With the leaves still in full blaze and a late fall sun warming everything within its reach, the campground at Tanglewood Park surely was among the most peaceful places on the planet Monday morning.
Folks from RV nation — a loose confederation of happy and rootless retirees — were just beginning to stir. Joggers and walkers out to take advantage of the last few spasms of mild autumnal weather hit the trails for a little exercise.
Little did they know, but their little slice of paradise is about to become the epicenter of what could turn into a cantankerous, confusing and contentious debate about gun control, of all things.
Thanks to a new, 14-page law that basically overhauls state gun statutes, members of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners — and members of city and town councils, for that matter — are rushing to revamp their own ordinances concerning where it's OK to strap on a firearm.
It's possible that within the next month, it'll be perfectly legal to carry a gun in Tanglewood.
Clarifying the laws
This shouldn't really come as a shock, but it looks to me as if an effort by the legislature to clarify a couple of points about firearms turned into a free-for-all that loosened guns laws more to the liking of the Second Amendment crowd.
The title of House Bill 650 says it all: An Act to Provide When a Person May Use Defensive Force and to Amend Various Laws Regarding the Right to Own, Possess or Carry a Firearm in North Carolina.
Among the salient points — bear in mind, I'm no lawyer — if somebody comes into your home (or car), feel free to drop them. No more having to say the magic words to keep nosy police detectives off your back: "I thought the guy had a gun, and I was in fear for my life."
Of more concern to local boards of elected officials is a little provision that makes it OK for those who have valid concealed-carry permits to bring their guns to public parks. Attorneys who advise those local boards are telling them that they need to be more specific about where you can and cannot carry a gun.
"We already have a comprehensive ban," said Dudley Watts, the Forsyth County manager. "But as I understand it, you've got to name and list park facilities where you want to restrict."
Officials in Winston-Salem, too, are cobbling together such a list, even though the city, too, has a ban in place.
Bull's eye
The news that commissioners could, in theory, head in the opposite direction and allow weapons in parks came as a shock to Mitchell and Colleen Brown, a local couple out for a nice walk through the leaves Monday.
"You're kidding me, right?" Mitchell Brown said. "There are kids out here, and people are camping. There's no need for that."
Watts allowed for a similar thought. Parks such as Tanglewood often have kids playing soccer and other competitive games. "Tempers flare at those things," he said. "Some of the most egregious behavior I've ever seen happens at kids' sporting events."
A few minutes later, RV camper/snowbird Frank Donohue would espouse a somewhat different view.
"As long as they have the right legal paperwork…" he said. "Taking guns away from people won't solve any problems. There are too many illegal weapons out there now."
Just like that, Donohue shot it clean through the center, a bull's-eye. No law, and no little brown sign, will keep knuckleheads from carrying whatever they want wherever they want.
The guy who plunks down $100 for a concealed-carry permit, submits to a background check and spends all day in a classroom learning the law isn't likely to be the problem.
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