Kent attorney Bob Warden, who filed suit to over turn the City of Seattle's ban on guns in city parks said he "wasn't terribly surprised" by the ruling in District court that stated the ban was in fact constitutional. He plans to appeal his case to the 9th Circuit and is looking forward to the ruling expected in a U.S. Supreme Court case in Chicago this June.
A superior court judge has just ruled the gun ban in City of Seattle parks as constitutional.
U.S. District Court Judge Marsha J. Pechman ruled that under current case law, the Second Amendment constrains the actions of Congress, not cities and states. Therefore the city was within its rights to enact the ban.
Bob Warden who brought the suit, is the Kent attorney who challenged the gun ban by walking into the Southwest Community Center with a weapon in a holster. He was asked to leave and later filed suit against the city.
In another suit, filed prior to Warden's the gun ban was struck down. See that story here.
This ruling was on Warden's case which was more limited in it's scope. "I had limited my case to only the unconstitutional grounds working... only with the State law, the pre-emption law", Warden said. "I'm not terribly surprised by it...however what I was urging the judge to do and what the City of Seattle was urging the judge to do is to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Chicago gun ban case called McDonald vs. Chicago which the Supreme Court heard earlier this month and will be issuing a written opinion on in June. It will determine once and for all whether or not the 2nd Amendment applies. I plan to appeal my case to the 9th Circuit and obviously that case will determine the outcome of my appeal... Currently the 2nd Amendment doesn't apply to the states, (but) I think most legal experts agree that in June that will no longer be true."
"The Seattle gun ban rule is dead and remains dead because it violated the state law. I decided to keep going with my case because state law can be changed pretty easily but it's a little more difficult to amend the constitution," Warden explained.
"It's a long term deal. I expect it will be a couple of years before my case is ultimately and finally put to rest."