A sign posted outside of the Little Rock Zoo barring guns inside violates Arkansas law. You’ve got to let the guns into this park of endangered species that’s designed to amuse and educate children, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office said in an opinion published Thursday. 

Requested by State Sen. Mark Johnson (R-Little Rock), the opinion says that prohibiting guns among the toddlers and tigers violates an Arkansas law that prohibits local governments from regulating firearms. 

The sign in question, posted outside of the zoo’s entrance, reads: 

Notice: Carrying a handgun is prohibited on City property at any time. Carrying any firearm or other deadly weapon on City property is also prohibited at any time. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS. You are subject to search. If weapons are found, you will not be allowed to enter the property and must leave the area immediately. Active and retired Little Rock Police Officers and Law Enforcement personnel required to carry a firearm as a condition of their employment are not subject to this prohibition. By order of the City Manager. 

While there is a state law that generally prohibits carrying weapons into “public buildings or facilities,” except for people with enhanced concealed carry licenses, parks are not considered facilities. The opinion, prepared by Assistant Attorney General Justin Hughes, said the Little Rock Zoo constitutes a municipal park because it is physically located within War Memorial park and under the authority of the Little Rock Parks and Recreation Department and the Zoo Department. 

The sign also runs afoul of Arkansas’s law allowing unlicensed open carrying of loaded handguns, including in public buildings, according to the opinion. The law allows unlicensed open carry in the open areas of municipal parks, but not in any enclosed buildings. So, you can’t bring a loaded handgun into the gift shop or reptile house or the bathroom, but everything else appears to be fair game under Arkansas law. 

To comply with state law, the zoo would need to modify the sign to allow exemptions for enhanced concealed carry license holders and the open carry of handguns, according to the opinion. 

The only thing the zoo can really prevent as far as guns go is standard concealed carry license holders who want to carry concealed handguns, according to the opinion. Those guys could openly wield their weapons at the zoo though, under state law.

“This signage authority is narrowly drawn. It applies only to CHCL [standard concealed carry] holders carrying concealed handguns,” Hughes wrote. “It does not create a free-standing power for local governments to ban any firearm on government property.”

Apryl Jackson, a spokesperson for the city of Little Rock, said the city attorney is reviewing the opinion, but notes that the zoo is city property, not state property. 

“More to the point, the Arkansas Constitution guarantees that the right of property ownership is above all other rights in Arkansas. Such ownership includes the right to exclude,” Jackson added. “Clearly guns are not allowed in Razorback football stadiums. The City does not allow the public to carry guns in enclosures with endangered species.”

When asked for comment, a spokesperson for the Little Rock Zoo deferred to the city of Little Rock.