Guns at Airports and Disney?
Is the NRA for real? Are airports and Disney World really the best places to wage their 2nd Amendment rights battle? Personally, as an advocate for gun control, I couldn’t have picked better locations. I’m a thinkin’ this tack is gonna backfire on the NRA big time.
Tags: NRA
Why not allow the good guys (and gals) who have the good reputations required to get a concealed carry permit carry in public places? How often do we hear of such a person shooting someone. Almost every crime report in Delaware has the phrase ‘person prohibited’ included.
Decades ago, there was a mass shooting at a Luby’s restaurant in Texas. One survivor (who lost relatives) was angry because she had a gun that she was legally obliged to keep in her car. She went on a legislative crusade to amend Texas law and got elected to the legislature. The measure passed but was given a veto by mouthy and arrogant Ann Richards. This became a campaign issue that helped to elect George W. Bush as Governor. The rest is history and Ma Richards may well have altered the course of history.
Most states have taken political hacks out of the loop that gives out concealed carry permits but Delaware remains among the backwards few. Delaware requires no permit for open carry but one should carry the name of an attorney in case some cop does not know the law.
It would be interesting to see how the gubernatorial candidates come down on this issue.
As a bit of a postscript, did Killer Capano have a concealed carry permit for the gun he used in his infamous crime?
Might keep the lines shorter at Disney. But ya know, the issue here is that the NRA wants to allow guns everywhere, just like some would ban them everywhere. Neither is realistic.
Laws that ban guns at a particular venue will guarantee that the only persons to be armed will be a true lawbreaker.
Many people choose not to own or carry a gun. If they are forbidden to do so by law, they become softer targets and attractive to thugs who can kill, even without guns. Think of your armed neighbor as providing you with a virtual gun, the one you could have if you choose to do so.
Looking around my neighborhood I shiver to think they are armed (maybe more dangerous to themselves than me, but Damn!)
The only one of my neighbor I trust with a gun is my DE State Trooper neighbor. I know he is properly trained and is a professional qualified to have a loaded weapon.
Look folks toy guns guns for fun Nuns with guns shoot your neighbor just for fun guns on planes boats and trains. Any idiot can have a gun guns at work guns at play buy a new gun everyday. get that clerk at the DMV who takes her time waiting on me ‘ Guns at the beach and Mickey’ Dee’s guns at the post office wait and see. Gun’s everywhere just for laughs Why don’t we all join the NRA and take control.
Skip that one about the post office there may be a clerk who goes postal and shoots us all in line
Giving the government more power has always been an idea that ends up with people like DE Liberal bloggers saying, “What the fack were we thinking?”
I don’t want to take away guns. What I would like is a little common sense and consistency. At airports you have 2 seconds to drop off or pick up your passenger before security is ordering you to move it along. The longest line at Disney is the entrance gate.
Just sayin’.
When we had a nearby armed robbery a few hundred yards from my house, the leader of the gang was a State Trooper.
Remember that police officers have no legal obligation to protect an individual. That is the obligation of the citizen.
I remember that Luby’s story. I always thought that even if she had had her gun she probably would have accidentally shot an innocent bystander.
This isn’t the wild west. The thought of any moron having a gun in a holster or even hidden in their purse/pants scares me way more than just a few criminals having them. I’ll take my chances, thank you very much.
I think those who support the carrying of concealed weapons are seriously overestimating the intelligence and wherewithal of society as a whole. I shudder to think that the very people who can’t properly maneuver a car or even a shopping cart could be allowed to carry a gun. Think about those vapid Brittany/Lohan/Paris Hilton types – do you really want them to be allowed to carry guns??
P – I don’t know if I agree with you about the longest line at Disney; I remember both Space Mountain and The Tower of Terror being painfully long (45 minutes!).
‘That is the obligation of the citizen.’
First, where does it say we’re obligated to protect each other?
Second, aren’t the police citizens?
There are too many law-abiding screwballs in this country to allow more guns anywhere.
If the NRA cared about anything other than more guns being sold, they’d be working with police to get the guns out of the hands of criminals. I am so tired of seeing all the kids and other innocent people being killed in Philly. That brings up another point — if all this random killing was happening in the white suburbs, someone would have come up with a solution long ago.
I do not like the thot of concealed guns….small hand held guns….
I know there is a following for the idea of arming everyone & don’t bother concealing them…..
I would rather let anyone who wants to protect their home have a shot-gun…something big, not concealable, can’t miss your target, difficult to use for suicide……just keep it away from the kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Most people who own a hand-gun are not practicing enough with it…when it comes to the time to use it they will miss their target (add in nerves during a crisis).
