By Dean Weingarten
Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- When criminals with a long history of burglary are caught in the act, the AP is very careful to call them “alleged” burglars. When a gun owner is spotted by a hoplophobe and denounced to the local authorities, the “alleged” adjective is nowhere to be seen.
Here is the headline:
“Man pulls out unloaded gun, causes panic at LAX”
It was written in spite of ambiguity in the police report, as shown below:
Airport police Sgt. Karla Ortiz said the man either took out the gun or a gun carrying case around 9 p.m. Friday.
The headline leaves no doubt about the illegitimacy of the act of being a gun owner. No details about how many people responded to the person who transferred some valuable and sensitive personal property from luggage where he was required to place it by law, to somewhere else that made more sense to him.
I can easily sympathise with this fellow. I have carried a gun dozens of times though numerous airports in the United States, including Reagan International on the very edge of the District of Columbia. The only place where I met utter panic and official incompetence was in California. I had to educate the officials there on the law and their responsibilities. I cannot speak for New York City, I have managed to avoid them.
I doubt that this fellow did anything wrong, or that he had any indication that he was marked for persecution by one of his fellow air travellers.
The point, of course, is to make the public exercise of second amendment rights a shameful thing, not accepted by “right thinking” members of the public, backed up by the use of force to demonstrate the power of the state over such “outmoded” concepts as constitutional rights and the rule of law.
Update: Man released, did nothing wrong, as predicted. From the latimes:
Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad officers searched the man’s luggage before clearing the scene. The man was arrested on suspicion of brandishing a weapon but was later released for not meeting the criteria of the brandishing charge, Ortiz said. He was cleared to carry the handgun.
c2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
About Dean Weingarten;
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
And the first thing they do is call someone with a gun…..
The US media, news and entertainment, has been demonizing gun, gun owners, and hunters for at least 50 years. When our law enforcement types (name your cop show) enter a gun shop, it’s always confrontational on both sides. The truth is that most law enforcement personnel are quite friendly to gunshop people, and vice versa. They usually know each other by first name. Even BATF people are often on good terms. But most people get there only knowlege og guns and gunshops from the media. We’ve seen anti-gun types preasure big box stores out of dealing in firearms. Remember when… Read more »
In 2007, i called the feds, and the airline, about bringing a gun with me. lock it up, in a separate case, unloaded and declare a gun at check in. They put a piece of paper in the suitcase saying a gun was enclosed. No problems all the way to north carolina, from az. Follow the rules and you will be OK.