Audio Report: Why Seattle Public Library Surrendered Its Gun Ban

From a KUOW Radio Report:

When Seattle Public Library lifted its ban on guns in early November, officials there said they had done so because patrons had complained.
Internal library emails reveal that there was just one patron complaint in several years – a man with a Yahoo email account who didn’t identify himself as either a patron or Seattle resident.
That man, Dave Bowman, lives in Seattle and has a library card (which he uses, he noted in an email to KUOW), and said that he demanded the policy change on behalf of all gun owners. He described himself as “neither a conservative, nor liberal, but a libertarian.”
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The library emails, obtained by KUOW through a public records request, show the library dropped its gun ban without a fight.
“They asked us to brief them on the law, ‘What is the likelihood that our ban will survive?’” City Attorney Pete Holmes said. “We had to tell them there was a significant risk.”

Read the Complete Report/Listen to the 4:11 Audio Report
See Also: Seattle Public Library Now Allows Patrons to Carry Guns Inside Library Facilities (November 4, 2013)

Filed under: Libraries, News, Patrons and Users, Public Libraries