Intelligent, thinking people will hesitate before they fire a gun at another person (asking the questions, where do I shoot them?, do I really want to kill a person?….)
A criminal mind will not ask these questions….that split second can get you killed….
Being hit with a .38 at 10 feet exposes you to about 300 ft/pds of energy. Being hit with a car going 10mph exposes you to a couple of tons of ft/pds. How many morons own cars?
That’s an interesting comparison, but it’s kind of silly. The only reason for owning a gun is to do harm. The same cannot be said for owning a car.
I am with disbelief. Gun control has been a failure. We need to allow people to be secure in their home, and in their person. As for the Disney World question, it is private property. It is not an area of public commerce nor a public facility. They have a right to control what goes on their property. I don’t have to go if I don’t like the rules.
I do have a problem with Disney disrespecting the rights of its employees who have concealed carry permits to leave their guns in the car before work. Disney is such a sprawling location that having guns in cars which are unmonitored could encourage theft. Disney should offer them an alternative like a locker.
Those employees are not a danger. The people who threatened them (which is why many seek the permits) are. We can accommodate them.
Second, aren’t the police citizens?
They are citizens but they have no legal obligation to protect any other citizen.
Self-defense is your right and obligation.
One is morally obliged to help a neighbor or even a stranger in distress but there is no law that controls this. Decent people will. Then there was the tragedy of Kitty Genovese.
I am totally amazed at all the big, strong men who feel they need a gun to defend themselves. No woman I know would even think of having one. I don’t think about having one when I go downtown or anywhere else. Give me a break!
Giving the State control of guns is like giving political appointee hacks control of State money. We see over and over how that works.
On the other hand, the guy wearing the Mickey suit in 100 F weather at 99% humidity who just got puked on yet again by a fat kid who ate too much cotton candy is not someone I’d want to see wearing a gun.
Couldn’t agree more, June. I wonder why that is. Just look at the shape of a gun. Could it be about more than personal protection and constitutional rights for men? Hmm…
Personally, I favor the long-barreled .357 Magnum. The only step up from that is the .44.
P. has asked me to rewrite my comments with periods and commas ok so here goes.
Look folks toy guns, Guns for fun, Nuns with guns. Shoot your neighbor on the run. Guns on planes boats and trains. Any Idiot can own a gun. Guns at work, Guns at play. Buy a new Gun every day. Get that clerk at the DMV who takes her time waiting on me. Guns at the Beach and Micky Dee’s. Guns at the Post office wait and see. Ladies guns are pink , Men’s are blue which one you buy is up to you. Oops skip the post office there may be a clerk there who is Postal and shoots us all in line.
But seriously folks if we really want to make a change we should all join the NRA and take it over.
My younger sister lives in Orlando; from her stories, I can see why any law-abiding citizen would want a concealed-carry permit if he lived there. My sister has one.
It would be interesting to see one of our congressmen introduce the following constitutional amendment for consideration:
Anyone want to guess just how far that would get?
Dana – again with the false choices. A complete ban is not what this is about. It is about sensible limitations.
I am all for allowing people to own a gun, but guns that serve a purpose. Give every home owner a pump 12 gauge with a fingerprint trigger lock and see what happens to breakins (Though I think most breakins occur when people are not at home so it may only reduce the ones when people are obviously home). The sound of a 12 gauge chambering a round is more then enough to send even an idiot back out the window they came in.
I think gun laws get fuzzy when they allow for hand guns and assault rifles, weapons that have no other use then killing other human beings. Shotguns and rifles can be used for hunting, but just try and conceal either very well.
I still think the best way to limit the number of guns is to limit the availability of ammo. A hunter will be wiling to pay $100 for 25 shells if they really love their sport, and if they are any good they shouldn’t need more then that. Put a federal tax on ammo that makes the price of shells not purchased and used at an approved target range (after all, practice is a good thing). If I own a gun for protecting my home, it is definitely worth the $100 for the ammo to do that with, but it makes going on a shooting spree a very expensive endeavor.
See, this is why I don’t belong to the NRA; they always take it a step too far.
The airports are already patrolled by armed guards, cops, and occasionally National Guard troops if the threat level is high. I’m assuming Disney has armed security guards as well, but I haven’t been there in a long time. I would make an exception for off-duty cops, but I don’t really think there’s a need for gun-toting tourists who happen to have a concealed carry permit because they have to carry the payroll sack twice a month.
Well said, G.
The liberalgeek wrote:
Just what part of “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” allows for what you call “sensible limitations?”
I’d note that the city fathers of Washington DC thought that an absolute ban on the possession of working handguns by law-abiding residents of the District was a “sensible limitation.”
