“It’s very tempting not to (make the change), but if we don’t do it then we put at risk our citizens,” council member Jan Davis said.
Earlier this year, state lawmakers removed playgrounds from the defined areas where cities could ban concealed weapons. The city is allowed to ban permit holders from having bringing guns to athletic fields, but only if the fields are being used for a “scheduled recreation event.”
“If it’s a pickup game, we cannot,” said Vice Mayor Esther Manheimer. “It has to be scheduled with the city.”
Manheimer is not a big fan of the new state law.
“It’s very difficult to enforce. It should be a city’s decision over its own parks, and that some of it is nonsensical,” Manheimer said. “Why can we prohibit concealed carry at the ballfield during a scheduled baseball game, but 10 steps away at the playground, we can’t prohibit concealed carry? You could conceivably stand in the playground and watch the ballgame. Some of it is just simply nonsensical.”
Council member Cecil Bothwell was even more critical of the situation:
“What we’re doing tonight here is to preserve as much control as we can preserve under the idiotic laws passed by our state Legislature.”
[Asheville Citizen-Times]
