Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Law and Order / Politics / Woods Crossville Under Siege by Gun Nuts
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 5:25 AM
Hah! You've never met a gun nut, have you? Under the alarming headline "Tennessee: Right-to-Carry Under Attack in Crossville!" the NRA has sent an email alert to its followers claiming "anti-gun bills such as this one will clearly strip those of Crossville, Tennessee , of their right to self-defense." Of course, Second Amendment freaks like Say Uncle are spreading the word, and the beleaguered officials of Crossville are forced to explain this completely reasonable proposal a million times to a million different knotheads.
Comments (7)
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Having spent much enjoyable time in Crossville, I'm still betting on the "nuts". The difference between the right to hunt and bear arms on your land is inseperable from self defence and "freedom." Hunting and posession of firearms is the right guaranteed, but why must we get to the cold dead finger theme played everytime in the continuous loop of the NRA. Caveat: if the former VP could pull it, hey what's a firefighter to do.
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The real issue here is poorly drafted language that will have to be interpeted in the courts later costing taxpayers more money then the fines will ever raise. Bad law is simple bad law. We either need to get the definitions correct before we pass an ordinance or do the smart thing and just put some employment policies in place. We don't really need a new law to handle every situation do we? Sometimes a little common sense can work miracles.
As the reporter who wrote the article linked above for the Crossville newspaper, I can say that I sure didn't see this coming until I got a call from someone who wanted legal advice from me and seemed to think the city planned this action to harm his "rights." No, they didn't.
I fully expect that this ordinance will be tweaked and approved when it comes up on the city council's agenda again. I don't know yet if it will be on the February 10 agenda or not.
This is an excellent example of the hyperbolic vitriol that passes for political or social commentary on the (far) left.
The issue: a "knothead" (to borrow a slur from Mr. Woods, who should know) carelessly mishandles a firearm while at work for the City of Crossville, injures himself and threatens coworkers. The city has no specific rule or ordinance prohibiting firearms on city property. The city DOES have rules proscribing irresponsible behavior and negligent endangerment of workers and bystanders, employed or not.
The Solution: Craft a new ordinance prohibiting possession of firearms, on ALL city property, by EVERYONE (well, except those the city allows).
Mr. Woods take: Everyone who sees a problem with the failure of the city government to either supervise their employees or actively follow their own safety rules, let alone any who might be able to understand what "..the right(s) of the people .. shall not be infringed" means are illogical, "nuts", "freaks", and/or "knotheads".
I don't THINK so! Homey don' play dat....
This matter will NOT be on the Crossville council's February agenda. I expect it may come up in March.
The problem I see with all of this is that some dumb@#$ at the fire dept. decided NOT to check his weapon BEFORE cleaning it, and now EVERYONE gets to pay for his stupidity.
I am a LEGAL handgun carrier (after living in ATLANTA, who wouldn't be), and can tell you that too many times careless people ruin everything for everyone. It is people like this that end up giving government the open door to "save everyone from themselves". It is an unfortunate truth that people seem to become more stupid with each decade that passes. I'm not for gun control laws. I would be in favor of making people take an aptitude test before being able to buy or carry a weapon.
Common sense woiuld tell anyone that maybe being at work isn't the appropriate time to clean a gun. Commone sense and practical safe use of a firearm would dictate that he should a) remove the clip if it is an auto, the cycle the slide a few times, lock the slide back, and physically check to see if there is a round in the chamber. This is MY common practice along with not letting anyone handle my gun without removing the clip as well as cycling the slide which will SAFELY expel the round. My other, practice: Simply not cleaning my gun at WORK.
A good idea would be to hold the fireman responsible for his lack of due diligence at work, and to reprimand him for doing something that SHOULD be done at home.
