(6-19-2006) The KKK rallied on Antietam National Battlefield earlier this month. Ignoring their message, what unfolded on an otherwise ordinary day in fields outside of Sharpsburg was pretty much what you’d expect in a free society. The 30 or so attendees were met by many more counter-protesters, each speaking to the other (under watchful supervision of police who ensured that exchanged pleasantries remained orderly.) The remedy for hate speech is more speech.
The National Park Service (which approved the rally permits) and the city fathers of Sharpsburg (who allowed a rally in town three years ago) are obviously cut from better stock than that of leadership in Boonsboro, less than 20 minutes up the road. It was the KKK’s application for permits to use a park there that drove the Boonsboro town council into a pants-peeing frenzy last year. As we reported at the time, Boonsboro honored the Constitution not by recognizing the group’s application to exercise First Amendment rights, but by curtailing everyone’s Second Amendment rights, specifically banning possession of firearms, gun gear and ammunition in big parts of their turf.
They didn’t care about travelers with secured gear passing through town, nor folks with carry permits. In fact, their law far exceeded most gun restrictions in America by making it a crime to possess even a gun part. Lose a magazine spring under the seat of your truck? Could mean a conviction if found by Boonsboro cops. Too bad for businesses which had FFL’s (Federal Firearm Licenses) to sell guns or gear. And for what? To this day, nobody in Boonsboro has articulated why, unlike any other locality in the nation, they are at risk for want of this law. (Both the NPS and Sharpsburg obviously weathered insignificant KKK gatherings without having to dishonor the Bill of Rights.)
After breathing into a paper bag, some councilmen came to their senses, realized what they’d done, and sought a change. We’d hoped they’d quietly repeal the ban last fall to save face. It wasn’t that easy. It may be the KKK with Nazi insignia on their sleeves, but it was Boonsboro leadership that looked more like national socialists when they acted not to repeal the ban, but instead tune it to better withstand potential legal challenge from citizen groups. That’s right: fear of the KKK morphed into a need to circle the wagons and defend council actions from us.
Politically we don’t advocate getting mad, just getting even – at the ballot box. Council elections were conveniently held in May, and with record turnout (plus expert leadership from Washington County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs – the good guys!) two of four incumbent councilmen were given the boot.
As it stands now, the law remains a beacon to any Maryland locality eager to make a stand against guns. We remain hopeful it will be repealed by the new council, but if a fresh wave of gun control washes through the state, the irony is that it started in western Maryland, normally one of the strongest bases for patriots and common sense.