Latest on the proposed Dallas "toy" gun ban

[Paladin]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 9c91a.html

"Dallas working on toy-gun ordinance

Council members voice some new concerns over possible regulation


12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, October 4, 2006

By DAVE LEVINTHAL and EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News

Hold your holsters.

After directing City Attorney Tom Perkins in August to craft one of the nation's strictest ordinances regulating the sale and possession of toy guns, the Dallas City Council's public safety committee asked him Tuesday to keep working on the matter.

The council never discussed the issue publicly Tuesday, instead spending nearly an hour in a closed-door meeting reviewing legal issues concerning toy-gun regulations.

In interviews after the closed session, council members expressed concerns over moving forward with the kinds of regulations they had previously sought.

Among the concerns:

• Should the city limit the ordinance to people 18 and younger?

• Could the city successfully defend itself against legal challenges to such an ordinance?

• What's the purpose of the ordinance? To make a moral statement? To keep children safe from police officers who may shoot at a child brandishing a toy gun?

In August, the council voted 7-1 to pursue banning all toy guns except those painted a bright color, such as neon green or fluorescent yellow, or made of transparent or translucent material.

The toys must also reflect light, and any toy that didn't fit the city's paint/reflection criteria would be illegal even if kept inside a private home or vehicle, according to directions given to Mr. Perkins in August.

Some Dallas residents, especially in the city's southern sector, have expressed concern over what they say is children's easy access to inexpensive replica firearms. Numerous ice cream vendors and retailers at bazaars and flea markets sell the toys.


Public-safety issue?

Council member Angela Hunt said Tuesday that she's particularly concerned about the city's basic reasoning for creating an anti-toy gun ordinance.

"I'm not convinced this is a public-safety issue," she said, noting that there are few cases nationwide in recent years where a police officer mistakenly injured or killed a child with a toy gun.

Ms. Hunt said she's not sure how to proceed. "I do know I don't want to create an ordinance that's unenforceable and that's simply symbolic. I'm concerned we've got sidetracked on a very narrow issue that doesn't have any real-world benefit," she said.

Council member Mitchell Rasansky, however, wants all toy guns – no matter their shape, size, color or reflective property – banned outright. He says the ordinance is worth the trouble to pass if it saves one child's life.

"And I want an ordinance with teeth in it. We should absolutely fine the people who are selling these things to our children," he said.

Despite his colleagues' differing views, council member, Leo Chaney says he's "optimistic we can reach a consensus on how to go forward."

Mr. Perkins never presented his draft ordinance to council members Tuesday, he said. Recognizing council members' disparate views on the issue, Mr. Perkins says he'll present the committee with "a range of options" at a future committee meeting."

[The Marshal]

Why Why Why did you have to post that article!?

Paladin, it took me an hour to bring my blood pressure down to an acceptable , non-life-threatening level when I saw it in the paper!

But nooooo, you got to go and post it....

Read the "Illegal even in your own house or car" part of the toy gun ban.

But wait! There's more!
Read into the 2nd part of the article, concerning towing cars where the police find out that you do not have State-Required Insurance....

But council member James Fantroy said the ordinance doesn't need to be tweaked. Already, he said, 70 percent of the drivers whose cars were impounded were either black or Hispanic – but they don't own 70 percent of Dallas' cars.

Some of you may be spewing your favorite beverage on the monitor, and I am truly sorry about that. (See my adversion to Paladin posting this in the first place.) For those of you possibly being distracted by Little Ones that want your attention, here is the Debabilizer version ® of Councilman Fantroy's statement:

"The law is not fair now! 70% of the 100% that broke the law happened to be of (fill in the blank) Race! That is a clear travesty of justice, because this 70% portion of Lawbreakers were unfairly penalized as they do not represent a fair percentage of all the Races that own cars in Dallas."

Truly, the Wisdom of Solomon is being bumped up against here.
If "Jeopardy" came to town, and it was an IQ Showdown with the Dallas City Council vs. a Stalk of Asparagus, I would back the vegetable.

At least, the vegetable is good for you.

Oh, and just so you will know..... Rockwall is in Rockwall County.
Hey, I have to work in Dallas, but I don't have to live here... hehheh.

~Bill

[Houston1944]

I propose a compromise that should make all of them happy. They simply need to require “toy trigger locks� and “toy loaded chamber indicators� on all toy guns then they will be safe for the vendors to sell.

[waffenmacht]

This is so ridiculous, I cant hardly believe its real. Should we all go buy up any available toy guns in hopes of beating the law... Like a pre-ban toy gun? What will the proper legal way of disposing of such "forbidden weapons" be if this law passes? I wonder, will DPD create a new department just for handling such issues? If I am a bad guy, should I put reflective tape on, or paint my "nine" neon colors, so as to give myself an advantage over the police?
Seriously, if they are just doing this to send a "moral message", what is that message, exactly?
Or better yet, is our council out of things to do? If this is the most important thing they have to spend our tax money on, maybe we don't need them as bad as they would like us to think.

[GlockenHammer]

Even though I don't live in Dallas, this is very upsetting. Anywhere in America this is upsetting. This absurd example highlights the total lunacy that can happen when people in power just don't get it. Now imagine that this is our US Congress instead of a city council?

[repsychler]

Yesterday afternoon when I got home from work the neighbor's two little boys were playing with toy guns out on the lawn. They looked like little M4's...black and everything (though they probably had the orange tips)
I smiled, and thought that at that moment the world felt right.

[longtooth]

Even though I don't live in Dallas, this is very upsetting. Anywhere in America this is upsetting. This absurd example highlights the total lunacy that can happen when people in power just don't get it. Now imagine that this is our US Congress instead of a city council?

GH, you are right & we are only one Hillery away from it.

[cyphur]

I think if Hillary gets elected, I'm moving the mountains of Colorado. As far away from civilization as possible. With lots of guns, and claymores.