Vicksburg Board Votes to Ban Guns on City Property

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Vicksburg board votes to ban guns on city property

VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) — Vicksburg is banning firearms city property except for law enforcement officers.

The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen adopted the ban this week. The Vicksburg Post reports that the board also ordered signs to be put up on city buildings and at parks.

The ban is to take effect Monday.

No penalty is attached to the resolution.

City Attorney Lee Thames says he is drafting a gun ban ordinance for the new city board to look at next week.

Under state law, an ordinance does not become law until 30 days after it is passed so the public may comment.

A new state law effective Monday allows people without permits to carry firearms as long as they are within sight.

js1976 10 years, 10 months ago

They should have just left the laws alone! Those of us with CCP's will lose much of the freedom our permits have provided us in the past as a result of all of the media hype surrounding this new bill.

majstoll 10 years, 9 months ago

The Associated Press missed an opportunity to inform listeners and readers that Vicksburg is forbidden by state law from banning gun carry, including in City Hall.

Subject to the provisions of Section 45-9-53, no county or municipality may adopt any ordinance that restricts or requires the possession, transportation, sale, transfer or ownership of firearms or ammunition or their components. Read more at http://www.nraila.org/gun-laws/state-...">http://www.nraila.org/gun-laws/state-... The only 2 exceptions are for local gun bans in "parks" and at "meetings."

Mike Stollenwerk co-founder, OpenCarry.org

justjess 10 years, 9 months ago

@js1976

"They should have just left the laws alone!"

Be very careful of what you ask for; You just might get it.

What is evident here is the need to change the law. Seemingly, the only place that a gun can be openly carried will be the middle of the street. This will be reminiscent of the Wild Wild West. Since MS has its version or "Stand Your Groung", these death cases could be easily and quickly settled.

bubbat 10 years, 9 months ago

@Jess Why doe HB2 need changed, it just clarified the definition of concealed. Open carry has always been legal in Mississippi since the late 1800s by the Mississippi Constitution, it was just the incorrect and unconstitutional definition of concealed that was the only thing stopping it. Read the Mississippi Constitution.

Lots of places people will be able to open carry, all these ordinances these cities are panicking and issuing are illegal they won't hold up to a legal challenge, which are coming. As far a business posting signs that their right to do so and I have no problem with that , but many are taking them down because they realize that it going to hurt the business, because they aren't just stopping people from open carrying in their business. They are also losing business from gun owners who don't open carry who will no longer do business with them because of the signs, in support of their fellow gun owners, like myself and thousand of others and they are also realizing that a sign isn't going to stop a criminal, just legal gun owners.

Why do you think it going to be the Wild West in Mississippi when over 20 other states have open carry laws and it hasn't been in any of them?

Oh and you need to brush up on your Old West facts, gun fights were actually were few and far between. It wasn't like Hollywood and TV westerns

make it out to have been.

justjess 10 years, 9 months ago

@bubbat

"Oh and you need to brush up on your Old West facts, gun fights were actually were few and far between. It wasn't like Hollywood and TV westerns."

You should have been alive to tell some of the widows and children during that period who lost fathers, husbands and other male relatives to gun fights that "they were few and far between".

Better still, go into some of Jackson communities and tell the parents and relatives who have lost love ones to gun violence that they have nothing to fear because "it just clarified the definition of concealed."

With the clarified definition of concealed, an 18yr old mentally challenged or behavioral impaired kid can sport a gun on top of his/her underwear. We are listed among the cities with the highest number of violent crimes. New Orleans is #1.

Oh, I think that you need to brush up on your report that businesses are losing business because of the signs and in support of their fellow gun owners. Being without a gun in certain instances will SAVE LIVES. I'm sure that rational folks on both sides of this issue realize that the owner of a business that experience gun violence faces liability.

justjess 10 years, 9 months ago

PS. @ bubbat

Please don't refer me to Mississippi's Constitution. There are laws on the book that are only appropriate for horse and buggy days. Not to mention that the "Judge is in vacation" and this does not mean that he is having a "REAL VACATION". He is only working in another jurisdiction.

Many law students from some of the country's finest law schools can not pass our Bar Exam and mostly due to the absence of common sense.

Remember that it was just a few months ago that black folks were no longer considered slaves here in MS. It took 150 years longer than any other state to drop their right to own folks like me.

bubbat 10 years, 9 months ago

@jess- You still didn't answer my question. Why do you think it going to be the Wild West in Mississippi when over 20 other states have open carry laws and it hasn't been in any of them?

bill_jackson 10 years, 8 months ago

People like Jess also predicted wild west shootouts and blood in the streets when the concealed carry law was enacted years ago. Alas, no O.K. Corral scenarios ensued (at least not involving permit holders). Some folks simply have an irrational fear of firearms when their biggest concern should be for the people who are commiting all the gun violence.