In State Rep. Heath VanNatter’s estimation, it’s highly unlikely a law-abiding citizen would bring a loaded gun into the library or City Hall.
That’s just one of the reasons, VanNatter said, for the state to rid itself of the “patchwork” of local gun ordinances.
VanNatter, R-Kokomo, is co-sponsoring legislation to bar local government from passing gun laws stricter than the state’s gun laws, and the effort isn’t going unnoticed.
His constituents in District 38, a largely rural, heavily conservative district, are very supportive of gun rights.
But in Kokomo, local officials are concerned the proposed law would invalidate local ordinances banning guns at city parks and the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library.
“They use that to justify passing this law?” library director Charles Joray said of the suggestion law-abiding citizens usually don’t take guns to certain sensitive public areas. “So you could bring a gun into a hospital nursery? That reasoning is just ridiculous.”
State Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Monticello, voted for the legislation as it passed the Senate 38-12.
He said testimony given in committee indicated there hasn’t been a crime committed in the past decade in Indiana by someone with a special concealed carry permit.
“There’s no history of violent or illegal behavior by those who possess firearm permits,” Hershman said.
“In my opinion, anybody who wants to carry a gun into a building like that is not a law-abiding citizen,” VanNatter said. “Someone like that – they’re going to carry their gun whether they have a permit, or whether or not it’s legal.”
He said the main purpose of the law is to protect citizens from accidentally and unknowingly running afoul of local gun ordinances.
The speed with which the bill is getting through the Legislature has taken some by surprise.
Hershman and State Sen. Jim Buck, R-Kokomo, both supported the bill, and State Rep. Mike Karickhoff, R-Kokomo, has yet to take a position on it.
“While SB 292 has been passed out of the Senate, the time for review by members of the House has not begun,” Karickhoff said Wednesday. “Right now I am focused on the business laid out before us in the House Chambers and will continue to focus on that until we are ready to look at the bills sent to us by our counterparts in the Senate.”
Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight, who serves as co-chairman of the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns’ legislative committee, questioned why the state Legislature is pushing bills to limit local government authority.
“It’s just funny, the hypocrisy that comes from the Indiana Legislature,” Goodnight said Wednesday. “They like to make their independent decisions. They don’t like the federal government telling them what to do. But then they turn around at every step and tell local government and schools what they can and can’t do.”
The bill would exempt public buildings where courtrooms are located, and it doesn’t touch state laws regarding guns and school property.
But it would overturn current library board policy, and would overturn the Kokomo ordinance banning weapons from city parks.
VanNatter said he understands local concerns, but said a larger, constitutional issue trumps those concerns.
“It’s in the U.S. Constitution that we have the right to bear arms, and in my mind, if a municipality bans it, they’re going against the Constitution,” he said.
Hershman agreed.
“There are certain issues that aren’t ‘home rule’ issues,” Hershman said. “A county can’t issue driver’s licenses. Some things locals can’t restrict because they’re a fundamental privilege of the state and state law, and this is a constitutional question.”