guns
Legally carrying a weapon is a crime
Aug 18th
wait, does that count as Arson?
Look, I dislike guns. I dislike them a lot. I don’t believe that people kill people, rather that guns – the objects from which projectiles are discharged at a high rate of velocity, thereby permitting them to enter the bodies of individuals, causing fatal damage to bodily organs – kill people. I’d rather there weren’t any, or at the very least, we had stringent gun control laws.
But do you know what I dislike more? Stupid laws and even stupider interpretation of laws that criminalize perfectly legal conduct. Somehow, despite my strict personal opposition to guns, it is still legal to carry a licensed firearm in Connecticut. In public. Openly.
Yet, for some reason, the state’s “top criminal justice official” – a made up title if I ever heard one – wouldn’t recommend it. Why, you might logically ask, is it not a good idea? For the same reason that photographers across the country are being arrested for videotaping police encounters with civilians: because no one knows the law (see also this post by Balko on an issue similar to the one in the instant post).
I’m not making this shit up.
Mike Lawlor, already featured in one post today for his sage legal prognostications, offers up another:
“In almost every situation you can imagine this happening in, it qualifies as breach of peace,” he said. “If you walk into a restaurant with a gun it’s almost by definition a breach of peace.”
That results in an arrest and sets in motion a chain of events that usually results in the revocation of an issued pistol permit, he said. And that’s the way it should be, Lawlor said. Anyone who walks into a McDonalds plainly carrying a firearm either intends to alarm people or is irresponsible, he said.
“Almost by definition”? Oh, really? Challenge Accepted! Here‘s the relevant Breach of Peace statute:
Heller goes to the airport
Jul 2nd
In this latest installment of “Heller goes to…”, in which we follow the zany adventures of Heller v. D.C.*, the lovable Supreme Court case, as he makes his way through the country, Heller decides to go to the airport to see what the fuss is all about.
He decided to take a trip to Atlanta, GA – one of the nation’s busiest airports. After all, he now has a right to be possessed. It’s in the Constitution and what better place to exercise one’s Constitutional rights than an airport!
In addition, the state of GA had just passed a law making it legal to carry a concealed weapon while on public transportation and other fine places where other people congregate, so they can all compare their pieces and be happy.
So off went good old Heller to the airport:
City officials in charge of the airport declared it a “gun-free zone” when a law allowing people to carry guns on public transit and other places took effect Tuesday. Gun rights supporters, including a state legislator who helped pass the law, quickly filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the designation.
Rep. Tim Bearden, a Republican from Villa Rica and a former police officer, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Bearden sponsored the state law.
He had told a newspaper he would carry a concealed weapon to the airport Tuesday when he picked up his family. But he told The Associated Press by telephone Tuesday morning, “There will be no reason for any confrontation at the airport.”
The airport authorities were naturally upset, since the country has been in a state of orange alert for the last 7 years and airports lead to planes and well…you know the rest.
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said citizens can’t bring guns into the terminal and argued that airports remain attractive targets for terrorism.
Allowing citizens to carry firearms “would create an environment that would endanger millions of people,” she said.
So let me get this straight. I have to endure hours of long lines at airports and invasive and intrusive searches and answer all sorts of ridiculous questions so we can be “safe”, but all of that security takes a back seat to some yahoo who doesn’t feel manly enough without his gun tucked in his shoulder holster (or wherever the kids are carrying it these days) and has to carry it to the damn airport?
It’s also quite an interesting argument to make – that an airplanes are “public transportation”.
Oh you silly Heller, you! Always getting into crazy situations!
*Yes, I realize that this GA law is not a product of Heller. I am using the Heller name as a surrogate for the right to bear arms and any and all state laws designed to make such possession legal
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