Walden votes 2-1 against guns in parks

The town of Walden on Tuesday night became the latest municipality in the area to ban guns in local parks.

Members of the town council voted 2-1 to opt out of a bill passed by the Tennessee General Assembly allowing guns in state and local parks.

Mayor J. Peter Hetzler and Alderman David Epperson voted in favor of the ordinance, while Vice Mayor Elizabeth Akins voted against it.

Mr. Hetzler said he wasn’t against an individual’s right to own weapons, but said he had an issue with people carrying guns into Walden’s Pumpkin Patch playground.

“I have no problem with people carrying guns. That’s not the issue,” Mr. Hetzler said. “What we’re talking about, as far as I’m concerned, is the Pumpkin Patch. Right now, the law is that you can’t have a gun in a park.”

Ms. Akins said it was “almost an impossible” issue to address.

“But I know it’s a constitutional right,” Ms. Atkins said.

Mr. Epperson said the state legislature’s bill created too many unnecessary problems for local municipalities. He said that he didn’t see carrying guns in parks as a constitutional right.

“Freedom of speech is a right in our Constitution, too, but that doesn’t give you the right to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded auditorium. There are certain limitations on what we have with the rights granted to us under the Constitution.”

De De Young, a Walden resident, spoke during the meeting against banning guns. Ms. Young said she went to great lengths to receive a license to carry a concealed weapon, which she said is her constitutional right. She said banning guns would be “totally unfair.”

“I probably wouldn’t carry at the Pumpkin Patch. That’s not the point,” Ms. Young said. “The point is, under the Constitution, I have a right and all these little rules and regulations have just been eating away at my rights as a gun carrier.”

Mr. Hetzler said he could see how some people would want to carry weapons in the “lonelier” parts of Walden. Town council members said they would explore possibly narrowing the ordinance to allow guns to be carried in more remote parks or greenways, just not in the Pumpkin Patch.

“You can specifically carve out to prohibit (carrying guns) in certain places and allow (it) in others,” town attorney Michael Stewart said.

Council members agreed to take up the issue in the future and possibly narrow the scope of Tuesday’s resolution.

The legislation allows municipalities to change their minds on guns in parks, but the law goes into effect Sept. 1.