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Whitefish: No Guns At Proposed Neo-Nazi March

Whitefish, MT rail depot.
Flickr user Roy Luck (CC-BY-2)
Whitefish, Montana Rail Depot

Leave your guns at home.

That’s the message Whitefish City Manager Chuck Stearns sent to neo-Nazi organizers, who proposed an armed march against the city last month.

“They can come, assemble, and march, and exercise their free speech right, but they can’t do it carrying weapons," Stearns says.

The armed march was originally supposed to happen on Monday, but organizers failed to complete the city’s special event permit and pay a $125 dollar application fee. The Daily Stormer website announced last week that it was postponing the march until sometime in February.

Stearns says the city’s attorney found a state law that allows towns to prevent people from carrying weapons during a public assembly. So, the city decided to ban them from the proposed march.

Stearns says that many Whitefish residents wanted the city to prevent the march from happening. But, while they can’t do that because it's unconstitutional:

“At least we can prevent it without weapons, and the weapons are really what took this to a higher level than other marches around the country," Stearns says.

He notified organizers of the decision last week, but has not received a response.

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