My Email to Indianapolis City Councilman and Mayor

[IndySSD]

Just thought I'd share this in case anyone else might be interested in doing the same. I feel strongly on this subject as I'm sure many of you do as well. I'll include the Email Addresses (That took me a bit of time to find actually for some reason) for Councilor Coleman (edward.coleman@gmail.com), Mayor Ballard (gballard@indy.gov at least the one his office checks for him) but I was unable to get a direct Email address for Dr. Straub who is the Public Safety Director for the City of Indianapolis so I sent a copy to this office assistant.

I just wanted to say thank you Councilor Coleman for Sponsoring this proposed amendment to the existing Ordinance referenced directly below and to voice my concern on the topic:

A PROPOSAL FOR A GENERAL ORDINANCE amending Sec. 631-108 of the Revised Code of the
Consolidated City and County to clarify provision with respect to possession of firearms on park property.


Councilor Coleman I appreciate your attempts to secure and protect the constitutional rights of us who are law abiding citizens that choose to exercise our 2nd amendment rights to defend ourselves and our families.

Unfortunately I was unaware of this proposal and the meeting back in February but if I can be present for future such meetings, I will try to attend.

I would also like to take this opportunity to communicate my disappointment in Mayor Ballard's (who I voted for) decision to veto the proposal which would allow Indiana State Police licensed firearms owners to carry their firearms with them in city parks, thereby forcing families such as mine who place our personal safety at the forefront of our decision making process to abstain from such pleasures as hiking or biking on the Monon Trail and attending any of the many city parks that our tax dollars contribute to because of the recent rise in violent crime in these areas.

As a supporter of the Mayors "Get Fit Indy" program I feel as though the decision to keep the Indy Parks as personal protection free crime zones will actually dissuade a good number of law abiding, socially responsible, safety minded parents such as myself from taking full advantage of what our tax dollars (over 29 million of which were budgeted to Indy Parks in 2009 and an estimated 121 million dollars in needed but un-budgeted repairs) pay for.

I am attaching a picture that I feel clearly illustrates my sentiments on the subject whenever I see an Indy Parks sign or any of the recent news reports of crimes being committed on the Indy Parks properties. Dr. Straub I'm hoping you can see my reasoning in this sentiment, especially with the recent brutal attack upon David Clark at 3 in the afternoon whilst biking on the monon that resulted in over 40 stitches and several bruises.

Finally, I received an error when attempting to navigate to Councilor Coleman's page on the indylp.org site when I attempted to follow the link
( Ed Coleman welcomes help for his 2011 re-election campaign. Feel free to check him out here: http://www.indylp.org/elected_officials/ed_colemam ) from the Defend Your 2nd Amendment Rights: Testify to allow guns in the Park: LOCATION CHANGE | Libertarian Party of Marion County page because it appears they misspelled your last name in the link.

Councilor Coleman please feel free to send me information about your upcoming re-election campaign. While my financial contributions may be tightly constrained, I can still lend your campaign my voice and my vote.


Sincerely,

Pic that was attached

-SSD

 

[eldirector]

Great letter! I may "borrow" it and have a few copies edited and sent. I don't live in Indy, but would like to visit now and then. My in-laws DO live in Indy, and are pretty active in politics.

+1 to you!

 

[4sarge]

Nice letter but I'm afraid it will fall on deaf ears. Ballard & Straub are NOT (IMO) pro 2nd Amendment and Straub was specifically brought in from anti gun New York to enforce those views. I moved away from Indy but if you stay concentrate on VOTING them OUT. I'm afraid that you are headed for worse times with a total control of Marion County/Indy by the Democrats

 

[IndySSD]

Nice letter but I'm afraid it will fall on deaf ears. Ballard & Straub are NOT (IMO) pro 2nd Amendment and Straub was specifically brought in from anti gun New York to enforce those views. I moved away from Indy but if you stay concentrate on VOTING them OUT. I'm afraid that you are headed for worse times with a total control of Marion County/Indy by the Democrats

Well, perhaps but I don't have first hand knowledge of their standpoints and I'll respect their constitutional rights to voice what they think is right.

About the part I highlighted above, they are both registered as Republicans if I'm not mistaken. Not that it matters, I was just pointing that out.

 

[samrothstein01]

What is the picture attachment?

BTW, nice letter. I won't visit the parks either....even though I am not in Marion County, I refuse to take advantage of their recreational offerings because of family safety as well.

 

[Scutter01]

Full pre-emption at the State level...

 

[4sarge]

Well, perhaps but I don't have first hand knowledge of their standpoints and I'll respect their constitutional rights to voice what they think is right.

About the part I highlighted above, they are both registered as Republicans if I'm not mistaken. Not that it matters, I was just pointing that out.

