Nye County Library Gun Ban Update

Taken with permission from the original poster on a local gun forum:

The board was clearly not expecting any turnout on this issue. They had our group crowd around a table in their board room instead of using one of the larger meeting rooms. It was made clear that they were going to go by Robert's Rules of Order when they announced that comments on the rules change would have to wait until that part of the meeting. Imagine a room about the size of a kitchen with a big table in the middle, the board all seated, and a small crowd surrounding them. Our family was present in full: myself, my wife, my 18 year old daughter and then the smaller children at 8 and 2. Three county commissioners attended: Leo Blundo, John Koenig, and Donna Cox.

Commissioner Koenig opened the comments by making clear that the NRS citation was incorrect and what they were doing was illegal. He spoke for several minutes making the matter clear that this action was not acceptable to Nye county. Then my family spoke with me taking the lead taking the NRS code to task and demonstrating that a lack of clear understanding of the law (as demonstrated by grossly incorrect reference) also demonstrated a clear lack of understanding of the extent of understanding of law that those who carry must understand and live by. I also pointed out how this was incongruent with Nye county as a second amendment sanctuary. I then pointed out that there has been no problem in the library of late with people brandishing firearms and the like. In fact, I pointed out that the manager had said to us that this rules change was a direct result of her feeling uncomfortable with my well trained 18 year old daughter carrying openly in the library for "storytime" with her 2 year old little sister. In my conclusion, I pointed out this change was not based on law or problems, but on feelings alone from the following false syllogism: guns are dangerous, someone has a holstered gun nearby, therefore that person is dangerous.

My wife then spoke to the fact that banning guns has never worked and before someone thinks that "this won't happen in Pahrump" she pointed out that Sutherland Springs, with a population of 600, never expected anything to happen either. She went on later to question the application of the rule: will the library tape off the section? Will they feel more comfortable with her standing inches away from the "barrier"? What happens if her child becomes unruly? Will the police be called if she were to go in a get her?

Then our 18 year old daughter, at the center of this issue, spoke to the issue of how long it takes for the police to arrive when someone carrying can respond instantly. She went on to point out that she open carries because, by law, she is not allowed to conceal carry but she had been trained around firearms since she was very young and now she is a twice distinguished graduate of Front Sight and had competed in the Washington State IDPA championship. These are all summaries of our comments as there was more.

The opposition then spoke their minds, all of which was tailored to feelings: "I feel kids should have a safe place" and "I don't feel we should have guns around the kids" and the like. Then, Commissioners Blundo and Cox spoke to close out the comments time to point out that this was unacceptable in no uncertain terms.

Judging from the expressions of the board, it would seem that their minds were already made up prior to the public comments. However, they were clearly shown that their citation was completely wrong and they were also treading in an opposite direction from the community. So, the matter was tabled until the chairman of the board could speak with the district attorney and sheriff...something the county commissioners encouraged. It was proposed by the board to do a community survey to see what the community thought but the opposition did not favor that as they felt the results would be "skewed"...interesting comment on their part. However, there was quite a bit of laxity on the Robert's Rules as some individuals were allowed to speak out of order with comments that were nothing short of demonstrating their lack of knowledge on the matter of the lawful use of arms and simply inflammatory. While this was disappointing, overall the meeting did see this put on hold pending investigation. It will be brought up again at the next meeting on TUESDAY (not Monday) November 12th at 10AM in the bigger meeting room. We will want to have many more to come if possible.

Side note: there were three of us open carrying, two of which were county commissioners (I was the other).

​During the meeting, the manager, who is on the board, let slip what their true intentions were. On the meeting agenda, it stated that they wanted no firearms in the storytime room. She then further clarified what that meant by saying that she didn't want firearms in the storytime room OR in the children's area but then went on to say that they wanted everyone to leave them in their car. So, not only did she not understand the law but she couldn't even give a consistent stance on what they wanted to do.