http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/915329.htmlLaw would affect areas near primary, secondary schools
JARED PABEN - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD
BELLINGHAM - Guns sales would still be allowed within 500 feet of day cares and colleges, but they'd be banned near public and private primary and secondary schools, under a new city proposal.
City leaders changed their minds on Monday, May 18, and decided to exclude day cares and college from the proposed ban. The change came after city attorneys recommended against including day cares and colleges, saying it could result in lawsuits claiming the city went further than state law allows.
"It would be an unreasonable risk for the city to expand the definition beyond what's provided in state law," City Attorney Joan Hoisington told the council
Four members of the council in committee voted to support the new proposal, but the full council didn't vote on it Monday night, waiting until the next meeting to give attorneys time to refine legal language.
State law allows cities to ban gun sales within 500 feet of "primary and secondary school grounds," and city leaders want to do that. But the city's previous proposed definition of "school" included day cares and colleges.
There are 50 state-licensed day cares inside city limits, according to the state Department of Early Learning. It appears banning sales near colleges would have had the greatest impact near Whatcom Community College, near Cordata Parkway and West Kellogg Road, and Trinity Western University, along West Kellogg, because both locations have much commercially zoned land nearby.
The issue arose after Checkmate Pawn applied to open a new store along Northwest Avenue near Shuksan Middle School last year and city planners tried to block the sale of guns there. The owner appealed to the city's hearing examiner, who ruled in his favor. The project has been abandoned anyway.
The city's law would grandfather in the eight licensed gun dealers inside city limits, allowing them to continue selling if they were near schools. But it would restrict locations of new stores. It would also grandfather stores that have applied to sell but haven't received a license yet, as council members said is the case with Yeager's Sporting Goods, a business near St. Paul's Academy that lost its license in 2006. It was rescinded by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after a former Yeager's employee in charge of renewing the permit was late with paperwork, the company owner said.
In a letter dated Monday, May 18, Yeager's owner, Frank Uhrig Sr., and manager, Kym Welch, threatened to legally fight the city and stop allowing Bellingham police to train in company facilities if the council passed the previously considered law. They hope they're close to getting their license again, they wrote, but the previous law would have still prevented gun sales.
On Monday, council member Terry Bornemann said the city's previous, more-expansive definition of "school" was almost guaranteed to draw a legal challenge.
Council members discussed lobbying the legislature to give cities more authority to ban gun sales.
"Shouldn't we be able to protect our own people?" council member Barbara Ryan asked.
"Some of us - me included - would much prefer a society where there are fewer guns and fewer murders and less chance of Columbines," she said, "but maybe we're not the place to start the fight."
This last person sounds like she moved there from Mill Creek in Bothel.