“That’s an interesting comparison, but it’s kind of silly. The only reason for owning a gun is to do harm. The same cannot be said for owning a car.”
– Disbelief
Really!? I guess I didn’t get the memo because the only thing my guns have harmed are paper targets.
Also, this is about freedom of choice. The NRA is not “arming everyone” or “pushing for guns in airports and disney.” All they’re saying is that those of us who choose to arm ourselves while going about our daily business should not be legally forced to disarm in “gun free zones.” “gun free zones” are far from “gun free” when an armed criminal disregards the sign/law. All “gun-free” really means is “no LEGAL guns allowed.” It restricts those who aren’t the problem to begin with.
“Think about those vapid Brittany/Lohan/Paris Hilton types – do you really want them to be allowed to carry guns??”
I’d prefer they be prohibited from speaking too, but I’ll respect their rights (ALL of them) since it’s not my place to tell any one person, or group of people how to live.
Americans have inherent and inalienable rights. The right to keep & bear arms is one such right. Everyone should be able to excercise their 2nd Amendment rights unless the government has proven, through due process, that the rights of a certain individual should be restricted.
BTW -I’m pretty sure both Lohan & Hilton have drug & DUI convictions so they can’t legally own or carry a gun anyway.
Mike R. – You can hunt with handguns in many states. Many people do. Many people also hunt with “assault weapons,” Which isn’t surprising since many of the weapons politicians classify as “assault weapons” are run of the mill rifles.
Dana- Go ahead and repeal the 2nd Amendment. (let’s hypothetically assume there are enough votes to do so.) You are apparently ignorant of the concept of Constitutional Rights.
Repealing the 2nd Amendment doesn’t make it go away anymore than repealing the rest of the Bill of Rights would allow the government to kick in my door and rob, beat, imprison and torture me with impunity. The 2nd Amendment is inherent and inalienable just like the rest of the Bill of Rights. Words on ink & parchment don’t “grant” me the right to keep & bear arms, they merely codify a pre-existing right. My rights, all of them, exist independent of the Constitution.
– Dana – Sorry. I now see that your post was in jest and that you’re on our side (you have Jeff’s quote as a header on your site.)
My post still stands for the liberal anti-rights folks here. You might want to learn a bit about the founders and the nature of “rights” before you get all giddy about making the 2nd Amendment just disappear. If the SCOTUS had gone the other way in Heller I’d still have the right to keep & bear arms regardless of what 9 guys in robes had to say.
“I still think the best way to limit the number of guns is to limit the availability of ammo. A hunter will be wiling to pay $100 for 25 shells if they really love their sport, and if they are any good they shouldn’t need more then that. Put a federal tax on ammo that makes the price of shells not purchased and used at an approved target range (after all, practice is a good thing). If I own a gun for protecting my home, it is definitely worth the $100 for the ammo to do that with, but it makes going on a shooting spree a very expensive endeavor.”
since a normal cop carries 40 to 50 rounds on his belt, you would see a rise in assaults on police officers… theft of a gun and its ammo would net a nice profit for gang bangers… not to mention all the dead cops youd have on your hands…
as for 25 shells for $100… if you were talking about .50bmg, that would be a bargain since they go for about $4.80 a round right now…
but that aside, on most trips to the range, i go through about 300-500 rounds through various guns… your plan would put that out of reach to me and almost every other shooter, thus creating a defacto ban which would soon get struck down by the courts…
and even further aside, you are talking about plans that would only punish law abiding gun owners, not criminals… i have an idea for reducing crime… lets stop letting thugs out of jail… thats something we havent tried in a while, i bet it would work…
“If the NRA cared about anything other than more guns being sold, they’d be working with police to get the guns out of the hands of criminals.”
Funny, I thought they did just that: http://www.nrawinningteam.com/hestexil.html
As to not knowing any women who would want to own guns, you must live a very sheltered life. I know more than a few, among them Tam, Roberta, Breda, and Brigid.
…Plus the aforementioned Suzanna Gratia-Hupp, Paxton Quigley (wrote the book, ‘Armed and Female’), and even the legendary Annie Oakley—who, I might add, wasn’t known for going on killing sprees, either, despite her many guns and frequent, INTERNATIONAL exhibitions of skill!!
Plus my sister and several other women friends. Where the hell are you people hanging out? Fantasy World?
Sheesh, for people who obviously don’t know a damn thing about guns, lefties sure spend a lot of time spewing about them. I’m not telling you that you MUST rush out and get a handgun, why are you trying to tell me that I can’t? Especially when it is a right, not just another state-granted privilege? Do you know the difference? It must suck to feel that threatened by so many things, all the time.
