Steven Mace
12-27-2001, 06:02 AM
No guns allowed at Olympic venues
Copyright © 2001 AP Online
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY (December 26, 2001 11:58 a.m. EST) - Gun-rights activists who grudgingly agreed to a ban on firearms at the 2002 Winter Olympics were upset to learn the venues will not have gun storage lockers.
Spectators are being told to leave firearms behind, perhaps at home or in their cars, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee said. Utah has some of the nation's most lenient firearms laws.
"We are giving people plenty of advance notice so they will plan accordingly," said Tammy Palmer, spokeswoman for the Olympics Public Safety Command.
Gun-rights activists expected lockers for Utah's 41,800 concealed weapons permit holders under a 1999 state law banning firearms at Olympic venues and in nine blocks of downtown Salt Lake City. The law said secure storage may be provided, but did not require it.
"They have not been very friendly to us at all," said Winton Clark Aposhian, leader of a concealed-weapons instructors group that planned to staff and pay for the storage. He called the final regulations "unfair and inconsistent."
Lockboxes were used in August at the state Republican convention after security staff for Vice President Dick Cheney refused to allow guns inside the convention hall. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff paid for gun storage lockers out of campaign funds.
http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/202597p-1968410c.html
Steve Mace
Copyright © 2001 AP Online
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY (December 26, 2001 11:58 a.m. EST) - Gun-rights activists who grudgingly agreed to a ban on firearms at the 2002 Winter Olympics were upset to learn the venues will not have gun storage lockers.
Spectators are being told to leave firearms behind, perhaps at home or in their cars, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee said. Utah has some of the nation's most lenient firearms laws.
"We are giving people plenty of advance notice so they will plan accordingly," said Tammy Palmer, spokeswoman for the Olympics Public Safety Command.
Gun-rights activists expected lockers for Utah's 41,800 concealed weapons permit holders under a 1999 state law banning firearms at Olympic venues and in nine blocks of downtown Salt Lake City. The law said secure storage may be provided, but did not require it.
"They have not been very friendly to us at all," said Winton Clark Aposhian, leader of a concealed-weapons instructors group that planned to staff and pay for the storage. He called the final regulations "unfair and inconsistent."
Lockboxes were used in August at the state Republican convention after security staff for Vice President Dick Cheney refused to allow guns inside the convention hall. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff paid for gun storage lockers out of campaign funds.
http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/202597p-1968410c.html
Steve Mace