Posted on 08/19/2010 7:47:08 PM PDT by marktwain
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson on Tuesday joined a heated -- but seemingly settled -- debate over whether holstered firearms should be allowed at the Arts, Beats and Eats festival scheduled for Labor Day weekend in Royal Oak.
The City Commission on Monday night voted to remove a ban on firearms from the contract between Royal Oak and festival organizers in the wake of pressure from open-carry advocates.
"These guys want to make a point and don't give a damn about the charities the festival supports," the Republican leader and festival founder told The Oakland Press. "I have a problem with these gun-toting zealots."
Patterson told the newspaper he's received dozens of calls from people who say they won't come to the festival for fear of safety and, in typical firebrand fashion, offered a bold suggestion: "If they want to carry guns, why don't they join the army and get their asses over to Afghanistan?"
Organizers of Michigan Open Carry Inc., the group behind the effort to strike down the ban, called the comment ignorant. President Jeff Sayers told The Detroit News the group is not encouraging gun-carriers to attend the festival simply to assert their rights.
"I would encourage them to do what they normally do," he said.
While the City Commission voted to allow firearms at the festival -- which is making its inaugural run in Royal Oak after more than a decade in Pontiac -- members also passed a resolution urging legislators to modify the state's open-carry law by allowing cities to restrict firearm possession in municipal buildings.
Activists began attending commission meetings last month wearing holstered sidearms, an assertion of their Second Amendment rights. But Commissioner Terry Drinkwine, who drafted the resolution, argued they limited other residents' First Amendment rights by producing "a chilling effect" on public speech at the open meetings.
As it stands, Michigan law allows any person over the age of 18 without a criminal record to carry a holstered firearm in public, except at a bank, church, court, theater, sports arena, day care center, hospital, bar or federal facility.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday she is not planning to seek a change in state law, noting such an effort would not go over well in Lansing. "I could initiate it, but I'd get no support in the Legislature," she said during an appearance in Detroit, per The News.
Only if you are afraid of free people.
People refuse to attend because they are afraid of guns? Well halleluia... They finally found a way to ward off liberals.
Would be slave masters have always feared armed men.
Patterson started out as a conservative 35 years ago fighting busing in Pontiac, MI. Over the years he has morphed into the ultimate party hack. His primary interests now are golf and living the good life. The last time I heard about Patterson was when he damaged a county-issued Cadillac on his way beck from the “19th hole.”
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