Idaho –-(Ammoland.com)- It was just a few weeks ago that citizens from several different cities told us about gun bans on Idaho buses in the Treasure Valley, Pocatello, and other cities.
Several of those bans have been defeated! The battles aren’t over yet though. We need your help — more on that in a second.
Some of you are familiar with our “Preemption Project” that we started several years ago. For those that aren’t, allow me to elaborate for a minute. You see, back in 2008, Idaho passed a law that forbade Idaho cities/counties from enacting ordinances regarding firearms that were stricter than the state law.
They call this “Preemption.”
It prevents a patchwork of gun laws from being implemented all over the state. It also prevents gun grabbing Mayors and Commissioners from infringing on the 2nd Amendment. Sometimes these municipalities test the wire.
They want to see if they can get away with banning guns and have no one challenge them. Of course, the ISAA is more than willing to challenge these bans.
To date, we have overturned over 50 gun bans or illegal ordinances in Idaho!
Most recently, citizens in Boise and Pocatello asked about gun bans on their city buses. Treasure Valley Regional Transit serves the Boise area. Pocatello Regional Transit serves the Pocatello area. The bus systems across Idaho are all owned by local government agencies that must operate under the Preemption Statute. Despite these systems having “private” employees running the buses, it doesn’t change the fact that they are owned by taxpayers.
The ISAA sent the Treasure Valley Regional Transit Board and Director a letter and we informed them of their violation.
Several elected officials, along with some informed citizens, who worked with us previously, helped push the issue forward and the ban was removed!
Next, we contacted the City of Pocatello and the Porcatello Regional Transit Director about their illegal gun ban.
Just days ago, we received an email from their attorney’s office informing us that the ban was being removed!
These types of victories don’t happen overnight. It only happens because gun owners are willing to stand with us. They know that if they don’t overturn these illegal bans, they have to answer to you! But we aren’t done yet.
As it turns out, there are several other gun bans on bus systems in Idaho.
Citizens from Idaho Falls, Lewiston, and Coeur d’Alene have all reached out to us and asked for help in removing these gun bans from their bus systems.
Editors Note, information from City of Coueur d’Alene Deputy City Administrator:
The City of Coeur d’Alene doesn’t actually even have bus service. There is a regional bus service run through the county here, Kootenai County. It’s called Citylink. The City of Coeur d’Alene has no control over that bus system and we aren’t even aware if they have an alleged firearms ban.
While the Boise and Pocatello systems were relatively easier battles than we expected, Lewiston and Coeur d’Alene could be much more difficult to overturn.
That’s why we need your help!
First, running the Preemption Project takes a lot of time and money to initiate.
- We need to build up our coffers for these battles. From materials to potential lawsuits, we have to be ready to strike immediately.
- Please consider a donation of $100, $50, or $25 TODAY to help build up our resources to fight these battles.
Second, we need you to reach out to your family and friends that live in any of the remaining cities (Idaho Falls, Lewiston, and Coeur d’Alene) and tell them what is going on.
They need to be prepared to mobilize and support us! Idaho is not a place gun bans should exist — but they do.
If it wasn’t for the ISAA and all of our great supporters that have helped us over the years, these bans would still be in place.
You are making a difference! Please act now and help us get even more victories!
Hi everyone, I’ll be emailing the author directly as well but I want to help clarify that the City of Coeur d’Alene doesn’t run a bus system. I’m not sure if that impacts the rest of the veracity of this article’s research, but the Citylink bus service is a regional service run through Kootenai County. I’m not sure if they actually have the prohibitions alleged on this article.
I hope this provides better clarity of readers.
Sam Taylor, deputy city administrator
City of Coeur d’Alene
[email protected]
Welcome to the site Sam Taylor. What gun prohibitions does the City of Coeur d’ Alene have that the author could have gotten confused with?
Bill, by State code, the City is prohibited from regulating firearms.
Hi Bill, I appreciate the welcome. I frequent this site fairly often as a firearms owner myself (as are probably most Idahoans), actually. Idaho law pre-empts cities from regulating firearms and so we don’t. I have also reached out to the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance to ensure they’re clear on this, too. Our state Second Amendment Alliance is based in southern Idaho and we’re waaaaay up north, so they may not be familiar with our bus system in general and simply assumed it was a City system. It isn’t. We have a regional system run through the county. We just… Read more »
Contact the State Attorney General and ask for an opinion about these city infrinements.
The IAG should write an OPINION letter advising each city council, city attorney and judge in the state.
Our KS AG has done this. Idaho can do the same