:-)
Posted on 06/01/2007 1:26:08 PM PDT by em2vn
POST FALLS – Zach Doty typically wears a tie and dress shirt to church. But lately, a new accessory of his is raising alarm in Post Falls.
After turning 18 last month, the Post Falls teenager began strapping a loaded 9 mm Glock 19 handgun to his belt every day. He totes it in full view to Bible studies, the public library, city parks and neighborhood stores and on walks around town.
His 15-year-old brother, Stephen, has joined him, carrying a loaded Ruger .22-caliber rifle slung over his shoulder.
The brothers, who are home-schooled, say they're flexing their Second Amendment right, which allows citizens to bear arms. They say they're protecting themselves and others, deterring crime and making a statement about constitutional freedoms.
"If you don't exercise a right, eventually it will go away," Zach Doty said last week, a handgun tucked in a holster on his hip. "I'd like to raise people's awareness that it's a right, and I hope to encourage others to exercise that right."
The brothers are stirring up concern about citizen safety and gun responsibility.
Residents have alerted police and complained to the city. Police officers have stopped the boys on several occasions in the past six weeks.
And city officials say the brothers' action may lead to restrictions on carrying weapons on public property within city limits. At this time, the city doesn't have an ordinance that prohibits firearms in most public buildings.
"It obviously has created some controversy in the community. …We are fielding a significant number of calls from concerned citizens about how we're going to react to this and how we're going to ensure their safety is upheld," Post Falls City Administrator Eric Keck said. "It really is a matter of defining things very carefully and balancing maintaining one's rights and what has become the norm of society. It's something we're really going to have to examine."
betcha they, or anyone they’re around, don’t have to worry about being crime victims..
>>city officials say the brothers’ action may lead to restrictions on carrying weapons on public property within city limits<<
OK, so they arrest the boys on charges,
and it goes up the appeals process,
and the USSC rules that “keep and BEAR” means no restrictions on individuals BEARING their arms.
No ... a right is a right. It's not a right that society grants, but a right from God. That's the way they set it up when our country was established.
If the government wants to take away rights, then they need to change the Constitution. But you can't monkey with it based on "society's norms."
In another place this piece was discussed the piece had said that the police had talked to the boys to help them understand how people felt seeing them armed. I remember commenting at the time, the police are talking to the wrong people, The boys have done their homework on the law. The complaining residents obviousl, had not.
With Rights comes Responsibilities.
These boys are screwing up.
Yeah and segregation was the norm at one time. This jerk doesn't understand that we are talking about an inalienable right!
How so? It's legal. A right not exercised becomes useless in my book.
The government can't take away rights, it can only restrict their free exercise.
There was a time when it was not unusual for kids to be seen carrying firearms in public, or going shooting and hunting. Nobody thought anything of it. I used to shoot at a range in a public high school. Carried my rifle in every Tuesday and Thursday, and I was only 14.
How?
About 20 years ago, small town in CO. My brother had just purchased a pistol grip pump shotgun. We took it up in the hills and had a blast shooting. We put it in the gunrack of his pickup and were driving back when we were suddenly surrounded by five cop cars, guns drawn and all.
They politely took out their tape measure and determined that the shotgun was 1/4” over the legal length. They they asked us to please transport it in future out of sight, as people had called in freaked out about a “sawed-off shotgun.”
These boys sound like the women who think they have a right to upset others when breastfeeding by flopping it out in front of God and everybody. A little discretion never hurt anything.
“These boys are screwing up.”
Concealed carry means just that in some places.
Here in Indiana, allowing someone to see that you are carrying can be considered “brandishing” a weapon, and can get you in trouble.
How is exercising a right legally constitute abuse?
How are they screwing up?
How's that? Like going to church too often? Writing too many letters to the editor? Refusing to incriminate yourself too often?
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