From: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Organization: The Man With Ten Cats
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 17:46:21 GMT
Reply-To: rmkhome!rmk@merk.com (Rick Kelly)

In article <16B5221A.PA146008@utkvm1.utk.edu> PA146008@utkvm1.utk.edu (David Veal) writes:
>In article <9301091923.58@rmkhome.UUCP> rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes:
>>In article <PA146008.603.726338593@utkvm1.utk.edu> PA146008@utkvm1.utk.edu (Davd Veal) writes:
>>>In article <9301052244.31@rmkhome.UUCP> rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes:
>[Comments about just who is required to own a gun in Kennesaw deleted.]
>>>>>        We're doing OK here in East Tennessee.  I understand some of the
>>>>>Western states are doing real well.  Looks like we have evidence on both
>>>>>sides of the spectrum, and the only thing they would seem to agree on would
>>>>>be that gun ownership alone is not the problem, but at bare minimum
>>>>>operating along with something else.
>>>>
>>>>Hmm.  Someone else said that it was against the law for civilians to
>>>>carry guns in Tennessee.
>>>
>>>        You jump subjects pretty quick.  Above you were talking about home
>>>defense, now you're talking about carry.
>>
>>I thoought the Kennesaw, Georgia law allowed carry.
>
>       That particular law was geared to home ownership.  A different
>law may very well allow carry.  (I know there's some method in Georgia.)
>
>>Getting a home defense weapon in Massachusetts is relatively easy.
>       Relatively easy compared to what?  What exactly are the rules these
>days?

First, the most common home defense weapon in Mass is probably a long gun.
The purchase of a shotgun/carbine and ammo requires a FID card.  The FID
card is very easy to get, unless you have been in a mental hospital during
the last five years or have been convicted of a felony in the last five years.
It is not subject to the whim of police chiefs, and is just a minimal
application that gets processed by a computer.

>>>        Try and pay attention:
>>>
>>>        Gun ownership in East Tennessee is quite high.  Very high in many
>>>places.
>>>
>>>        It is illegal, according to state law, for a civilian to carry a
>>>firearm either open or concealed.  (It's a misdemeanor.)
>>>
>>>        People do it anyway.
>>>
>>>        Clear enough?
>>
>>Ah, but if you are carrying an illegal weapon, then you are a criminal.
>
>       Here's a another one:
>
>       Big fat hairy deal.
>
>       But I'll go on...
>
>       If the Second Amendment to the Constitution does guarantee the
>right to keep and BEAR arms, then, according to Article VI and the
>14th amendment, the law prohibiting carry carries no legal force
>and is not legitimate.

Ok.  So what is the RKBA gun lobby doing to rectify this disparity
between the US Constitution and the state laws?

>>And if you kill someone with an illegal weapon, self defense or not,
>>then you are a murderer.
>
>      I think you've got your terms and your laws confused.  If I
>kill someone in self-defense with a weapon I'm carrying illegally,
>I have still killed someone in self-defense, and in any trial I'll
>probably get off.  (Bankrupt and my life ruined probably, since the
>prosecuters enjoy that sort of thing.)  I may get nailed for illegal
>carry, but that's a different matter.  (See Bernie Geotz (sp?))
>      But I'm curious if there are *any* laws that you have broken
>because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time?

Goetz didn't kill anyone, as I remember.

>>>>>       Come visit Knoxville.  You won't actually see people carrying
>>>>>guns here, either.  :-)
>>>>
>>>>So you're saying that a lot of people just carry concealed weapons,
>>>>no matter what the laws say?
>>>
>>>       Bingo.  Give the man a cigar.  That's exactly what I said.  But then,
>>>Tennesseeans seem to take their state government even less seriously than
>>>most people.
>>
>>Which will surely convince the Tennessee state government to change the
>>laws?
>
>       This is very important, so please pay attention:
>
>       The Tennessee State government doesn't give one good god damn
>about East Tenneesse.  It only cares about Middle and West Tennessee,
>which has a greater population and are Democrats.  Republican East
>Tennessee doesn't have the voting base to do anything.  We are
>held hostage to the whims of the Metro West who live in a completely
>different world than we do, and don't pay any attention to us except to
>swipe our tax revenues.

I can honestly say that I don't know much about Tennessee.

-- 

Rick Kelly    rmkhome!rmk@merk.com    merk!rmkhome!rmk    rmk@frog.UUCP
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns