Strongly supporting Mayor Nickels

I read in The Seattle Times that city parks and playgrounds will be prohibiting firearms in these locations [“NRA, others take aim at Seattle gun ban,” NWThursday, Oct. 29], no matter if the carrier has a concealed-weapons permit or not.

I strongly support and applaud this action.

The last thing I want to do is take a grandchild to a Seattle playground and worry about someone else nearby who might have a concealed weapon ready to be fired.

If a weapon carrier thinks he or she needs a firearm for self protection at a playground, park or sports field, then that person should stay away from such facilities.

He or she should not be exposing innocent children to the chance of being shot by an enemy of the carrier, or even shot by the carrier.

People close to my family have been shot by stray gunfire. They were not the target of the gunfire, but they are dead nevertheless, and their families and friends will suffer forever.

The NRA should not be afraid of Mayor Greg Nickels’ rule setting a precedent.

The precedent was set in the Old West when saloon keepers and preachers insisted firearms be kept out of their places of business and churches. Certainly, in the social order of things, parks, playgrounds and sports fields fall between saloons and churches.

Places for children and our youth didn’t much exist in the Old West, but the common-sense banning of firearms in sensitive public places did.

Those same bans should be maintained today.

— Hamilton K. Pyles, Point Roberts