It was the day after April Fool’s, but the joke was definitely on sexual deviants April 2 when the Elizabethtown Town Council unanimously voted for an ordinance that bans registered sex offenders from the town’s parks and recreation areas.

No longer will men and women who have molested, raped, or otherwise sexually abused children and women be allowed to gather in places where Elizabethtown’s residents seek play time and good times.

Hooray for the Elizabethtown Town Council.

It’s a decision that might one day be questioned by the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the small North Carolina town of Woodfin last year in an attempt to overturn the ordinance.

Like David slinging his rock, tiny Woodfin dug in its heels and beat the cabal of high-priced leftist lawyers the ACLU threw at the town. Taking heart from this victory for decency, Elizabethtown Town Attorney H. Goldston Womble said he is confident Elizabethtown’s ordinance will hold up in court.

There are 15 registered sex offenders in Elizabethtown, and if we had the space here we’d publish each of their mugshots along with their street addresses so mothers and fathers would know exactly from whom to shield their children.

Maybe someday we will. Maybe we’ll even go one better and publish the mug shots and street addresses of all 56 sex offenders registered in Bladen County.

In the meantime, we’ll doff our caps and offer a hearty “thank you” to the Town of Elizabethtown for having the courage to pass an ordinance that makes our most precious and vulnerable citizens a little bit safer.