Nashville News Blog

Councilman Sam Coleman wants Nashvillians to be able to carry guns in our more isolated rural parks. The Antioch lawmaker's explanation: "They might be some dangerous spots for some (park-goers)."

I can't decide if this is a slander against our parks--that Coleman has decided rural parks must be more dangerous than urban ones, without proof or numbers to back that assertion up--or a slur against the rural residents of Davidson County. You know--once you get out of the city, we hicks are just waiting to lure you to our beautiful parks so we can rape, mug and kill you.

But in a climate where the Parks budget faces a severe shortfall and people are
losing their jobs, the insinuation that rural parks are so dangerous that people need to come armed has real implications beyond Coleman's "But I love guns" agenda. It could affect how council members who have never been to those parks feel about them, and when they're looking at ways to trim the park budgets, it's not hard to imagine how "oh those rural parks are so unsafe" might affect their decisions (see also Mike Byrd).

Anyway, our parks are beautiful, our rural neighbors are not about to ambush you in them--and maybe Antioch needs to take a long hard look in the mirror before it starts talking smack about where people might need to carry a gun in order to feel safe.