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No right to bear arms?
By HOLLY YOAKUM
Daily Journal staff writer
hyoakum@thejournalnet.com
May 29, 2002
A White River Township resident has filed a lawsuit against the Johnson County Board of Commissioners claiming a 21-year-old county law violates his constitutional rights.
The law, passed in April 1981, prohibits anyone except a police officer from carrying a loaded gun within 500 feet of a platted subdivision in unincorporated Johnson County.
A lack of clear intent of the law is one of the reasons John Lowe said he filed a complaint May 17 asking a judge to rule that the county law is unconstitutional.
A liberal interpretation could allow residents to have the gun loaded and assembled but in a carrying case, he said. The strictest interpretation of the law, however, could prohibit a resident within the prescribed distance from displaying an assembled gun in a case hanging on the wall of his home.
“Do I really think they’ll enforce it that way? No,” Lowe said. “But they could. They could enforce it that way.”
Lowe’s suit claims that the law violates his right to liberty and property provided for in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and his right to bear arms for self-defense as provided for in the preamble to the Indiana Constitution.
The suit also cites a state law passed in 1994 that says local governments “may not regulate in any manner the ownership, possession, sale, transfer or transportation of firearms.”
Johnson County’s law was passed before the state law, so the local regulation can still be enforced. Lowe said that law should still be considered when a judge rules on the suit.
He didn’t know the local law existed until Johnson County sheriff’s deputies arrived at his home in May 2001 after a neighbor complained that he was shooting in his back yard. Lowe has a bullet stop at his home on Runyon Road.
A second incident occurred in September, when officers tried to stop Lowe and a friend from dove hunting, citing the law. Lowe had done his homework that time and was able to tell the deputies they were not within 500 feet of a platted subdivision.
Lowe didn’t receive a penalty either time but could have been cited and assessed a fine up to $500 if found in violation of the ordinance.
Both times the deputies were professional and courteous, Lowe said. He doesn’t want his complaint to be interpreted as one against the sheriff’s department because the officers were simply enforcing a law on the books, he said.
Lowe just wants to see that law repealed.
County litigation attorney Tom Jones, who received a copy of the suit Tuesday, said he hadn’t had much time to review Lowe’s suit. He planned to search for legal precedent that the reasonable regulation of firearms is constitutional, he said.
“Either I’ll find a law or I won’t,” Jones said. “If I do, we’ll win it. If I don’t, we won’t.”
Matt Brooks, executive director of the Indiana Association of Counties, said he doesn’t know of any other county in the state that regulates guns in relation to the distance from a subdivision.
Other counties have regulations for firearms within a certain distance from a school or inside government buildings, he said. Those regulations are provided for under the state law that prohibits local regulation of firearms.
But regardless of what Johnson County is trying to prohibit, Brooks said that because the state law allows for the enforcement of any gun regulation passed before 1994, Johnson County should be allowed to continue to enforce its law.
John Krull with the Indiana Civil Liberties Union said Lowe may have difficulties because the right to bear arms has been restricted in other situations that were found to be constitutional.
“You have the right to have a firearm, but that doesn’t mean you can take it with you everywhere you go,” Krull said. “They’ve already said you can’t take it inside a government building. You can’t take it inside a school. You can’t go into the airport with one.”
But Lowe said those regulations are different from the county law, which likely applies to most of the unincorporated areas of the county.
He understands the need for regulations, he said. Shooting in the back yard of a “regular subdivision” with small yards and a short distance between homes should be prohibited, he said.
But some people live in or near platted subdivisions on bigger lots with space that would allow for target practice, he said.
And all residents should have the right to have a loaded gun in their house, in their car or in a holster around their waist to use for protection, Lowe said.
He hopes a judge will agree, he said.
Lowe isn’t asking for any money from the county if a ruling does come down in his favor, he said. He only wants to recoup the $104 it cost to file the suit, he said. An anonymous friend of Lowe’s is donating legal services, so he doesn’t have to pay any lawyers’ fees, he said.
What Lowe really wants is for the law to be taken off the books and replaced with one that provides Johnson County residents a way to defend themselves by carrying weapons, he said.
