Saturday, April 05, 2014

Debate grows over concealed weapons at community associations - chicagotribune.com

Debate grows over concealed weapons at community associations - chicagotribune.com:

"Physical assaults are uncommon, but they happen, according to the 2012 national survey "Violence in Homeowner Associations," conducted by the Community Associations Institute. The 1,314 respondents included managers, staffers and homeowners.

Among the respondents, 13 percent reported they had been physically assaulted one or more times by an angry resident, and 52 percent reported they had been threatened with physical violence one or more times by such a resident.

Associations rightly should be worried, said association attorney Marvin Nodiff in St. Louis. Concealed carry was legalized in Missouri in 2004.

"I call it a time bomb," he said. "At some point, we will have an angry meeting and someone will shoot off a gun."


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Here's irony for you.  The gun lobby has been telling people the government is coming for their guns, which is complete nonsense. There isn't the slightest prospect for federal gun control legislation. Congress couldn't even bring itself to pass a background check law after the massacre at Sandy Hook.  And in any event, the current Supreme Court is almost as protective of gun owners as they are of rich people and big business.  But in the real world, HOA and condo boards really do have the power to ban guns, unless the laws of their state say they can't. And there are reasons they might want to ban guns, such as liability for accidential shootings and fear that the local angry owner will take up arms against perceived private tyranny--which has already happened a few times. Maybe in states with strong gun cultures, BODs will be less likely to interfere with gun owners' rights, but in Chicago guns were banned until recently, so I can see boards freaking out and enacting gun bans.

2 comments:

IC_deLight said...

Imagine that. A homeowner fed up with management company employees accusing them of "violations" for profit, charging fees never authorized under any restrictive covenants, or threatening to foreclose on homeowners lest the homeowner pay large sums of money to the management company (off the books of the HOA of course). Just can't imagine why someone wouldn't want to eliminate such threats. I suspect the war is a-comin. The internet enabled homeowners to realize the organization (and its members) involved in these practices and that the abuse of the homeowner wasn't an isolated instance.

IC_deLight said...

"perceived" private tyranny?

...perception is reality
[G. Gecko]