“It’s just one of those things where I didn’t check that one little flap, and there it was,” Pettyjohn told The News Journal at the time. “Sometimes mistakes happen, whether you’re a legislator or not.” Pettyjohn was allowed to enter a plea without admitting guilt and got probation, but not before letting the public know his true feelings about firearm laws. Again, from the News Journal story of last June 23:
“Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and we’ll try to find out what they’re after here. There is certainly nothing which rises to the level of a felony carrying a firearm to an airplane.”
Yet the same hyper-responsible gun guy was on the radio with Dan Gaffney this morning, arguing against Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf’s HB 330, which would raise the minimum age for buying any gun in Delaware to 21.
“I’ve been talking to some of my colleagues in the Sportsmen’s Caucus about this and we’ve got a lot of concerns,” he told Gaffney. “We’re talking shotguns, 18, 19 and 20-year-old men or women that want to go out hunting and aren’t going to be able to unless they have parental permission to buy the ammunition or buy the gun.” Pettyjohn has reason to listen to the “sportsmen” of the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association — he’s on the receiving end of their $100 contributions in both 2016 and 2017.
I happen to agree with him about Schwartzkopf’s bill — forcing people who are otherwise adults to get parental approval is highly problematic. (Imagine the headaches if alcohol could be sold to 18-year-olds who had parental approval.) But he’s the last person who should be making the argument because, if you go by him, 43-year-olds aren’t responsible enough to carry guns, either. The age isn’t the problem, it’s the firepower of military-style rifles. That’s why Gov. Carney has called for banning the gun. No muss, no fuss, no red tape. Ban. The. Gun.
It should go without saying that accident or not, the disposition of Pettyjohn’s case probably would have been different had he been Joe Blow and just a telecommunications manager at Mountaire (Pettyjohn’s day job) instead of a state lawmaker (just ask John Atkins). And if it was Jamal who was found with a gun “at” the airport, his skin a few shades darker and a Koran found in the suitcase, he’d be writing us letters from prison. In such a case I doubt Pettyjohn would petition the court about it “not rising to the level of a felony.”