in Marion, where more than 80 of them urged the council to reject the ordinance, which it did on a 4-to-3 vote.

One of them, Ed Dolan of Central City, said local government entities that try to restrict gun owners' rights “are fighting the tide of liberty.”

Iowans, he said, believe they have the right to defend themselves, their homes and their families and will fight for that right.

Marion City Manager Lon Pluckhahn said he thought the proposed ordinance, which prohibited only openly displayed weapons, was quite benign. “I can't imagine a purpose for an exposed weapon other than intimidation,” he said.

Pluckhahn said the council will likely await clarification by the Legislature before bringing the issue up again.

State Rep. Nick Wagner, R-Marion, said he has not heard of any specific proposals to revisit the state law in the upcoming session.

Wagner said he is surprised that cities and counties are attempting to regulate the carrying of handguns in public facilities.

It was his interpretation, he said, that the pre-emption clause in existing state law prohibited regulation by cities and counties.

The intent of the law was to have one statewide set of regulations rather than 99 sets as was the case when each county sheriff had discretion over the issuing of carry permits, he said.

“We did not want to push it down from the counties to the cities,” he said.

Gun rights activists believe that an opinion issued late last year by the Iowa Attorney General's Office, asserting the legality of city and county regulations, has prompted the recent surge in local regulations.

Asked whether the Iowa City Public Library can prohibit firearms, Assistant Iowa City Attorney Eric Goers, in a Jan. 4 memo to library Director Susan Craig, said yes.

Echoing the recent Attorney General's Office opinion, Goers said weapons restrictions should be adopted by formal library board action, that signs should be posted on all entrances and that enforcement should be pursued through criminal trespass charges.

The Buchanan County supervisors followed similar advice in passing their resolution barring weapons in county-owned facilities.

In Washington County, where the supervisors on Dec. 28 adopted a resolution prohibiting weapons in county buildings and parks, County Attorney Larry Brock said the resolution differs from an ordinance and amounts to rules for how the county manages its property.

The Kalona City Council, which had approved by a 4-to-1 margin a first reading of an ordinance that would have created a weapon-free zone in city buildings, reversed itself Monday night and voted to 5 to 0 rescind its earlier approval.

The council took its vote in a chamber packed with gun rights advocates, many of whom do not reside in Kalona or Washington County.

“I felt like it was a little bit of overkill and that we didn't really have a problem,” said council member Steve Lafaurie, who made the motion to rescind.

Tom Theis, the mayor of Hiawatha, where the Cedar Rapids City Council meets, said he has discussed the issue with the city attorney.

“I don't know what we'll do, but at some point the council will talk about it,” Theis said.

In Mount Pleasant, which made national headlines in 1986 when a gunman killed Mayor Ed King and wounded two council members, city officials have discussed the establishment of gun-free zones on city property but have taken no concrete action, according to Mount Pleasant police Lt. Ron Archer.