Gun ban at Seattle parks facilities goes into effect

A ban on guns in certain Seattle park facilities went into effect Wednesday, according to the mayor's office.

The move, implemented to protect children, and which has drawn criticism including questions about its legality, will eventually affect hundreds of playgrounds, community centers, sports fields, swimming pools and water-play areas.

"When children and families visit a Seattle Parks and Recreation pool, playground, community center or other facility, they are entitled to a reasonable expectation of safety," Mayor Greg Nickels said in a news release.

The ban, a new rule by Parks and Recreation, will be in effect only at facilities where signs have been posted, according to the release.

Community centers will get the first signs, followed by pools, popular play areas, and ballfields. The mayor's office said all facilities should have the signs by Dec. 1.

The first signs are expected to go up Friday at South Park Community Center, Garfield Community Center and Bitter Lake Community Center

If someone with a gun enters one of the designated facilities, he or she will be asked by parks employees or Seattle police officers to leave. If the person won't leave, he or she could be cited or arrested for criminal trespass, according to the mayor's office.

Nickels has argued that state law does not prohibit a property owner from imposing conditions on possessing firearms on his or her property.

The city's position, Nickels has said, is that a municipal-property owner such as Seattle may impose limits on firearms as a condition of entry or use of particular facilities, particularly those where children and youths are likely to be.

State Attorney General Rob McKenna, however, has disagreed.

In a statement released in mid-September, he said he has a history of working to protect children's safety, but "as Mayor Nickels is aware, the Attorney General's Office issued an opinion in 2008, which found that state law pre-empts local authority to adopt firearms regulations, unless specifically authorized by law."

The opinion won't stop Nickels from invoking his ban, said Janelle Guthrie, spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office. However, she said, the opinion could be used if the law is challenged, as gun advocates have vowed to do.

Alan Gottlieb, founder of Bellevue-based pro-gun Second Amendment Foundation, said his group already has plaintiffs who will sue, and officials with the foundation said a lawsuit will be filed "immediately."

In his decision to invoke a gun ban in city parks, Nickels pointed to the shooting of a Franklin High School basketball player outside the Garfield Community Center last December and a killing of a woman at a temporary Red Cross shelter in the Miller Community Center on Capitol Hill in 2004.

Information from The Seattle Times archives is included in this report.