A group that promotes carrying handguns in the open has decided to move a March 29 event out of downtown Eureka Springs so it doesn’t affect tourism on what is expected to be a busy Saturday, said Police Chief Earl Hyatt.
Instead, a “celebration walk” will be held that day somewhere along U.S. 62 in Eureka Springs, but the exact time and place hasn’t been determined, said Carl Martin of Farmington, an administrator with Northwest 746, a group that promotes “open carry” in Northwest Arkansas.
Martin met for about 1½ hours Wednesday with Hyatt and Alderman Mickey Schneider to discuss the event.
Schneider said she worked “behind the scenes” to help reach a compromisebetween Northwest 746 and downtown merchants who were concerned that the event would disrupt business on the second weekend of spring. She said Martin suggested having the event on U.S. 62 instead of downtown.
“We compromised a little bit,” said Martin. “In Eureka Springs, we do not want to hurt their businesses. We are all Arkansans. They are allowed their views under the Constitution, which we respect.”
Hyatt said he believes the change in location will ease tensions in the tourist town, where hundreds of visitors are expected on the weekend of March 29 and downtown is the primary destination. The walk is expected to draw 30 to 70 participants, he said.
“I think it’ll reduce the tension for the people downtown who were against it,”he said.
Tracellen Kelly, manager of Doggie Thrift Stores in Eureka Springs and Berryville, said she ordered signs banning guns in the stores as soon as she heard about the event. The signs read: “No firearms or weapons allowed on this property.”
“It just made me realize that’s not something I want to see in the store,” said Kelly. “I did it because they’re coming, but it’s something I will keep up always.”
Hyatt said he has similar signs available for merchants who want to put them in their windows.
Karen Lindblad, co-owner of Gazebo Books, said she also doesn’t want guns in her store.
“From what I gathered from talking to a few merchants downtown, we don’t want this happening,” she said.
Martin said Northwest 746 has had “celebration walks” in 11 cities from the Arkansas River Valley through Northwest Arkansas. One is planned for Rogers on Saturday, he said. Northwest 746 isn’t affiliated with other open-carry groups in Arkansas, said Martin.
The group is trying to call attention to Act 746, which the state Legislature passed last year. The legislation was meant as a technical correction to define “journey” in the existing law, but open-carry advocates say a change in wording elsewhere in the act legalized openly carrying handguns, knives and clubs. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel disagrees.
“We are trying to educate people that this is what the law says now. We are not a protest group. It’s a celebration walk,” he said.
Hyatt said police can’t stop the event. Based on his reading of Act 746, open carry is legal.
“I’m not an advocate of open carry, but right now I understand they have the right to do that,” said Hyatt. “If I can see it, I know it’s there. An honest person with a firearm doesn’t scare me a bit. A criminal is not going to tell me he has one.”
Martin said the group will walk two or three blocks along U.S. 62 with handguns holstered, then return to their cars.
“Then we will go downtown and shop,” he said, notingthat Northwest 746 members will be encouraged to conceal their handguns while in downtown Eureka Springs.
Initially, the group planned to meet near Basin Park in downtown Eureka Springs and split up from there, walking around the downtown area with guns on their hips. That plan was different than other “celebration walks” in part because the town’s geography and skinny streets don’t allow room for a large group to walk together, said Martin.
Fayetteville Police Chief Greg Tabor said Northwest 746 had a march down Dickson Street on March 1, and everything went fine.
Tabor said nobody has been arrested in Fayetteville for openly carrying a firearm, but complaints will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
State Rep. Douglas House said he didn’t realize adding the word “unlawfully” to House Bill 1700 last year would end up making Arkansas an open-carry gun state, as open-carry advocates claim.
House was trying to change the law for people driving with guns in their vehicles. Under the old law, people too often were arrested and had their guns seized by police when they hadn’t done anything wrong, said House, a Republican from North Little Rock.
“People lost too many weapons and they really had a legitimate reason to have a weapon,” he said.
By adding the word “unlawfully,” the onus was put on prosecutors to prove that theperson had a gun in their vehicle because they intended to commit a crime, said House.
Open-carry advocates in Arkansas claim that the wording of the bill extends the right to carry a weapon beyond the highway and onto the hip of pedestrians.
State Rep. Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith, was the primary sponsor of HB1700, which overwhelmingly passed in both chambers of the Legislature and became Act 746. The new law defined a journey as traveling “beyond the county” in which a person lives.
In Opinion No. 2013-047, McDaniel said he doesn’t believe Act 746 make Arkansas an open-carry state.
“It is my opinion that Act 746 does not in itself permit a person to possess a handgun outside of his or her vehicle or other mode of transportation while on a journey …” wrote McDaniel.
The opinion specifically addressed the “journey” definition and not Section 2, where “unlawfully” was added to Arkansas Code Annotated 5-73-120, which pertains to “carrying a weapon.”
The pertinent passage now states: “A person commits the offense of carrying a weapon if he or she possesses a handgun, knife, or club on or about his or her person, in a vehicle occupied by him or her, or otherwise readily available for use with a purpose to attempt to unlawfully employ the handgun, knife, or club as a weapon against a person.”
The words “to attempt”and “unlawfully” were added through Act 746.
The new law hasn’t been challenged in court, and it’ll be next year before the Legislature can take the issue up again to change the law. House said he probably will propose an open-carry bill in the next session of the Legislature.
House said it took him a while to warm up to the interpretation that the bill allows open carry, but he’s OK with it now.
“I admit the law lacks clarity,” said House. “I confess that my participation in the draftsmanship isn’t what it ought to have been. I’ll try to do better next time.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/20/2014