March 10, 2002
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Shannon Flynn is a 24-year old employee of The Arizona Department of Revenue.
For seven years during her adolescence, she was molested and later raped
repeatedly by her felon-father. He told her that if she ever testified against
him, when he got out of prison, he would come back for her. For the last six
weeks we have been fighting to publicize this issue for numerous reasons. One,
to let bureaucrats know that unarmed victim zones will not be tolerated, and to
put so much media attention on her father's clemency hearing last week that
there would be no possibility of him getting out this month. It worked. But he
has another parole hearing scheduled in September and his sentence ends just a
year after that.
What does Shannon need? To exercise her right to self defense, Shannon wanted
to carry her pepper spray, knife and her gun. Even though Arizona is an
open-carry state requiring no permit, Shannon obtained her CCW in an effort to
protect herself and retain the tactical advantage that concealed carry affords.
This would have been easy had not The Department of Revenue over-reacted to the
September 11th attacks by installing magnetometers thus forcing Shannon to forgo
her self defense tools or risk being arrested and fired. While other Arizona
departments’ employee handbooks specifically allow "personal defense
weapons" such as knives and pepper spray, DoR changed its policy and denied
the right of men and women to have the ability to defend themselves in this
crime-ridden neighborhood full of drug dealers, gangs, and prostitutes.
www.apb.com shows that DoR zipcode 85007 has a high crime rate and 62 registered
sex offenders. This is not just about Shannon, however. At least 20 DoR
employees have been victims of sexual assault in their lifetimes. Which law is
Mark Killian, Elliot Hibbs, and Jane Hull responsible for violating? First, Let’s
look at Article 2, Section 26 of Arizona’s Declaration of Rights in the
Constitution:
"The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense
of himself or the State shall not be impaired."
Arizona Revised Statute
13-3102(A)(10) allows for government building security to disarm citizens, but
only if the agency safely stores the weapon on-site. This laws states that it
would be illegal
"Unless specifically authorized by law, entering any
public establishment or attending any public event and carrying a deadly weapon
on his person after a reasonable request by the operator of the establishment or
the sponsor of the event or the sponsor’s agent to remove his weapon and place
it in the custody of the operator of the establishment or the sponsor of the
event;"
Forcing you to keep your self defense tools in your car is not a
"reasonable request" under the law. Neither is telling you to walk 400
yards to Capitol Police and back to check it there Also, falsely and with no
basis in law, AzDoR managers were telling employees that any discovery of a
weapon in their car is a "firing offense." That would mean that
Shannon would have to be disarmed all the way from Apache Junction to Phoenix
and back again. There is no basis for this in Law. One does not give up
inalienable rights for a job. They can change this policy with a stroke of a
pen. We must force them to do so.
Feeling her ability to defend herself severely impaired, Shannon turned to
members of www.brassroots.org, www.KeepAndBearArms.com, NRA, GOA, anti-rape
activists, and other pro-rights activists. Our month-long protests and activism
have appeared on KTAR 620 AM, 12TV, Capitol Times, East Valley Tribune, and next
week, The Arizona Republic.
There have been some gains. AzDoR employees are now permitted small,
three-inch knives and pepper spray. But Shannon's rapist-father is over six-feet
tall and over 200 pounds. She needs her gun. We will not stop resisting this
stupid policy which says the best way to protect Shannon is to disarm her.
Please contact the bureaucrats below. The person answering the phone will likely
be just a secretary. Be kind. But the more you are transferred, the more you
will be lied to. They will tell you that it is against state law. That is a lie.
They will tell you that Shannon and other women (but not men) have been offered
armed guards. But those guards are not legally responsible for protecting her
and she cannot sue them. If armed guards are enough to disarm Shannon, are
police departments justification to disarm the rest of us?
Some activists have been contacting www.betseybayless.com/. Why? Bayless is
Governor Hull's anointed successor to her throne. Many have told Bayless'
campaign manager that if Bayless doesn't convince Hull to force Hibbs to change
the policy, we will take it out on Bayless' primary campaign by buying campaign
signs, attending her fund raisers and press conferences, and attending GOP
District meetings to tell them why we won't support her. It has worked. Hull has
stepped away from supporting Hibbs. Hibbs reacted by "…washing my hands
of this issue" and telling Killian, "do whatever you want."
Although Killian purchased lock boxes prior to Hibbs' capitulation, Hibbs reamed
him for it and refused to send his workers to install them. As a result, Killian
has been resistant to the idea, perhaps because he was fearful that he would not
have the support of the public. Call him and offer him your support.
Governor Jane Hull
www.governor.state.az.us/
1700 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, Az 85007
(602) 542-4331
Director J. Elliot Hibbs (Dept of Administration)
www.adoa.state.az.us/
1700 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, Az 85007
(602) 542-1500
Mark Killian (Revenue)
www.revenue.state.az.us/
1600 W. Monroe
Phoenix, Az 85007
(602) 542-3572
killianm@revenue.state.az.us
