A public hearing before the Indianapolis City County Council was called to hear comments pro and con on a proposal to rescind a current gun prohibition city ordinance in Indy’s public parks. Here is the text of my two minutes:
I’m here to support a proposal to lift the restriction banning guns in parks. I don’t know who invented the original idea of stripping citizens of their right to protect themselves in parks, but this is a Constitutional issue and a basic self-defense issue. Why and when did someone conclude that we cannot defend ourselves just because we stepped into a park? Why should we be defenseless while we’re having a picnic or attending an outdoor concert in a park? Why would someone strip us of the right to self-defense?
I ask the Parks Dept. and the city council to show just cause by providing ANY studies, ANY statistics that justify a defenseless society while in a park. Provide ANYTHING, ANYTHING, that justifies your notion that carrying a legal gun in a public park somehow incites violence. Please produce your evidence. Convince us that citizens defending themselves is a crime, just because it happens in a park. Convince us that law abiding citizens carrying their own concealed defense prompts any incident that leads others to violence.
If you are going to continue to strip citizens of their right to defend themselves in parks, then supply an armed officer in every one of the 200 parks in Indianapolis during open hours to defend us. Absent that, then leave us alone with our right to defend ourselves, our family and our children. That is all.
