Metro Council public hearing 7/30/09

[Guest Fenris]

Thursday, July 30 there will be a 2-hour public hearing at the Metro Council Chambers in Nashville at 6 p.m. to discuss the bill for Nashville to opt out of the handgun in parks bill.

The council website didn't have any info I could see and it might be a case of them not making a big deal about it so maybe there will be a light turnout....who knows.

I have a previous commitment in Lebanon, but hopefully some TGO folks in the Nashville area will be able to attend.

[LagerHead]

I'll be there. I am wearing khaki cargo pants and an ugly green polo with black horizontal stripes to accentuate my beautiful beer belly. See you there.

[Guest HexHead]

Total waste of time. Those idiots are Dean's lapdogs and their minds have already been made up for them.

[ngoeser59]

I will be there to show my support to John Harris & Buford Tune who will be speaking at the meeting. I think it's important to go and be a silent supporter. If you can go, please go and show your support. Grass Roots Movements need visible support also. Emails, Letters, Phone calls are all wonderful....but so is showing up and being seen and letting people know that we may be a minority but we won't roll over.

[Trekbike]

Lagerhead and Nikki - it was good to see you there at the meeting tonight. Not sure if there were other TGO folks.

I think our side presented a very strong case. There was no substance or facts from the opposition.

I was also supprised to see the number of councilmen that spoke up for us. I'm going to send thanks to them for their comments.

What we have to do now is push the councilmen that weren't there tonight to watch the meeting recording.

[Guest Fenris]

My friend told me it was intense, but good. Next Thursday at 5 pm there will be a time for the public to speak before the vote.

[LagerHead]

Good to see everyone there. From what I could tell most of the 20-30 people in the audience were on our side, as evidenced by the laughter at some of the ridiculous comments made by some of the council members.

As expected, and already pointed out by Trek, there was no substance to the arguments in favor of the ban. There were a lot of "what if's" and "what about the children?s" but nothing that could be called an argument.

Beauford Thune, Representative West, and John Harris, on the other hand, presented a lot of the fact with which we are already familiar, and a few points that were new to me, at least.

By my count, of those council members present, there were 5 against the ban, 4 for the ban, and one that only asked one vague question so I couldn't make a determination. When you add that the Police Chief, head of Metro Parks, and the city attorney's office are all pro ban, I'd say it's likely that this fight will be lost on purely ideological grounds.

There was certainly no substance to their side, and councilman Eric Crafton made that pretty obvious. He pretty much tore apart everything they said. Councilmen Gotto, Claiborne, and Duvall also gave them hell. They asked questions that were answered with the equivalent of Bill Clinton's infamous "It depends on what your definition of 'is' is" and outright refused to answer others. My favorite line of the night, in response to Mr. Crafton's question, "Would you be safer walking in a park at night with your daughter if you had a gun?" was Mr. Thune's response: "Hell yes I would be safer if I had a gun!"

Regardless of the outcome of this bill, I am proud of the fight that these guys put up, and I'm glad I was there to see it. I would encourage everyone to go to their local meetings and make their voice heard, or at least enjoy the show, as we did last night.

[ngoeser59]

It was a really great council meeting and our side made sooooooo much more sense. The officers up there defending no guns in parks ended up looking kind of dumb after some of their comments. They kept saying that our parks are safe and there is no reason for anyone with a permit to carry a gun in the park. Well, the facts on paper say otherwise and it was proven right infront of them. One of the Councilmen basically asked one of the officers....well, if the parks are so safe then why do you carry a gun in them? ha. So why can't we all have the same right as an officer? Most of us have had our training from Officers and ex military professionals. Are Cops lives more important than ours? We are all people. We all want to live in peace & harmony. We all want to survive should something horrible happen. There was one council woman (an African American lady and I can't remember her name at this very moment) but she said...oh but what about the kids! If there is a ballgame going on or children around, we don't need guns around them because someone could get shot. Well, it was pointed out very quickly that HCP Holders carry around children all the time and nothing horrible has happened where a permit holder has shot a child. Take for instance McDonalds or Chucky Cheese or Put Put Golf. Hello!!!! Permit holders are in these places and there are children there & it is fine! Wake up Council Woman! We had MANY people speaking on behalf of us. It was awesome.

Edited July 31, 2009 by ngoeser59

[E4 No More]

I saw a clip on the news of the audience laughing at some ridiculous comment made by the police captain. That was a hoot!

[ngoeser59]

Can someone post that clip please?

[E4 No More]

Can someone post that clip please?

Metro debates whether to allow guns in parks - WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather, and Sports |

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