I am very well aware that Ballard is a Republican and was referring to 2010 & 2012 elections. Being a Republican does not guarantee that one is necessarily pro gun. I never said that they were Not entitled to their anti gun opinions but should represent the voice of the electorate

 

[MrsGungho]

nice letter, I just wish it wouldn't fall on deaf ears.

 

[opus1776]

Full pre-emption at the State level...

Brother Scutter is wise......


======================================

"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" K. Moss

You can NEVER be too rich or too thin.

Life is not a journey, but a series of unplanned detours...

Perfection: is not a goal-- it's an demanded expectation.

 

[trophyhunter]

Well done SSD! Regardless if that one letter falls on politicians that are anti's in any way, your efforts at the very least get their attention to a degree, and hundreds more from residents of their constituency would send the message loud and clear. Love the picture you attached to it!

 

[Arm America]

Great post.

Thanks for sharing this valuable information.

Doing nothing or remaining silent does no one any good.

These are our Parks that the thugs are claiming.
This site has a huge membership with several lurkers.
I can only hope that all of us would rise to the occasion and
voice their displeasure in preventing us from protecting
ourselves and others when using and enjoying the Parks.

 

[88GT]

Thread jack

Nice letter but I'm afraid it will fall on deaf ears. Ballard & Straub are NOT (IMO) pro 2nd Amendment and Straub was specifically brought in from anti gun New York to enforce those views. I moved away from Indy but if you stay concentrate on VOTING them OUT. I'm afraid that you are headed for worse times with a total control of Marion County/Indy by the Democrats

So somebody like Peterson (or worse) will fill the vacuum?

 

[4sarge]

So somebody like Peterson (or worse) will fill the vacuum?

Yes, unless the Obama backlash carries a Republican to victory but Mayor Ballard hasn't veered far from the Peterson Course IMO and I do not think that he (Ballard) has announced his election plans.

 

[CarmelHP]

So somebody like Peterson (or worse) will fill the vacuum?

I'm not sure Peterson was worse. He stayed away from antagonizing gun owners. Ballard hasn't operated much differently than Peterson on other issues, giving away massive amounts to "arts," basketball and football billionaires and proposing more taxes to do it with. What was gained by having Ballard in?

 

[Pami]

SSD, That was an AWESOME letter!!!


As a side note, I dropped a note to the Chairman of the LP of Marion County to let him also know about the typo. Hopefully Tim or Ed can get that updated ASAP.

 

[firehawk1]

I fought the development of the B&O trail on the westside of Indy for several years. The abandened railbed is 70 feet from my back door.

That being said, I can tell you from my back and forth debate with the head of Indy Parks at the time, there is at least one reason IMO they won't allow firearms on the Monon. They can "claim" there is no crime on the Monon trail. So why would you need a firearm? The reason they can make this "claim" is the trail has no address. If a crime happens on the Monon it is reported to have happened at the nearest address. So in other words the closest home/business is where the police "assign" the crime to.

BTW, there has been ALOT of crime commited on the Monon, they simply go unreported. The first crime was the stealing of people's property to put the Monon in, in the first place.

 

[thompal]

So somebody like Peterson (or worse) will fill the vacuum?

Peterson was no more anti-rights than Ballard has proven to be. Ballard has been nothing more than a Democrat in disguise. His use of tax dollars to fund private businesses, his refusal to stand up to those who provided him campaign funds (and who will probably employ him in some manner after he's out of office), and his staunch anti-rights stance, are hardly the ideals of a citizen-friendly mayor. I would be hard pressed to see how a Democrat could be any worse. We've had our share of (D) mayors, and we've had our share of (R) mayors who were at least as bad. There's no real difference in the two parties, you know. They all just want to line their pockets, grab what power they can, and crap on the citizens as much as possible.

 

[Duncan]

Mayor Ballard - just another member of the Uni-Party system ..

 

[Blackhawk2001]

Full pre-emption at the State level...

Unfortunately, Indianapolis, like Ft. Wayne and Gary, are the tails that wag the dog in the state government. In the same way that Chicago is the primary reason Illinois has such restrictive gun laws, the State government is unlikely to manage a State pre-emption law absent agreement from the three largest cities in the state.

Unfortunately, also, we here in Indianapolis have already had a good taste of what will happen to us if the Democrats return to power here.

 

[Scutter01]

If only there were some group of gun owners in Indiana that was so large that it would be considered a significant voting bloc. And then imagine if that voting bloc could all get motivated enough to tell Indiana's leaders how they want the laws to be written, and because that bloc represented so many people, those leaders would be compelled to listen and change the laws accordingly.

Oh well.