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Frankilin County, VA from their Code of Conduct re parks/rec/sportsmanship

Marco

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Discovered this little gem from Franklin County, VA.

www.franklincountyva.org/parks/conduct_sportsmanship.htm


III. Misconduct Consequences

4. Firearms:
Neither firearms nor concealed weapons may be taken into any County sponsored or co-sponsored activity/facility (unless by official capacity). The penalty for such an infraction shall be a one (1) year ban exclusive of other prosecution as may be required.



Email sent!


edit:
my email has been forwarded to the parks mgr.
 
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skidmark

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What prompted you to notice the Franklin County Code of Conduct?

Yes, inquiring mindswant to know.

On the other hand, freedom-loving citizens across Virginia applaud your action to correct that blatant disregard of the laws enacted by the General Assembly. Bunch of criminals, I say, in the Franklin County Parks & Rec Department.

Take two non-racist atta-boys out of petty cash.

stay safe.
 

Marco

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What prompted you to notice the Franklin County Code of Conduct?



Yes, inquiring mindswant to know.

On the other hand, freedom-loving citizens across Virginia applaud your action to correct that blatant disregard of the laws enacted by the General Assembly. Bunch of criminals, I say, in the Franklin County Parks & Rec Department.

Take two non-racist atta-boys out of petty cash.

stay safe.


I'll address the last part first, I know better than that.
I was doing a firearms related search and it popped up.
 

jmelvin

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I'll address the last part first, I know better than that.
I was doing a firearms related search and it popped up.

Gotcha, thanks. It occurred to me while enjoying some throne time this afternoon that it might be a worthy cause for a half dozen or so folks to compile a list of all of the counties and independent cities in Virginia and work our way through their code ordinances to find and attempt to iradicate any known violations of state law with regard to existing restrictions on firearms. I suppose in a month or so we could probably knock out most of it with the right number of volunteers.
 
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The Wolfhound

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Henrico, Virginia, USA
Then, there is the fun part

I was researching the airgun laws for Henrico County when I hit a law restricting carry in County parks. After the alarm bells in my head were silenced, I checked again knowing that Henrico would not be that out of step. They weren't. The reference I first visited was out of date. The current code section had been corrected but the old one was still out on the web. Unfortunately, I did discover that air guns are restricted in areas zoned residential. So, until July1, I cannot shoot in the yard. By then, I will have a range set up that will reasonably prevent pellets from leaving my yard. I will also have the new state law printed out and posted at the corners of my yard.
 

Marco

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This is the email I received from the parks mgr.


Mr. M –

Actually, the Board of Supervisors adopted a change in this policy at their April meeting. The updated version follows. Please let me know if you have any questions.


Firearms:
Carrying of firearms and/or concealed weapons may only occur as allowed by federal, state, and local laws as they relate to any County sponsored or cosponsored activity/facility. Unlawful possession and/or use of such weapons will result in a minimum ban of one (1) year, exclusive of other prosecution as may be required.




Michael Burnette
Director
Commerce & Leisure Services
County of Franklin, Virginia
1255 Franklin Street
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
540.483.3030 (office)
www.franklincountyva.org



My response:


Mr. Burnette,

Thanks for the clarification. Is the website wording going to be changed, so it no longer conflicts with state law and continue to add confusion to the taxpayers?
Is there no exemption for the lawful use (self defense) with regards to the ban from County parks and rec sponsored/co-sponsored activies?


I look forward and appreciate your swift reply.

Thanks,
Marco
 

TFred

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Most historic town in, Virginia, USA
This is the email I received from the parks mgr.


Mr. M –

Actually, the Board of Supervisors adopted a change in this policy at their April meeting. The updated version follows. Please let me know if you have any questions.


Firearms:
Carrying of firearms and/or concealed weapons may only occur as allowed by federal, state, and local laws as they relate to any County sponsored or cosponsored activity/facility. Unlawful possession and/or use of such weapons will result in a minimum ban of one (1) year, exclusive of other prosecution as may be required.




