Author’s Note: I’m a member of Gun Owners of America (someone tell them to modernize their web site). I’m also a non-commissioned officer in the Georgia National Guard, sworn to defend the Constitution. I trust my fellow law abiding citizens, whether they have ever worn the uniform or not. The current “dialogue” about whether or not CCW holders and private citizens should be able to pass through airports conducting their daily business while carrying guns is puerile. The TSA is an inherently bureaucratic organization that will naturally protect the bureaucrat class and hoard power to that class. Banning private weapons in public airports is unconstitutional. Since I’m sworn to defend the document, and have a great deal of respect for the ideas that spawned the document, I sent this letter to the President.
Dear Mr. President:
Law abiding civic minded individuals like me are under increasing assault by bureaucrats in this country and it is high time that someone stood up for us in government. I am a citizen soldier with years of firearms training yet with each passing year I find more and more hurdles put in place by bureaucrats designed to discourage and intimidate me when it comes to the responsible use of firearms in my daily life.
The August 7 issue of USA Today reports that the TSA is considering letting airports across the country ban firearms in areas that currently allow for self-defense. What’s at stake here is not the ability to take guns past surveillance points. What’s at stake is the right of self-defense outside of these areas — especially where drivers are either dropping off or picking up passengers. In other words, drivers who have permits are the ones who would be affected the most because they would now have to leave their guns at home — thus contradicting the very reason they got a concealed carry permit in the first place… the fact that they wanted to carry their guns outside of the house. I hope that you will rein in the rogue TSA and prevent them from making such a foolish decision — if not for the Second Amendment, then for the sake of your own administration and party.
You must understand how harmful it would be to impose a brand new gun ban in an election year, when the campaigns of people like Al Gore and John Kerry have amply demonstrated that the gun rights issue can cost a party dearly.
If the TSA is allowed to arbitrarily ban firearms in the manner it is considering doing so, then law abiding citizens will have two choices – break the law when traveling through airports, or face the choice of being disarmed by a bureaucrat who is highly unlikely to appear when a firearm might be needed in self-defense.
Sincerely, SGT Trevor L Snyder, Georgia National Guard
The bottom line in regards to weapons carry in an airport is the mentality of the people carrying the weapons. I am much less likely to go crazy in an airport with a gun than most people because I have what I believe is a correct mentality about when it is appropriate to use firearms (in self-defense). As a combat veteran and a regular shooter, if I did decide to engage in a massacre at an airport, the laws and rules surrounding the facility would be completely irrelevant because of the change in mentality. Mentality cannot be legislated or otherwise regulated by a bureaucrat.