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Staff tells Monroe council: state law limits city’s ability to ban open carry in parks; council weighs awareness and advocacy options

Monroe City Council · December 3, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

City staff told council that Washington state law preempts local firearm regulation and therefore Monroe cannot ban open carry in city parks; councilmembers suggested a public awareness campaign and possible advocacy to change state law in future legislative priorities.

City staff briefed the Monroe City Council on Dec. 2 on whether the city can prohibit open carry of firearms in public parks. Staff presenter Liam McCorkle told council that state law largely preempts local firearm regulation and that parks are not among locations where state law expressly bans open carry.

“Pursuant to the Revised Code of Washington, the state of Washington fully occupies and preempts the entire field of firearm regulation,” McCorkle said, explaining that the city lacks…

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