Stop and frisk? Not in scary, scary Georgia

“There is not an airport official in the world who would say that carrying an AR-15 makes sense. So the question is why would that be allowed to happen?”

Source: Gun Rights Vs. Public Discomfort In Georgia – The National Memo

The big and hugely misunderstood stop-and-frisk police policy in New York, quashed quite correctly by a federal judge who determined that it was unconstitutional, is still being argued by citizens, mostly in tabloid newspapers and, probably, on certain “news” shows. (I don’t watch them so I can’t testify to this.)

I don’t usually write about criminal matters–which stop-and-frisk can be, until a case morphs into a civil rights lawsuit–but I’ve been thinking about it.

Aside from all the constitutional objections, it never did work in New York. That is, I’ve looked at the stats and, aside from the very low (I believe it was 15 percent) number of stops that resulted in any sort of contraband, like grass, I believe the incident of discovering guns was very, very low.

For one thing, a gun has some bulk, doesn’t it? And if a cop sees someone with a suspicious bulk in his belt, he certainly has cause to stop and frisk that person, pursuant to the Fourth Amendment:

Search and arrest warrants

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Proponents of stop-and-frisk–grandly ignoring the violation of people’s civil rights (see amendment, above)–say, “Well, knowing that the cops could frisk people randomly, gun toters don’t walk around the street with their guns.” These people believe that gun violence has risen in New York because of the anti-stop-and-frisk policy mandated by the court and our Constitution. But, to repeat, guns are bulky things and the police can certainly stop anyone openly carrying one in the streets.

Um, yeah, but not in the fine southern state of Georgia.

To demonstrate how upside-down this country’s states are regarding the metastatic cancer that is guns and gun “rights”, you must read the above link about Georgia’s House Bill 60, known as the “Guns Everywhere Bill.” Yes, everywhere.

Not only can a person openly carry a rifle through an airport in Georgia, police are not permitted to stop him and ask whether he has a permit to carry that gun. I bolded that for obvious reasons.

Here’s how this bizarre, scary, scary story from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and reported on by The National Memo begins:

By Ernie Suggs and Rhonda Cook, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (TNS)

ATLANTA — Barbara Cheng saw the news last week about a man walking through Atlanta’s airport with an assault rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition. Instantly, she flashed on the time two years ago when she and her kids strolled into a McDonald’s to find an armed man eating a Big Mac.

“The place was eerily quiet,” Cheng said of the restaurant along I-75 in North Georgia. “Obviously we weren’t the only ones disturbed.”

Her children couldn’t stop staring at the gun.

“I was incredibly angry because he obviously thought his so-called ‘rights’ trumped everyone else’s in that restaurant,” she said. “I hated that man and I still hate him. These are bullies.”

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