Michael Burnette
Director
Commerce & Leisure Services
County of Franklin, Virginia
1255 Franklin Street
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
540.483.3030 (office)
www.franklincountyva.org


My response:


Mr. Burnette,

Thanks for the clarification. Is the website wording going to be changed, so it no longer conflicts with state law and continue to add confusion to the taxpayers?
Is there no exemption for the lawful use (self defense) with regards to the ban from County parks and rec sponsored/co-sponsored activies?


I look forward and appreciate your swift reply.

Thanks,
Marco
Actually, as I understand the reading of 15.2-915, that is still an illegal ordinance. They are not allowed to adopt any ordinance that is not explicitly authorized. Plain. Simple. If it's not authorized, then they can't write it. Even if it mirrors state code.

That would be my reply.

TFred

PS: And this makes good sense in conjunction with Preemption as we know it. Even if localities write ordinances that mirror state code, when that state code changes, we know quite well that nobody follows up with local ordinances... you end up with the exact problem that Preemption was written to fix.
 
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Marco

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Actually, as I understand the reading of 15.2-915, that is still an illegal ordinance. They are not allowed to adopt any ordinance that is not explicitly authorized. Plain. Simple. If it's not authorized, then they can't write it. Even if it mirrors state code.

That would be my reply.

TFred

PS: And this makes good sense in conjunction with Preemption as we know it. Even if localities write ordinances that mirror state code, when that state code changes, we know quite well that nobody follows up with local ordinances... you end up with the exact problem that Preemption was written to fix.

I don't believe this to be a County ordinance just nonsense from the Park and Rec Code of Conduct, but I could very well be wrong.

Edit:
Will look a little deeper
 
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Marco

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Greene County
Park Directors reply:

Subject: RE: parks and rec
Date: Thu, 5 May 2011 12:00:44 -0400


Mr. M –



My staff is working on making those changes to the website and policy manual as we speak. It should be done in short order. As to the use of firearms in a lawful way, I believe the statement that unlawful use requires a ban clearly implies that lawful use is permitted.



Michael Burnette
Director
Commerce & Leisure Services
County of Franklin, Virginia
1255 Franklin Street
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
540.483.3030 (office)
www.franklincountyva.org

MY reply:



Mr. Burnette,


Thanks again for the swift reply, I just wanted clarification.
As to the rewrite, Actually, as I understand the reading of 15.2-915, that is still an illegal ordinance. You are not allowed to adopt any ordinance that is not explicitly authorized by the General Assembly with regards to firearms with the exception of discharging. Plain. Simple. If it's not authorized, then you can't write it.
Even if it mirrors state code.

Thanks again,

Marco
 
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TFred

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Well it'll be interesting to see their reply to that! Their best bet would be to simply remove the whole section and allow State Law to govern... that is the intent of preemption anyway.

TFred
 

jmelvin

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Actually, as I understand the reading of 15.2-915, that is still an illegal ordinance. They are not allowed to adopt any ordinance that is not explicitly authorized. Plain. Simple. If it's not authorized, then they can't write it. Even if it mirrors state code.

That would be my reply.

TFred

PS: And this makes good sense in conjunction with Preemption as we know it. Even if localities write ordinances that mirror state code, when that state code changes, we know quite well that nobody follows up with local ordinances... you end up with the exact problem that Preemption was written to fix.

It's funny you mention this TFred. As I indicated in the Roanoke County Code thread I have been making my way through the codes of some of the localities around here. The City of Danville has multiple instances where they have ordinances that appear to mirror state restrictions on firearms carry. I've identified some of these, however I need to take note that I need to go back and identify all of them.
 

Marco

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Well it'll be interesting to see their reply to that! Their best bet would be to simply remove the whole section and allow State Law to govern... that is the intent of preemption anyway.

TFred

Agreed!

I imagine Mr. Burnette is consulting with the City/County attorney regarding the latest email.