“This is important to me,” he said. “I’m doing this because I guess I’m the one who’s willing to fight the fight.”
http://www.thejournalnet.com/main.a... It is from The Journal in Greenwood Indiana
By HOLLY YOAKUM
Daily Journal staff writer
hyoakum@thejournalnet.com
May 29, 2002
A White River Township resident has filed a lawsuit against the Johnson County Board of Commissioners claiming a 21-year-old county law violates his constitutional rights.
The law, passed in April 1981, prohibits anyone except a police officer from carrying a loaded gun within 500 feet of a platted subdivision in unincorporated Johnson County.
A lack of clear intent of the law is one of the reasons John Lowe said he filed a complaint May 17 asking a judge to rule that the county law is unconstitutional.
A liberal interpretation could allow residents to have the gun loaded and assembled but in a carrying case, he said. The strictest interpretation of the law, however, could prohibit a resident within the prescribed distance from displaying an assembled gun in a case hanging on the wall of his home.
“Do I really think they’ll enforce it that way? No,” Lowe said. “But they could. They could enforce it that way.”
Lowe’s suit claims that the law violates his right to liberty and property provided for in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and his right to bear arms for self-defense as provided for in the preamble to the Indiana Constitution.
The suit also cites a state law passed in 1994 that says local governments “may not regulate in any manner the ownership, possession, sale, transfer or transportation of firearms.”
Johnson County’s law was passed before the state law, so the local regulation can still be enforced. Lowe said that law should still be considered when a judge rules on the suit.
He didn’t know the local law existed until Johnson County sheriff’s deputies arrived at his home in May 2001 after a neighbor complained that he was shooting in his back yard. Lowe has a bullet stop at his home on Runyon Road.
A second incident occurred in September, when officers tried to stop Lowe and a friend from dove hunting, citing the law. Lowe had done his homework that time and was able to tell the deputies they were not within 500 feet of a platted subdivision.
Lowe didn’t receive a penalty either time but could have been cited and assessed a fine up to $500 if found in violation of the ordinance.
Both times the deputies were professional and courteous, Lowe said. He doesn’t want his complaint to be interpreted as one against the sheriff’s department because the officers were simply enforcing a law on the books, he said.
Lowe just wants to see that law repealed.
County litigation attorney Tom Jones, who received a copy of the suit Tuesday, said he hadn’t had much time to review Lowe’s suit. He planned to search for legal precedent that the reasonable regulation of firearms is constitutional, he said.
“Either I’ll find a law or I won’t,” Jones said. “If I do, we’ll win it. If I don’t, we won’t.”
Matt Brooks, executive director of the Indiana Association of Counties, said he doesn’t know of any other county in the state that regulates guns in relation to the distance from a subdivision.
Other counties have regulations for firearms within a certain distance from a school or inside government buildings, he said. Those regulations are provided for under the state law that prohibits local regulation of firearms.
But regardless of what Johnson County is trying to prohibit, Brooks said that because the state law allows for the enforcement of any gun regulation passed before 1994, Johnson County should be allowed to continue to enforce its law.
John Krull with the Indiana Civil Liberties Union said Lowe may have difficulties because the right to bear arms has been restricted in other situations that were found to be constitutional.
“You have the right to have a firearm, but that doesn’t mean you can take it with you everywhere you go,” Krull said. “They’ve already said you can’t take it inside a government building. You can’t take it inside a school. You can’t go into the airport with one.”
But Lowe said those regulations are different from the county law, which likely applies to most of the unincorporated areas of the county.
He understands the need for regulations, he said. Shooting in the back yard of a “regular subdivision” with small yards and a short distance between homes should be prohibited, he said.
But some people live in or near platted subdivisions on bigger lots with space that would allow for target practice, he said.
And all residents should have the right to have a loaded gun in their house, in their car or in a holster around their waist to use for protection, Lowe said.
He hopes a judge will agree, he said.
Lowe isn’t asking for any money from the county if a ruling does come down in his favor, he said. He only wants to recoup the $104 it cost to file the suit, he said. An anonymous friend of Lowe’s is donating legal services, so he doesn’t have to pay any lawyers’ fees, he said.
What Lowe really wants is for the law to be taken off the books and replaced with one that provides Johnson County residents a way to defend themselves by carrying weapons, he said.
“This is important to me,” he said. “I’m doing this because I guess I’m the one who’s willing to fight the fight.”
http://www.thejournalnet.com/main.a... It is from The Journal in Greenwood Indiana