Criminalizing self-defense and degrading rule of law
Tuesday, 12 August 2008 | 739 readers so far
I complain often that bureaucrats have purposefully made complying with gun regulations so onerous because they want to discourage individuals from defending themselves at all. Sheep are easier to control than wolves and bureaucracies are all about control.
The recent ruling that I cannot take my gun into a “non-secure” area of the airport is unfortunate. I am now a criminal in waiting, according to the bureaucrats.
U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Shoob refused to grant a preliminary injunction that would have stopped the city from enforcing the airport gun ban. Shoob ruled against gun-rights group GeorgiaCarry.org and state Rep. Timothy Bearden (R-Villa Rica).
Bearden sponsored House Bill 89, which became law on July 1 and permits people with firearms licenses to carry guns in state parks, restaurants that serve alcohol and on mass transit.
But Shoob said allowing concealed weapons into non-secure areas of the world’s busiest airport will make the airport less safe and require it to substantially revise its security procedures.
I live 70 miles from the Atlanta airport. I carry a gun at all times, and I am licensed to carry the gun by state bureaucrats. I am a pistol expert, according to the U.S. Army. Yet bureaucrats do not want me to carry my gun if I pass through the airport. Apparently, I am supposed to find somewhere off the airport property to store my weapon if I need to pick up a passenger or drop one off. This is impractical, unrealistic and burdensome. It degrades my respect for the law, and makes me wonder what in the hell happened to common sense. When the law abiding are treated as if they are the enemy they eventually become the enemy.
I will continue to operate “under the radar” if possible. I am not going to stop carrying a gun with me at all times. I’d rather take my chances and fight any resulting charges in court. If some bureaucrat wants to remove a productive citizen from the tax rolls because of a stupid rule so be it. When the system becomes obtuse enough that it creates too many political prisoners it will collapse under the weight of its own unthinking idiocy.
What we do in the name of “public safety” is increasingly creating an atmosphere of distrust and resentment of the privilege of authority. It’s an us against them mentality fostered by egocentric and arrogant bureaucrats who think they own everything and know better than everyone. It’s dangerous, counterproductive and ultimately destructive to the fabric that holds our society together.
When will we finally be safe enough? When we are all chained together and naked as we shuffle through the airport with our heads down waiting to be tasered if we dare to question the authority of the men and women in their polyester suits with their shiny badges and their rule books thick and weighty? Go to hell you damn bureaucratic overlords of the kingdom of banal mediocrity. I don’t need you and I reject your demands that I become your myrimidon.
1 August 12th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Donk says:
Just don’t get out of your car. Airports are no place for firearms unless you are a cop working there.
2 August 12th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Trevor says:
Anytime someone tells me only authorities need something, alarm bells go off in my head. That is how dictators take power.
3 August 13th, 2008 at 11:00 am
kitanis says:
Its not only airports.. or just guns. I myself prefer to carry a pocket knife on my person.. I consider it a tool for many things that pop up day by day. The blade I like to carry is legal.. its only 2.38 inches long.
But I got called to Jury Duty recently.. and in the handbook they give you.. it mentions that you can not enter the courthouse with a pocket knief. Nor is there a provision where you can leave that knief somewhere and then pick it up later. The screaning is qouted as being more restrictive than a airport securty screening..and after going there for two days I can vouch for that..
Before someone tells me that I could, “leave it in the car”.. this is the Multnomah County courthouse in Portland, OR. Parking around that are is LIMITED to say the least.. so most like Myself took light rail to the area and walked in. My point is I was the one called to go to the court house but denied the right to carry a tool into it.. I was not the one on trial.
4 August 13th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Trevor says:
I can’t wait to serve on a jury. I’m going to ignore everything the judge has to say and refuse to convict the person of anything unless they are charged with violence or fraud.
5 August 14th, 2008 at 7:07 am
PavePusher says:
Donk wrote
“Just don’t get out of your car. Airports are no place for firearms unless you are a cop working there.”
Ah, another Barrack Obama voter. Elitist, much? Can you explain how someone who can safely carry proper tools for defense of self and community is somehow more likely to become a raving madman once he steps onto airport property?
P.S. If your comment was sarcasm, please accept my sincerest apologies, I’m still trying to absorb the morning coffee into my brain… PWD: Posting While Decaffinated…
6 August 14th, 2008 at 8:16 am
fsilber says:
Allowing police to carry guns in non-secured areas of the airport but not private citizens is no less obnoxious than a law that discriminates between white and black people. Police are supposed to be public _servants_ — not the servants of our _rulers_.
7 August 14th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Uncle Lar says:
If we controlled free speech the way they want to control guns every customer entering a theater would have to be fitted with a locked gag in order to prevent them from yelling “fire!”
Independent studies have shown that none of the approximately 22,000 gun laws on the books do much of anything to prevent crime. Criminals being, well criminals, they go ahead and break those laws right along with the others they set out to violate. So the main benefit to all those restrictions is to either add one more charge to a captured villain or to harrass otherwise honest citizens that simply feel the need for self protection.
8 August 14th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Trevor says:
fsilber,
I’m free inside my mind - I don’t have rulers who can get in there are rewire anything. Not yet. Hopefully not ever.