If elected president, Rick Perry could still jog with his gun

By Chris Moody

Political Reporter| The Ticket – Tue, Aug 16, 2011

When Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry goes for a jog in Texas, the governor doesn't just throw on a pair of gym shorts and tennis shoes before dashing out the door. He also packs a concealed .380 Ruger loaded with deadly hollow-point bullets, fully equipped with a laser-sight for precise killing. (What, you don't?)


He says he keeps it on him in case of an attack from wild animals. Last year, the Texas governor sent a coyote to canine heaven with a single shot while he was exercising in Austin, claiming it had threatened his dog.

But if he were elected president, could Perry hypothetically continue to pack heat on his morning run? You're damn right he could.

The Ticket asked several constitutional scholars and presidential experts if a sitting president would be allowed to carry a gun if he wanted to, even if it meant breaking local law. Since the White House is located in Washington, D.C.--a city that bans carrying firearms--the answer isn't perfectly simple. As presidential scholar Kenneth R. Mayer of the University of Wisconsin put it, the legal questions would get "big, fat, and hairy in a hurry."

The short answer is that if the president really wanted to run around Lafayette Park with a revolver strapped to his leg, the legal barriers would be easily surmountable.

In 2008, the Supreme Court struck down a decades-old D.C, law that banned gun ownership in the District of Columbia, but it is still illegal to carry a gun around the city. That second part doesn't sit well with Perry, who considers owning a gun a "fundamental right" enshrined in the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

"We Texans like our guns," Perry writes in his book, Fed Up!. "We don't like meddlesome statists who want to infringe on our right to keep and bear them."

Like it or not, the president would be breaking local law by carrying his gun in the city, but there are several ways he could get around it if he wanted to.

First, the president could easily sign an executive order that makes it legal for him to carry a weapon. Executive Orders are considered as good as law, so there would be little that could stop him, said Adam Winkler, UCLA law professor and author of the new book Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America.

"No man is above the law, not even the president. If applicable law bars him from carrying a gun, then he must obey," Winkler told The Ticket. "Of course, the president is powerful. He could probably just sign an executive order authorizing himself to carry guns wherever he likes."

If, however, the president didn't want to pursue his right to carry through an executive order, he could also take the argument to the federal courts.

The president would have to  "persuade the court that carrying the gun was part of his official duties," said Eric M. Freedman, professor of constitutional law at Hofstra University. That wouldn't necessarily be easy, given that the president is already surrounded by a heavily armed team of Secret Service personnel, but then again, White House lawyers are notorious for legal arguments to justify presidential power. (Amiright John Yoo?)

The president could also request to be deputized in the District, which would allow him to carry a firearm via the same channels that members of law enforcement in the District use.

The gun-toting president could, of course, avoid all these sticky legal problems if he kept his outdoor exercise regimen out of DC. There are plenty of trails, foothills and paths a short drive away in Virginia, a state with loose gun laws, where the president could run freely with the wind blowing through his holsters.

The Secret Service, however, could make a very serious argument that the president shouldn't be carrying a weapon for his own protection. Remember, a spirited debate broke out in the days leading up to President Obama's inauguration over whether he would be forced to surrender his Blackberry for security concerns. (In the end, Obama got to keep his Blackberry, but under certain conditions.) If a Blackberry's almost off limits, you can imagine how the Secret Service might react if the president wanted to pack a glock. When contacted for this article, a spokesman for the Secret Service declined to speak on the record.

Of course, we won't really know how this would all come out until a president actually tries to pack heat on Washington's mean streets. Then again, we might not even get that far. When asked this week on the campaign trail if he was packing, Perry told Politico's Ben Smith, "I never comment on whether I'm carrying a handgun or not. That's why it's called concealed."
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/elected-president-rick-perry-could-still-jog-gun-190824495.html
And really, who would ever check?

 County Commission: new state gun law could create 'Wild West' Palm Beach

By John Kennedy and Jennifer Sorentrue Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 9:49 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2011

Palm Beach County commissioners may challenge a new state law that is forcing them to repeal at least seven local rules regulating guns and ammunition.

The commission directed County Attorney Denise Neiman to research whether the county can mount a legal challenge to the law, enacted this spring, which prevents local governments from regulating firearms and ammunition.

It takes effect Oct. 1. After that, local elected officials or agency heads could face civil fines of as much as $5,000 for trying to enforce ordinances they know are in violation of the state law. Gov. Rick Scott could also remove elected and appointed officials who violate the rules.

"We are sworn in to uphold the health, safety and welfare," Commissioner Burt Aaronson said. "And this certainly does not allow us to protect the health, safety and welfare of the people we serve."

County attorneys have spent weeks combing through the county's ordinances and laws looking for regulations that restrict firearms.

Commissioners have already overturned a provision that banned guns in county parks.

On Tuesday the commission took the final step to repeal a county rule that prevented people from bringing guns into child-care centers. Instead, gun owners must now keep their firearms in a locked box to bring them into the centers, Chief Assistant County Attorney Jim Mize said.

The commission also took preliminary steps to repeal several other gun regulations, including a provision that blocked people from discharging a firearm east of 20-Mile Bend.

Commissioners said the unanimous decisions were made "under duress."
"It is the Wild West here in Palm Beach County," Aaronson said. "West Palm Beach may become known as Wild West Palm Beach."

The National Rifle Association has disputed safety concerns, saying lifting local bans will allow people with state-issued concealed weapon permits to carry firearms into places where they should have been allowed all along.

Carrying firearms into schools or shooting in public places, which could include parks and other crowded areas, would still be banned under state law.

Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said Tuesday the repeal of local laws would not affect residents' safety.

"There is still a state statute," Bradshaw said. "What the public has got to understand is that you can't just go firing your gun off."

Palm Beach County leaders have spent years pushing for stronger gun regulations.
In 1999, the county signed off on a rule that required people buying firearms at gun shows or flea markets to undergo the same criminal background checks as those purchasing guns from licensed dealers.

The next year, county commissioners signed off on a local law requiring gun owners to lock their weapons while children were nearby or face a $500 fine. Gun owners opposed the ordinance and protested loudly at the meeting where the Palm Beach County Commission passed the law.

And in January, Aaronson called for a statewide ban on the sale of high-capacity gun magazines like the one used to wound U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and kill six others.

The new state law was among three measures pushed by the politically powerful NRA that were approved this year by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Rick Scott.

One measure restricts doctors from asking patients about gun ownership and another decriminalizes the accidental showing of a concealed weapon. Doctors' organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, sued Scott this summer over the gun ownership law.

But supporters of the law prohibiting local governments from passing stricter gun laws than the state say it was designed merely to force cities and counties to comply with a 1987 law that placed the right to impose gun regulations with the Legislature.

"There's been a steady creep, an erosion of gun rights by cities and counties," said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Shalimar, who sponsored the law (HB 45) approved this spring, on a mostly party-line vote with Democrats opposed.

"All we're trying to do is enforce the existing laws," Gaetz added.

Richard Radcliffe, executive director of the Palm Beach County League of Cities, said that the county's 38 municipalities are also searching their laws for gun restrictions. The task is challenging because gun rules are often buried in other regulations, such as those dictating appropriate noise levels in an area.

It is unclear how many cities and towns will have to repeal local rules as a result of the new state law, Radcliffe said. "Everybody is in the process of going through all of their code books," he said.

Cragin Mosteller, a spokeswoman for the Florida Association of Counties, said that many county officials are unhappy with the Legislature's action. But none has stepped forward to challenge the measure. "I think we've always felt the government closest to the people is the one that governs best," Mosteller said.
Staff researcher Niels Heimeriks contributed to this story.

Find this article at:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/county-commission-new-state-gun-law-could-create-1752280.html

 

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Florida cities, counties must take local gun laws off books

New state law bans local gun regulations

By Martin E. Comas, ORLANDO SENTINEL
8:02 PM EDT, August 13, 2011

Orange County employees have started removing "no firearms" signs at county parks, and soon they'll probably black out the same words on brochures. In Groveland, leaders recently erased from the books an ordinance that banned firing a gun into the air.

Across Florida, similar scenes are being played out as cities and counties scour their ordinances to get rid of gun regulations by Oct. 1. That's when a tough new state law, backed by the National Rifle Association, will forbid city and county governments from enacting or enforcing local gun-control regulations.

Local officials face individual $5,000 fines and even removal from office by the governor if they try to adopt or enforce local gun laws.

"The sanctions are rather draconian," said Robert Guthrie, Orange's senior assistant county attorney. "We're doing a complete inventory of which rules and regulations we need to repeal."

Since 1987, Florida has had a law giving the state the exclusive right to regulate firearms. But there were no penalties for local governments that took regulation a step further. The newly amended law adds "teeth," said Rebecca O'Hara, legislative director for the Florida League of Cities.

Supporters of the law, signed in June by Gov. Rick Scott, contend that it was needed to have consistent firearm regulations across Florida. By doing away with local restrictions, it allows people with state-issued concealed-weapons permits to carry firearms in places where they should have been allowed all along, according to the NRA. That includes, for example, Orange County parks, which have had a no-guns policy.

"The Constitution protects the right to keep and bear arms," said Marion Hammer, lobbyist for the NRA. "Local governments are not allowed to regulate the Bill of Rights."

But Dennis Henigan, interim president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun-control advocacy group in Washington, lambasted the law, calling it "shameful."

"The gun lobby is determined to force guns into every corner of our society," Henigan said. "That does not make us safer."

Nevertheless, local governments from Miami to Pensacola are purging their ordinances of "gun" references.

In Boca Raton, the "no guns allowed" sign has come down at City Hall.

In Lake County, commissioners recently deleted a provision in an ordinance that would have banned firearms on public lands, including its parks.

In Orange, Matt Suedmeyer, the county's parks-and-recreation manager, said he has had several meetings with county attorneys to discuss the new law, and "it does appear that we have to remove" any signs referring to guns. To save money, county employees probably will use markers to block out wording about guns in brochures.

"There is a little concern" about public safety, Suedmeyer said. "The bad guys that carry guns would bring them into the parks regardless."

State law already makes it illegal to fire into buildings, cars, across streets and in public places, except for self-defense. Though concealed-weapons-permit holders will be allowed to bring guns into most government buildings, state law doesn't allow firearms in meetings of elected officials.

But a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work for gun regulations, Palm Beach County Commissioner Shelley Vana said.

Urban communities with more people living closer together should be able to have stricter gun rules than rural communities with more wide-open spaces, Vana said.

"It's a shame that there are people in Florida who love their guns more than children," Vana said. "Special interests have won out."

But Hammer, of the NRA, said local "gun haters" flouting the 1987 law for years prompted the addition of personal penalties for public officials who try to impose local rules.

Differing gun regulations across the state "made criminals out of law-abiding people who had no way of knowing what these local regulations were," she said.

Staff writer Andy Reid contributed to this report. mcomas@tribune.com or 352-742-5927.

Copyright © 2011, Orlando Sentinel

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