A co-founder of an influential Tea Party group was arrested at LaGuardia Airport Thursday for illegally trying to bring a pistol and ammunition aboard a plane, authorities said.Apparently, he was trying to check the pistol, which is still a no-no in New York. Meckler has been in New York for four days with his heater, so even trying the "hey, I was in transit" defense isn't going to cut it.
Mark Meckler of the Tea Party Patriots had a Glock 27 pistol and 19 bullets in a locked gun box — but he didn’t have a New York State permit for the firepower, which he told authorities he needs because he gets threats.
New York does not recognize any out-of-state pistol permits. The prosecutors in the city are pretty big on hard time for illegal possession of handguns, which Plaxico Burress found out the hard way.
Something tells me that the dude put on an attitude. We have a similar problem here at SFO -- it's officially part of the City of San Francisco, which bans handguns altogether except for peace officers and for long guns requires permits and has a stringent list of what long guns are allowed (basically, anything that looks like a "black gun" isn't allowed, my old Mossberg pump 12 gauge, on the other hand, would be just fine). So from time to time people in transit show up with an unpermitted gun, and it gets confiscated and the person sent off with a warning, "don't do that again!".
ReplyDeleteIn short, if you're not a resident of The City you gotta behave like a real jerk to get arrested for showing up at the airport with a gun in a locked box that you're trying to check as luggage. The popo usually figure that just having your gun confiscated is punishment enough and an arrest would be too much paperwork and too much time in court as it's argued out about whether it's legal to carry a gun in transit, what counts as in transit, blah de blah. Not something cops are interested in doing a lot of for a gun that's in their hands and the guy is leaving so it ain't as if he's gonna be runnin' round on the streets gang-banging and shit. So Mr. Meckler had to have gone into total snit mode to make a cop say "fuckit, you're under arrest" and put himself thru all that.
Regarding Plaxico Burress, he was a *resident* of New York, and had *multiple* guns, and was carrying one *outside* of a locked box, stuffed in the waistband of his sweatpants even, I mean, the dude even shot *himself* he was so casual with the thing. Dude might as well have been walkin' around with a "Jail me!" sign in glowin' neon, yo!
- Badtux the Attitude-test Penguin
I live in the west, New Mexico, and I carry a gun often, cause I'd rather have one and not need it than the other way around. Never shot myself though... :-)
ReplyDeleteMaybe things have changed but I used to understand that a CA carry permit was pretty hard to come by. And this wingnut has one.
ReplyDeleteRucus, I think CA works the same way as NY: Carry permits are issued by the county of residence. Which at least in NY, leads to wildly different standards for issuance-- basically, the further you are from NYC, the better are your chances.
ReplyDeleteThe city of New York only recognizes permits issued by the city of New York. If you have a permit from a county in New York state outside of NYC, it says right on it that it is not valid in NYC.
ReplyDeleteIt is very annoying if you are buying a weapon from a dealer in NYC. You have to have it shipped to another dealer outside the City or use your badge [if you are in law enforcement] and then take it back to your home county with a bunch of paperwork to have it added to your license. In the rest of the state they can just add it to your license.
Bryan