COMMENTARY | Congress needs to pass a national permit to carry weapons, even one that's limited to legal passage in transit. Some states have reciprocity agreements with other states, but one must be careful of restrictions, cautions the "gunlaws" website.
New York City gun laws have criminalized an otherwise law-abiding American citizen when it arrested Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler at LaGuardia Airport.
Gun-control crusaders on Twitter were initially heartened at the bonus catch of bagging a tea party founder but now Second Amendment advocates are battling back.
The Atlantic Wire provides a fair telling of Meckler's arrest. The tea party "big-wig" made the mistake of declaring his unloaded, lock-boxed Glock-19 pistol to an airline agent who gasped on cue and called police.
Society wasn't in any danger from Meckler, but that's hardly the point. The point is that New York's gun laws create an illusion of public safety in the safe neighborhoods where many vocal anti-gun activists can afford to live.
It's different for the good people who live in New York City's rough neighborhoods.
The New York City cops quickly arrested five men in the vicious fatal shooting last week of Officer Peter Figoski in a house the New York Daily News calls "an obvious drug den." The Daily News story further describes the neighborhood as one "where the Latin Kings and Trinitarios gangs hold sway and residents cower indoors after dark."
Presumably, they "cower indoors" without means of protecting themselves from home invasion violence.
By contrast, the Norristown Patch reports that an attempted home invasion in Pennsylvania went badly when intruders were repelled by gunfire from the frightened homeowner. Police are now searching local hospitals for persons who may have been shot at that scene.
Both home invasion scenarios may present problems, but the 2nd Amendment acknowledged a right of "the people" to choose the latter.
In New York, Mayor Bloomberg's political cadge is to blame New York gun violence on lax gun rules in other states, but New York's violent criminals are never deterred by laws.
Mr. Bloomberg heads Mayor's Against Illegal Guns (MAIG).
If you're wanting for a definition of "illegal guns" by Mr. Bloomberg, he means all of them. The 2nd Amendment has no meaning in New York.
Meckler may have expected justice tempered with mercy. What he got is justice tempered with liberal politics and a felony charge.
Anthony Ventre is a freelance writer who has written for weekly and daily newspapers and several online publications. He is a frequent Yahoo contributor, concentrating in news and financial writing.
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