CANTON – Before Monday’s Canton City Council meeting ended abruptly in chaos, city resident Daniel Gates was questioning a city ordinance that bans firearms in Canton parks.
Gates, a gun owner and advocate for the past eight years, called the city’s policy unlawful and challenged officials to change it.
“You can only restrict government buildings, you cannot restrict the public air space,” he said, shortly before he and Council President Kristen Bates Aylward began arguing whether his time for public speaks should be extended due to interruptions. The meeting ended shortly afterward.
The Canton Repository followed up with Gates and learned that the 29-year-old became aware of the city’s policy prohibiting guns in parks following a recent First Friday event in downtown Canton that he attended while carrying his firearm on his side. He said he was stopped by law enforcement officers, who eventually allowed him to stay at the event with his firearm but still followed him throughout the night.
Gates’ father later asked the city’s police chief about the interaction and the chief said that anyone carrying a firearm in a public park would be arrested due to the city’s park policy.
The interaction prompted the Repository to ask: Are guns allowed in Canton parks?
Here’s what we found:
Are guns allowed in Canton City parks?
The Canton Parks and Recreation Department does have a policy – Ordinance 539.02 – that bans everyone, except police officers or peace officers while on duty, from being in a Canton park with any firearms, slingshots, firecrackers, missile propelling instruments, explosives or their components. Violating the ordinance could result in a minor misdemeanor charge and suspension from the park, according to the ordinance posted on the department’s website.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that cities cannot ban firearms from public parks because the bans conflict with the state’s concealed-carry law that allows qualifying adults to carry a concealed weapon on any public property other than some specific locations. Judges also have upheld a law that state legislators passed in 2006 that preempts cities from regulating guns. Legislators also enacted a permitless carry law in 2022.
Canton City Law Director Jason Reese said the Canton Park Commission will need to amend the ordinance.
“Ohio is a permitless-carry state, and parks are no exception,” Reese wrote in an emailed response. “Thus, someone who is not otherwise prohibited from having a gun may open-carry and concealed-carry in a park.”
He said exceptions include the Canton Garden Center or any other government building that isn’t an outdoor bathroom. He said guns are permitted to be carried at Centennial Plaza.
Canton Parks to comply with gun laws
Canton Parks Director Doug Foltz said he was unaware that state law permitted firearms in public parks until Gates questioned him about it last week. He said the issue has never been raised since he became director in 2018.
Foltz said he is awaiting guidance from the law department and would seek to change the ordinance if needed.
“We’ll follow compliance with whatever they say,” he said.
Gates, who said he carries a gun because his neighborhood is dangerous, and other gun advocates were to gather Saturday at Stadium Park’s parking lot to rally around their Second Amendment right to carry a firearm and to educate others about the law.
“I’m just trying to educate people so they are not freaking out and calling the cops every time they see someone carrying a gun,” Gates said.
Reach Canton Repository staff writer Kelli Weir at 330-580-8339 or kelli.weir@cantonrep.com.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Can residents bring a gun to Canton parks? We track down the answer after man raises issue
Reporting by Kelli Weir, Canton Repository / The Repository
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By Kelli Weir, Canton Repository | USA TODAY Network
