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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