West Burlington IA News-Sports-Opinion

Post details: WB Gun Ban?

07/19/10

12:05:43 am, Categories: All Posts, 579 words

WB Gun Ban?

Falcon,

I have been out of town for the last two weeks on vacation with my family in Colorado. Cell phones and Internet connections can be described as “iffy” when you are enjoying life at tree line.

Imagine my surprise when I first logged on to my WB City Council mailbox and noticed that I had 85 new messages in the last 4 days.

My first thought was that the citizens of West Burlington so enjoyed our July 4th celebration that they were heaping me with praises and gratitude for my small part.

It was either that, or, our mayor had been misquoted yet again.

Turns out it was the latter…damnit!

Most all the e-mails I received started out like this…

Dear Councilman (fill in name here),

“I am writing to you today to express my concern and disappointment about West Burlington's ordinance banning firearms…”

An obvious form letter, created by an NRA staff member, with specific instructions on how to reach myself, the four other WB City Council Members, and of course our long serving mayor, Hans Trousil.

I had to do some research from high in the Rockies to even learn that we had a “municipal building gun restriction”. Turns out our city adopted one, without much fuss, back in 2002. The council chambers is a public forum where opinions are expressed, tempers sometimes flare and I for one, don’t want anyone there to be packing (except Police Chief Oblein or his appointee). I wasn’t at all aware that this policy was indeed in place, but I am glad that it is. If someone enters with a weapon, I want our police personnel to know what course of action to take without deliberation or inaction. If someone enters council chambers with malice and a handgun I want them stopped immediately, thank you!

Anyhow, a Des Moines Register reporter misquoted Hans (shocker) and had him kind of calling gun rights supporters “nut jobs”. Hans never did that, but the NRA sounded the alarm anyone and filled my mailbox!

The “official” NRA letter talks about their members’ concern over the definition of so called municipal buildings in the “Weapon Free Ordinance”. Specifically the NRA doesn’t think WB should ban weapons from such crucial spaces in town as “public bathrooms, parking garages, bus stop overhangs, public rest stops…etc”

As soon as I locate these areas of concern I will report back.
Until then, I must go unpack.

-Dan West

Dan,

Mayor Trousil was not 'misquoted'. His quote was reported in the Des Moines Register. Read it here.

Trousil is known for putting his foot in his mouth then afterward trying to deny it ever happened.

There are other examples:

Remember when he told fire department EMT's they wasted their time giving a person CPR because the person died anyway? How about when he KNOWINGLY made an illegal appointment to the airport authority, then after he was caught said. "Yeah we broke the law, so what." Remember when a District Court Judge slapped a permanent injunction on him (and others) after he illegally banned a councilman from meetings and afterward he proclaimed, "We didn't do anything wrong."

The list goes on and on. But you get the idea.

West Burlington's total ban on carrying firearms (including those with legal permits) on "ALL property owned or leased by the city" (not just city hall) is in direct violation of Iowa's preemption law.

The NRA is right on this one.

-Falcon

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West Burlington IA News-Sports-Opinion

Post details: WB Gun Ban?

07/19/10

WB Gun Ban?