Man with 21 guns at airport: I'm law-abiding

Man, I "love me some guns too." But hell, don't take 21 to the airport while you are picking a friend up! Common sense these days! Go shooting another time. It is just the way our life is now days after 911. The law is more paranoid these days and I guess rightly so. Don't get me wrong, if he was within the law it was wrong, but I think you have to use a little commom sense these days, that's all.

I've been researching what the rules are as far as "airport property" restrictions on firearms and from what agency the rule derives but all the information online is really difficult to search. What I did find is this..

This all started back in 2008 with this story in "USA Today":
"TSA weighs airport gun ban in unsecured areas"

What happened was this..

Airport officials and lawmakers are watching closely as the TSA weighs a request by Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to modify its security program to impose an airportwide ban on guns. It is the first such request to TSA from an airport.

"Any decisions we make that affect (Atlanta) could affect every other airport in the country," TSA spokesman Christopher White said Thursday.

Federal law bars passengers from bringing weapons to or past airport checkpoints. But in many airports, state law allows passengers to carry guns and knives in unsecured areas such as a main terminal — often to airport officials' dismay.

"I don't really like the idea of people coming here with weapons and carrying them into terminals, but that's their right as citizens of the state of Texas," said Alan Black, public safety chief at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

In Atlanta, the issue arose last month after the state passed a law to allow Georgia residents with gun licenses to carry firearms onto public transportation, including subways, buses and airports. When the city-owned airport vowed to maintain its longstanding firearms ban, GeorgiaCarry.org, a gun rights group, sued.

On July 17, after the lawsuit was filed, the request from Hartsfield officials asked the TSA to amend its airport security program to include a gun ban. Each of the nation's 450 commercial airports has a detailed written security program that can be changed only with TSA approval.

Hartsfield's effort is backed by airport groups and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who plans hearings next month on airport efforts to ban guns. "If airports think (guns) should not be allowed, they should have the right to modify their security plan to reflect that," he said.

The Airports Council International said in a recent letter to Hartsfield, "There is no justification for permitting firearms at any airport." Policies vary from state to state and from airport to airport. Some bar guns fully, others allow them, sometimes in areas such as a parking lot, said Charles Chambers, the council's security chief.

Hartsfield spokesman Herschel Grangent said that someone firing a gun in the airport would force a massive evacuation that could disrupt flights nationwide. Hartsfield, with 89 million passengers in 2007, is the world's busiest airport.

GeorgiaCarry.org lawyer John Monroe said the airport gun ban jeopardizes personal safety: "You might like to have a gun in your car because you come home on an 11:30 p.m. flight."

The TSA is "trying to work through some complex legal issues," said spokesman White. He gave no timetable for a decision. Courts may ultimately decide whether an airport can override state law and prohibit guns by adding a ban to its security program, Chambers said.

Then this news story 3 days later about the lawsuit itself from "The Atlanta Journal Constitution":
Showdown over airport guns
Courtroom duel pits Atlanta vs. GeorgiaCarry.org

The case was thrown out by the judge on Sep. 28th, 2008 according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution story here:
"Airport’s gun ban upheld in court"

This was the first court case of its kind though.. I'm not sure which states have followed suit and which haven't.. But I did find this story on Yahoo news from October 15th 2008..

"In many US airports, guns are OK outside security"

An Associated Press survey of the 20 busiest U.S. airports found that seven of them — Philadelphia, Detroit, Phoenix, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles and San Francisco — let people with gun permits carry firearms in the general public areas of the terminal.

I was just reading THIS and it really gave me a bad taste in my mouth...
Especially this part.....

At Walt Disney World, employees will not be allowed to carry guns in their cars at company parking lots.

The entertainment giant will make the Orlando parking lots gun-free zones, despite a new state law that allows Floridians with a concealed weapons permit to keep a firearm locked in their car while they work. The law took effect Tuesday.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” according to state Sen. Durell Peaden, one of the authors of the bill and a Republican from the Florida Panhandle

-ChriS

[edit on 12-1-2009 by BlasteR]

reply to post by BlasteR
Starred. Great find!

You've found what appears to be a pattern of TSA attempting to extend authority beyond its legally justified limits, and without much success.

It's worth noting that the TSA is in such a tizzy because it is a legal infringement in those airports that allow firearms in certain areas. Disney Corp is going to have a bad day the first time an employee disputes this rule in court. They took a step the TSA was not willing to take.

Should a case like this be disputed and have it favor the authority in question, I bet you'll see the TSA lose its fear of lawsuits and begin extending its authority to non-secured areas.

[edit on 12-1-2009 by cogburn]

What's most amazing is how overzealous government peons just completely ignore our civil rights and assume we are guilty of a crime when none has been committed.

His weapons were stowed properly and he was not a threat to any persons, except those who believe that they are above the law when they work for Homeland security.

As far as I'm concerned enforcement officials involved in this matter are enemy's of the people of the United States and should be stripped of all authority and their pictures and address posted on a public website so they will be ridiculed and shunned by all freedom loving Americans.

This is exactly why we have a Constitution - because without it the guy would of been beaten, robbed of all he's worked for in his life and put in a dark dungeon for eternity.

Anyone who's serious about their guns or gone to target practice usually brings nearly every operable weapon they own that they have ammo for especially if they only have a half dozen or so. I didn't see whether this was his entire collection or just a fraction thereof - I've been invited out shooting on numerous occasions and by the time I'm done I usually shoot at least a couple hundred rounds and am tired and sore after it's over.

Some people are a bit more eccentric and since the guy had a friend flying in they were probably excited to go shooting and he was probably showing off a bit - big deal.

The Constitution was meant for All Americans and the entire United States - the idea that it can be invalidated block by block mile by mile city by city state by state is treason.

I'm really sick of this crap these Nazi pigs make me want to puke.

[edit on 12-1-2009 by verylowfrequency]

reply to post by verylowfrequency


BRAVO! STAR! Well put, vlf. (and a 21-gun salute!) couldn't resist

So glad to see most everyone here disturbed about Constitutional rights
violations against this individual... as I am, too.

AND- Bob Schultz - - I think you are right, not much is 'random' anymore!
We ALL have some kind of 'record' now, besides firearms registrations, be it criminal, medical, pharmaceutical, psychological, travel habits, or just patterns of consumerism (credit & banking), employment, and phone & computer use, which are being used to monitor us.

Think carefully about that...