A man accused of wounding three people in a shooting at Seattle‘s Folklife Festival recently has been charged with second-degree assault. Clinton Grainger could face up to 45 months if convicted.
Grainger’s gun discharged as he was scuffling with another man. Two people were hit by the bullet and sustained non-life-threatening injuries, and the man Grainger was fighting with suffered burn wounds to his face from being so close to the gun when it discharged.
So what is the solution to the crime? A gun ban.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has signed an executive order that asks all departments to come up with a plan within 30 days to ban guns at all property owned by the city.
Nickels signed the executive order after the recent shooting at the NW Folklife Festival at Seattle Center that wounded two people.
“At many of our properties, including City Hall, you can bring a gun if you have a concealed weapons permit. Under this order, people with concealed weapons will be asked to leave or hand over their gun.”
It’s a city rule that cannot trump state law. The only thing the city and police can do is kick someone with a gun out of a building or an event.
Oh yeah, that ought to work out just fine, Mr. Mayor. Says John Barnes:
Stop me if you’ve heard this one.
A guy walks into a crowd and shoots some people. The mayor then proposes new gun control laws that wouldn’t have prevented the original crime.
Sound familiar? Then you probably heard about Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels’ plan to ban guns in all city facilities, particularly public event venues. This comes in the wake of the May 24 shooting of three people at the Seattle Folklife Festival. It seems to me we’ve been down this road before.
Announcing his plan today, Mayor Nickels insists “The reason for this order is simple. Our parks, our community centers and our public events are safer without guns.” Now that’s simple. But I suspect that a man willing to pull a gun and shoot innocent people isn’t interested in following a law prohibiting him from doing so. Call me crazy.
So once again our elected officials call for or embrace a “solution” that wouldn’t have prevented the original crime in the first place. I suspect this isn’t the last time we’ll go back to the future.
Amen.
Seattle, Folklife Festival, Clinton Grainger, Greg Nickels, gun, concealed weapon, gun control