Also, I find it pretty moronic to say that a gun will somehow make me an instant killer (since I was trained by the US Army, and have in fact carried guns for years without incident), or to intimate that some delusional punk in a mall with an SKS could kill 30 people successfully, but a CW permit-holder would only be able to hit innocent bystanders.
You need to consult sources OTHER than ‘Grand Theft Auto’ and ‘Tomb Raider’, ‘k?
You know, things like this have never ceased to amaze me… Gun-grabbers, hoplophobes, and anti-rights individuals constantly scream about how they do not really want to ban all firearms everywhere (which, in reality, is what the Brady Bunch and other such organizations mean when they say “common sense regulations”, whether you want to admit it or not), but in the same breath, they scream about us pro-rights folks trying to put a gun in everyone’s hand.
Sorry, folks, but no pro-gun organization has ever taken the stance of arming everyone, and they are not likely to any time in the future.
The fact of the matter is that the police is not required to defend individual civilians – only the society as a whole, as documented in repeated court cases. Thus, your life, your safety, and your self-defense are solely your responsibility, no matter how much of a Big Brother nanny-state you want to live in. And, as a law-abiding citizen, why should I not have the same tools at my disposal to defend my life as the law-abiding citizens working for the police forces around the country?
Honestly, as a pro-gun-rights activist, I disagree with the decision concerning Disney. Disney’s parking lots exist on private property, and thus the government should not be able to tell them what they can do with it (of course, I believe in that mentality far farther than you liberals might… such is life). That said, I see nothing at all wrong with having armed, law-abiding citizens in Georgia’s airports, outside of the secure area. After all, I am still responsible for my own safety and defense in that airport… why strip me of my tools?
Oh, and, seriously, the phallic fallacy is a pathetic argument, and one only resorted to when you have nothing better to bring to the table. It is laughable, to be certain, but not in a way you might like.
And, in closing, speaking of shooters of the fairer sex, do not forget Squeaky!
Well first of all the NRA has absolutely NOTHING to do with the airports case. 0, zip, nada. The group behind the law and the lawsuit is GeorgiaCarry.Org. A Georgia based group totally independant of the NRA.
Second the state changed the law and the city of Atlanta wants to ignore the change and arrest people who are not violating any law.
Might I ask why you think it is ok for a city to decide to ignore what the state law tells them to do and arrest people for reasons they think are ok but specifically have no power or authority to arrest you for?
Read the stories. The person that was threatened to be arrested for doing something that a bill he wrote (signed into law) specifically allowed him to do (licensed carry into non-sterile areas of public transportation, ie the airport). If you still don’t understand, read that again, people licensed to carry cannot carry into a place the state says they can because a Mayor that could not stop the law from being passed says so.
Oh, and just so you know, 42 other states allow people to carry into non-sterile areas of their own airports. Georgia was 43. Someone want to point me to all the horror that has been seen in those other state’s airports?
A few things.
One, I don’t really agree with the Disney thing either. Mostly because it’s private property, and they have a right to exclude people from their property who are carrying guns if they want to.
Two, the reason for lifting restrictions on “no carry” zones, which airports are not in most states, except for the secured area, is to make life easier for those of us who carry a defensive firearm regularly. If you have a concealed carry license, the best place to have the gun is on you. Not left in your car or left back home where it’s not going to do you any good, and is out of your direct control.
These are folks that we trust to carry firearms everywhere else in public. In Florida and Georgia, they have passed background checks, and had training on gun safety and the legal aspects of carrying and using a gun in self-defense. There’s no real earthly reason to make carrying a firearm in the non-sterile area of an airport illegal for people who can carry everywhere else. In a free society, especially when it comes to constitutionally enumerated rights, the burden should be on those to justify the restriction, not on those who wish to ease it.
“I remember that Luby’s story. I always thought that even if she had had her gun she probably would have accidentally shot an innocent bystander.”
Dominique – So you would deny her the right to self defense based upon your irrational, unsubstantiated fears? Care to produce some statistical evidence that law abiding folks who carry are shooting innocent bystanders?
IF that actually does happen it occurs so often as to be completely insignificant.
Just an update on this issue. Disney has backed away from their initial ban and is allowing CCW holders to keep their weapons in their cars on Disney property.
Good job Disney! You finally caved, realizing you aren’t exempt from state law. It’s about time.
Here’s the link to the story
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/a475a5b4313cfeafed7c1849a88efb96.htm
Sorry, don’t know what happened to my comment.
The above link is an update to this situation. Disney has now gotten in line with state law and allowed employees with CCW permits to keep guns in their cars.
Phew…that was close. My 2nd A rights were almost infringed upon.
Yup. No one is above the law, and that includes Disney.