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Someone tell the man's lawyer.

from Sam Cohen

Originally published on this website August 13, 2001

I submitted the following letter on 8/12/01 to the Arizona Republic newspaper through their on-line (web-page) form, at http://www.arizonarepublic.com/opinions/sendaletter.html:

[RE:http://www.azcentral.com/community/comstories/0808tolby0808Z8.html ]

To the editor:

In his August 8 article in the Arizona Republic, "Gun-hiding driver is aiming for trouble," Judge Tolby made two errors. One was assuming that he could get away with insulting the public. Sorry, Judge, but just because you don't trust others (or maybe even yourself) to be responsible with guns, don't tell us "carrying a gun puts you and your family at risk." Even though those scary "studies" you referenced are propaganda, they're irrelevant: self-defense is a fundamental civil and human right that stands above statistics -- false or otherwise -- and you know it.

More directly, your court judgment against the motorist was judicially wrong. Arizona is blessed with some very plainly written laws, among them Statute 13-3102. The portion of that law you used to convict the defendant was Subsection A, Paragraph 2: " [A person commits misconduct involving weapons by knowingly] carrying a deadly weapon without a permit ... concealed within immediate control of any person in or on a means of transportation."

But just a half-page later, 13-3102 Subsection F gives a clear and positive exception: "Subsection A, Paragraph 2 of this section SHALL NOT APPLY [emphasis added] to a weapon or weapons carried in a case, holster, scabbard, pack or luggage which is carried within a means of transportation."

Since the motorist's pistol was in a holster, you convicted him falsely.

Someone tell the man's lawyer.

Sam Cohen
Concord, New Hampshire


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