Westmoreland commissioners allow guns in county parks

Westmoreland County Commissioners voted yesterday to change an ordinance to allow guns in all county parks.

Commissioners Tom Balya and Tom Ceraso, both Democrats, said they had no choice but to amend the county’s 1974 parks ordinance so it concurs with state law that allows firearms in public places, including parks.

“We would be foolish to try to keep an ordinance on the books that would not pass muster in court,” Balya said yesterday after a handful of county residents both for and against the proposed ordinance change addressed the commissioners.

Republican Commissioner Charles Anderson did not attend yesterday’s meeting and did not cast a vote.

The change approved removes wording from the original ordinance, which was amended in 1995, that banned firearms from specific areas of county parks. The revised law now carries no prohibitions of guns, but bans the discharge of firearms outside of designated hunting areas.

The county allows hunting in six parks: Mammoth, Twin Lakes, Cedar Creek, Northmoreland, Bridgeport Dam and Chestnut Ridge.-[source]