I'll post any/all replies.
 
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AbNo

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Gotcha, thanks. It occurred to me while enjoying some throne time this afternoon that it might be a worthy cause for a half dozen or so folks to compile a list of all of the counties and independent cities in Virginia and work our way through their code ordinances to find and attempt to iradicate any known violations of state law with regard to existing restrictions on firearms. I suppose in a month or so we could probably knock out most of it with the right number of volunteers.

Heh.... Best part is, if I did this over the Summer, I'd do it at work.

My pay stub says State of VA. :lol:
 

jmelvin

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Heh.... Best part is, if I did this over the Summer, I'd do it at work.

My pay stub says State of VA. :lol:

When I had some free time / break time yesterday and the night before I went through about 12-14 county and city codes for the areas that I could immediately think of right around the Lynchburg area. I was fairly surprised to see a fair number of restrictions on the books and some that were pretty draconian even in areas like Farmville.

Some of the codes were available at Municode.com and others are housed by the cities/couties on their own website and both of these types had search functions that would look across all code sections for the words I used, which were "gun", "firearm" and "weapon". Other codes were only available in individual sections in a .pdf format so I took a "reasonable approach" searching for these same 3 words in the the portions of the code that I thought were most likely to turn up a restriction such as in portions of the codes labeled something like the following: Offenses / Crimes, Nuisances, Hungting, Birds / Animals / Fowl, Parades, Festivals, Public Buildings, Schools, Airports and maybe a couple others.

I have put my findings in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that lists what code, where I found it online, offending code sections, whether the code has any offensive wording, key-words and such. One thing that occurred to me as I was wrapping up the last of my searching was I regularly noted varying restrictions on the possession of firearms by minors, which may or may not have been the same as what the state provides for. If the state law is to be the only law applicable to possession of firearms by minors then these restrictions should be stricken as well.
 

TFred

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[...] the words I used, which were "gun", "firearm" and "weapon".
One trap you need to be careful of, the Municode search function only sometimes distinguishes between singular and plural versions of a word. It's rather bizarre, I have actually seen some of the code sections return hits with "firearms" when the search word was "firearm" but at the same time, other code sections that do not.

Bottom line, you need to search for all versions of your words to be sure.

TFred
 

Marco

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Mr. M –



I wanted to get back to you on your concern. I have spoken with Jim Jefferson, County Attorney, and he advised me that his interpretation of the State Code does allow for the policy to be adopted as presented. As I am obviously not a lawyer, I invite you to talk with Mr. Jefferson if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks!



Mike



Michael Burnette
Director
Commerce & Leisure Services
County of Franklin, Virginia
1255 Franklin Street
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
540.483.3030 (office)
www.franklincountyva.org
 

Thundar

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The third part of preemption was inserted so that tin horn dictators would not do what they have done here.

Take Franklin to the wood shed.

Maybe others will learn from Franklin's mistake and comply without all of this silly wordsmithing instead of deleting the code.

VCDL usually has good luck in fixing recalcitrant knuckleheads, sometimes with reason, sometimes by attendig town council meetings while OCing, but eventually most get it.
 

TFred

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Mr. M –



I wanted to get back to you on your concern. I have spoken with Jim Jefferson, County Attorney, and he advised me that his interpretation of the State Code does allow for the policy to be adopted as presented. As I am obviously not a lawyer, I invite you to talk with Mr. Jefferson if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks!



Mike



Michael Burnette
Director
Commerce & Leisure Services
County of Franklin, Virginia
1255 Franklin Street
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
540.483.3030 (office)
www.franklincountyva.org
Were you provided with Mr. Jefferson's contact information? I would certainly love to hear how he has managed to convince himself that an ordinance that clearly governs the carrying of firearms does not violate:

"A. No locality shall adopt or enforce any ordinance, ... governing the ... carrying ... of firearms ... other than those expressly authorized by statute."

I would simply ask him to cite the statute that expressly authorizes their ordinance.

TFred
 
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