Wednesday, March 18, 2009

No Guns At Atlanta's Airport?

At least that's where it stands at present. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court's ruling upholding the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport's sweeping gun ban: the entire airport is a "gun-free zone."

The lower court's ruling, if newspaper accounts are to be trusted, demonstrated a remarkable ignorance:
In September, Senior U.S. District Judge Marvin Shoob threw out the suit. Shoob said public transit systems are not the same as airports and airline passengers are not allowed to carry firearms onboard.
Say wha'? Perhaps literally so, but people can and do quite legally fly with firearms as checked baggage all the time. It's normal, ordinary; there are procedures in place for it. ...Except, one has to suppose, at airports that have declared themselves to be "gun-free zones." Wow, I'll bet that really makes the criminals think twice!

Read the article (there's a survey!). This fight's not over yet -- GeorgiaCarry.org and state Rep. Timothy Bearden are continuing their efforts.

4 comments:

Chuck Pergiel said...

If it's a gun free zone, then the cops would not need to carry guns there either, would they?

Anonymous said...

As of today, the administration no longer allows pilots to carry in the cockpit. So the whole sky is a gun-free zone! Peace out!

Roberta X said...

Exactly, Charles. Also? Lions and lambs snooze peacefully in the waiting rooms. Little children cuddle up with them.

Anon: Not so fast! The One is piddling around with the funding -- looks like he has diverted training money to hire "inspectors" to annoy armed pilots -- but the Armed Pilot program is still running. It's a bad sign nonetheless.

firefighter4884 said...

I'm fairly certain that flying with the firearm in the checked baggage is not the issue.

It's the lawful carrying of firearms in the non-sterile areas of the airport.

At least that's what I think it is.