NW Indiana mayor hails court ruling on gun ordinance, says state law will lead to public death

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INDIANAPOLIS ? The mayor of a northwestern Indiana community says he's happy that the city's gun restrictions can remain on the books ? even though they can't be enforced because of a 2011 state law that allows firearms on most public property.

"I just don't think it's right. Bringing a loaded gun to a park shouldn't be legal. We had an ordinance saying that, and the state law superseded it," Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr., told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Two Hammond residents challenged the city ordinance in court in August 2011, contending that the local law barring guns from city buildings and meetings must be repealed due to the state law that largely prohibits local governments from regulating firearms except in courtrooms.

But the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in March that state law rendered Hammond's restrictions moot, so they could remain on the books as long as officials didn't try to enforce them. The state Supreme Court refused Tuesday to take the case, leaving the appellate decision intact.

"I'm not putting my name on something that says you can take a gun in the Hammond Civic Center. That's crazy," McDermott told The Times. "Somebody's going to get killed one day with a gun in the Hammond Civic Center, and I'm going to blame all these idiots that voted for this law."

McDermott said he would veto a proposed repeal a few days before the gun owners sued the city. Shortly after that, he issued two executive orders barring city officials from enforcing the ordinance, though he still opposed its repeal.

Carmel attorney Guy Relford, who has filed several lawsuits involving gun rights, told The Associated Press that the decision nullified the intent of the 2011 law barring municipalities from banning firearms from most public locations, such as libraries and parks.

"By leaving something on your books, you're regulating," he said, adding, "Somebody's going to read that and comply, and isn't that regulating?"

Other Indiana cities, such as Indianapolis and Evansville, repealed their gun restrictions due to the passage of the law, Relford said.

McDermott said he was "positive" the NRA, which urged passage of the state law, was behind the lawsuit.

"We realized very quickly that the NRA was setting us up for a lawsuit," he said in a phone interview.

A spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association did not reply to a phone message from the AP seeking comment Wednesday.

Relford said he had no professional relationship with the NRA, though the gun rights organization made a "small donation" toward the lawsuit's costs about two years ago.

Sen. Jim Tomes, R-Wadesville, who authored the act, was not immediately available for comment.

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Follow Charles Wilson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CharlesDWilson

Source: http://www.tribtown.com/view/story/98a44ddde92c494197929d2a8c507a3a/IN--Hammond-Gun-Restrictions

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