A bill that would ban guns from parking lots at youth detention facilities cleared a legislative committee Tuesday, despite the objection of one lawmaker who said it would create an inconvenience for him.

House Bill 1533 -- sponsored by Rep. Aaron Pilkington, R-Clarksville, and Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron -- was recommended for approval during the Senate Committee on City, County, and Local Affairs. Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, issued the only dissenting vote.

The House passed HB1533 last week, and the bill will now head to the full Senate.

The bill would add residential treatment facilities owned or operated by the Division of Youth Services to the list of publicly owned parking lots where it is illegal to carry a firearm either personally or in a vehicle.

"The parking is inside the fence, and personnel do not carry firearms," Rice told the committee.

[RELATED: Complete Democrat-Gazette coverage of the Arkansas Legislature]

Arkansas Code Annotated 5-73-122(a)(3)(C)(ii) only lists the Department of Correction or the Department of Community Correction as publicly owned parking lots where firearms are prohibited.

Clark told Rice that HB1533 "sounds like a good thing," but added: "What do you do when you do have a firearm and you arrive at a location like this?"

Rice responded that there are typically signs at correction facilities notifying those entering the gates that firearms are not allowed.

"So you'll know not to come in there. If you're there for visitation or whatever, they're going to be forewarned not to have firearms. Employees know not to have firearms," Rice said. "While I am for private entities having the discretion that if I don't want firearms in my business, I can post that. I'm for Second Amendment rights, and this falls under this."

Betty Goodman, former director of the Division of Youth Services who now works in legislative affairs for the Department of Human Services, told Clark that if firearms are found, "we would call local law enforcement."

"We don't carry firearms ourselves," Goodman said. "As Sen. Rice says, there are signs everywhere that says, you know, you can't carry."

Clark said that the bill is "as problematic for legislators as it is for anyone."

"Because when I'm out visiting in my district, I may stop at five places in a day's time, where firearms in the parking lot are prohibited -- which sounds like a great idea until you're the one that's violating the law," Clark said. "Whether I'm stopping at a school or whether I'm stopping at a DYS facility or wherever it may be, it becomes real impractical to be armed or to stop and visit people. Wouldn't you agree?"

Goodman responded that state prisons and other detention facilities have the same policy of prohibiting guns inside fenced parking lots.

"It's very difficult to monitor, and we don't go through parking lots looking for guns," Goodman said.

Clark said he wasn't "trying to pick on" the bill.

"I'm bringing up a problem in general that if you're trying to obey the law and yet you like to drive around the state, like to consider yourself protected, that there's a whole [lot] of places that as a legislator you would normally go that you actually are breaking [the] law. Would that not be true?" Clark said.

Goodman said she couldn't speak to the broader law.

"Our first concern is the safety of the youth and the staff because we don't carry guns at all," Goodman said.

At the state's correction facilities, firearms are not allowed. Even members of law enforcement must secure their firearms and ammunition safely out of sight in their vehicle or in a pre-designated area approved by the center supervisor, Community Correction spokesman Dina Tyler said.

"Common sense tells us that firearms and incarcerated offenders shouldn't be close to each other, and good correctional practice emphasizes the point. Even though offenders in community correction centers are minimum security, there's still no good reason to allow visitors to bring guns onto the property," Tyler said after the meeting. "If something were to happen, it wouldn't be anything good. We do everything we can to minimize the chance of trouble erupting, and this is one of the ways we do that."

A Section on 03/06/2019