Several months ago I got an email about a preemption violation by the City of Corbin. The Corbin Arena is a city owned facility and was posted with signs like this:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MYE2trnS5YKtK21Q0m3tv5EBlz0ZGPZD323dhbuWpHhcOzYPXDPKvhL7nno2QUTiJJ6cU1xxWBEvuE2x/view?usp=sharing

On the Arena’s website it said ‘No weapons”, “No firearms” and “No weapons of any kind" here(look under "Guest Courtesy Policy", about half way down the document):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1anf7cYE4yU_4Q_pO5lMwfOmT2gEisB28sETmI6Z9IC0BO3a4z-2Dnd74yY9SVtkM58YHvY-QLe6Zm2EL/view?usp=sharing

and here (look under "General Rules"):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xDXMIfLSwmKY2IEAQK5Vr1ZvFi6xKvplTvwoZHOccwB1xLoph0nN6GRsk_MbG-UswM7JglyPDkvW3F0Z/view?usp=sharing

A few weeks ago I talked to the Mayor of Corbin about this. Mayor McBurney is a nice enough fellow, but he had no understanding of the issue at all. He had never heard of open carry and couldn’t understand it. I exchanged several phone calls with the Mayor and several emails with him and other city officials. There was a big gap in their knowledge of the law, the constitution, guns in general and their authority. They have come a long way. Last week I got the following email from the Corbin City Manager:

Dear softpoint:

The (2) two signs at the Corbin Arena front doors regarding concealed
weapons issue will be corrected by tomorrow Friday (1-16-15), and the
website corrections also. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Sincerely,

Marlon Sams

Corbin City Manager
Corbin, Ky. 40701

I have checked the website and the word concealed has been inserted in front of the words “weapons” and “firearm” each time they are used. I’ll have to take his word for it that the signs were changed. I am not driving to Corbin to check. You can see the changes here:

http://thecorbinarena.com/search.php type “weapons” in the search box.

I have also been assured that all signs on Corbin buildings will be in accordance with the law. They also know that their employees need to be retrained to reflect the new policy. Whether or not that gets done is anybody’s guess. So, you can now OC in any Corbin city building, including the Arena. CC is still prohibited, but all you have to do is uncover and you're good to go.

Some may consider this issue too petty to address, but in my opinion, when you can stop  any government agency from exceeding their authority, its worth the effort. These peple are not accustomed to being told that they can't do something. They have forgotten that there are limits on their authority. That is a very dangerous thing.

Another win from softpoint!!

Thank you for your hard work.

I see nothing petty in keeping the government honest.

Since the problems with the Arena appear to be resolved, I decided to see if any other problems existed in Corbin. I only had information on the Arena. The man that sent that to me doesn’t live in Corbin, but goes there occasionally and got pictures of the signs for me. I wondered if the signs on the other city buildings were in compliance with the law. Another thing is that no matter what their signs say, if the city employees think that all weapons are banned, as has been the case for years now, anyone carrying a gun would still have a hassle to deal with. This is especially true with the police dept. I sent another email to City Manager Sams expressing my concern about these things and I got this reply within 30 minutes.

Dear softpoint,

I will be addressing the other bldgs. when I return to work next Monday. I'm out of
town this week for training. Also I have made our Police Dept. aware of changes. There
will be a memo to all Dept. heads to make their workers aware of the change.

Thank you,

Marlon Sams

Sent from my iPhone
Marlon Sams
Corbin City Manager