Now You See It. Now You Don't
Illegal Signs Come Down at Otter Creek Park in Louisville

As you can see from the accompanying pictures, another criminal empowerment zone has been reclaimed by the citizens of the Commonwealth. Otter Creek Park consists of 2,600 acres along the Ohio River in Meade County and is owned and operated by the Louisville Metro government located 25 miles to the northeast in Jefferson County. It was a local resident that lives near the park and frequently stopped in to enjoy its many amenities that wondered how someone up in the "big city" could come down and put up signs telling them they had to give up their weapons of self-defense. To the benefit of everyone, he contacted the Kentucky Coalition to Carry Concealed and asked how they could get away with this.

Basically, governments sometimes try to do what they think is best, regardless of what the law might have to say on the matter. Of course, sometimes ignorance can play a part in their actions also. They get away with it because nobody calls them on it. In this case, whoever made the decision to order the signs that prohibited weapons in the park wrongly cited Kentucky Revised Statute (KRS) 150-300 as the authority. KRS 150.300 actually has nothing whatsoever to do with regulating the concealed carry of deadly weapons, instead, it deals with the taking of wildlife on a propagation farm, game farm, game refuge, or fish hatchery and also with the defacement of signs or posted notices placed upon such locations. In fact, there is nothing within the entire Chapter 150, that could remotely be construed to authorize a local government to restrict or prohibit the carrying of firearms under any circumstances, whether concealed or not.

The Kentucky General Assembly has seen fit to deny local governments the opportunity to regulate the possession of arms in any manner whatsoever except that they may, in most cases, regulate the carrying of concealed weapons in buildings owned or controlled by them. The great outdoors are simply not under their authority when it comes to regulating firearms.

The Parks Director was duly informed of the law and was asked to remove the offending signs. His reply was that the request was being forwarded to the County Attorney’s office in order that he could review our "concerns regarding ‘statue [sic] KRS 150.300’." Roughly six weeks later, it was necessary to lightly imply a threat of prosecution under KRS Chapter 522 (misuse of office) to get the signs removed.

If you ever see a sign that restricts the carrying of weapons, definitely let KC3 know of it. A picture is not essential but is very helpful in that it provides the specific language and also might later serve as proof that such a sign did once exist. A sign that restricts the concealed carry of weapons any place other than the inside of a building is also probably not within the law. If you see any such sign you are not absolutely sure about, write us, e-mail us, or call us and tell us where it is. We’ll be glad to look into it and see if something can be done about it.