The snow emergency is over in King, N.C., but while it was in effect, according to published reports and a cursory glance at state statute, there was a curfew, restrictions on alcohol and a ban on the sale or possession of firearms off of one’s property.
When I called officials in King, the police department referred me to the mayor’s office, and the mayor’s office referred me to state statute. I don’t know what they call that in North Carolina, but out here in Washington, it’s called “passing the buck,” and that dog don’t hunt.
The inquiry was simple, and the conversation with a lady named Judy at the police department was pleasant. All I wanted to know was “What on earth does a snow emergency have to do with possession of a firearm?”
Only in Washington, D.C. do guns seem to come into play when people play in the snow, but then it’s only the cops who seem to pull those guns.
§ 14-288.7. Transporting dangerous weapon or substance during emergency; possessing off premises; exceptions.
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, it is unlawful for any person to transport or possess off his own premises any dangerous weapon or substance in any area:
(1) In which a declared state of emergency exists; or
(2) Within the immediate vicinity of which a riot is occurring.
(b) This section does not apply to persons exempted from the provisions of G.S. 14-269 with respect to any activities lawfully engaged in while carrying out their duties.
(c) Any person who violates any provision of this section is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. (1969, c. 869, s. 1; 1993, c. 539, s. 192; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c).)
The mayor, it appears, did not have any discretion when the emergency was declared over a heavy snowfall late last week. The ban on transporting dangerous weapon(s) or substance(s) during an emergency is detailed under North Carolina statute 14-288.7, which appears to have been adopted originally in 1969.
This little emergency situation was significant enough to earn a mention on the Drudge Report, and it ought to raise eyebrows anywhere people remember the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Now, there was an emergency, and its aftermath was detailed by authors Gordon Hutchinson and Todd Masson in The Great New Orleans Gun Grab.
Emergencies are periods when private citizens may need a firearm the most, although the snow situation in King hardly seems the sort of thing one would call an emergency. Of course, that comes from a guy who lives in the mountains of Washington State, where heavy snowfall is an occasional inconvenience but not an emergency (unless you live in Seattle, perhaps, but that’s another story). State statutes that enable government to suspend a fundamental constitutional right during a genuine emergency need serious revision.
One source in King said the community is not used to this kind of a snow event, and not prepared for it. People were without power all weekend. That’s unfortunate, but out here we make the best of it with wood stoves and generators; we don’t suspend firearms rights.
Starbucks manager in Wyoming blows it
The other day, this column discussed an attempt by the anti-civil rights Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence to wage a war of hysteria on Starbucks, because the Northwest-based coffee company will not ban armed citizens, particularly those who open carry, from its premises. Starbucks instead defers to state and local laws.
My colleague in Cheyenne, WY Anthony Bouchard has discovered a Starbucks manager in the Cowboy State – also known as The Equality State – who evidently doesn’t think gun owners are equal, but he does believe them to be “cowboys.” Bouchard reports that he chatted with a Starbucks manager in Casper who told him, “I own guns but why would anyone want to carry them around women and children?”
What’s wrong with that? Are women and children somehow imperiled by the presence of an armed citizen? (I went shopping for shirts the other night at a Bellevue department store. The place was filled with women and children. Nobody suffered a scratch.)
I own guns but why would anyone want to carry them around women and children”.
It would be appropriate to ask this unidentified coffee shop manager to explain why someone should not want to carry a gun around women and children. The mere presence of a firearm doesn’t endanger anybody. One might hazard a guess that Wyoming is one of the better armed states in the union, and it would come as no surprise that a lot of those guns are in Casper.
The Starbucks campaign is designed to marginalize and demonize gun owners. Instead, the Brady Bunch is painting itself into a shrinking corner. Because Starbucks doesn’t have a problem with armed citizens except apparently at one shop in Casper, Wyoming, gun owners are trooping to the coffee counters.
Money talks and…well, you know the rest.
More from Gun Rights Examiners
Atlanta: Ed Stone | Austin: Howard Nemerov | Boston: Ron Bokleman | Charlotte: Paul Valone | Cheyenne: Anthony Bouchard | Chicago: Don Gwinn | Cleveland: Daniel White | DC: Mike Stollenwerk | Denver: Dan Bidstrup | Grand Rapids: Skip Coryel | Los Angeles: John Longenecker | Minneapolis: John Pierce | National: David Codrea | Phoenix: Douglas Little | Seattle: Dave Workman | St. Louis: Kurt Hofmann | Wisconsin: Gene German
And Don’t forget to visit:
For more info: Assault on Weapons: The Campaign to Eliminate Your Guns.
Comments
Only one word describes something like banning guns during a snow storm: MORONS!
Course what is next ? you can't carry if it is raining or cloudy or Wednesday?
Somehow, I can't help but wonder if that Caspar, WY Starbucks manager is native to the area or if he was "imported" from somewhere more urban.
It was no emergency. The local officials called the emergency on their own accord. The governor of NC called the emergency for other countys but not this one. I live about 10 miles away. The roads were fine and the biggest problem seems to be power which is why I don't understand the curfew.
I this this is more of a way for the locals to grab "emegency funds".
The Wyoming manager is a bit sexist, eh? What about the many WOMEN who carry guns? Would it be okay if they carried them around men?
We've got legislation in the works here in Washington, HB 1832, Protecting the constitutionally guaranteed right to the lawful possession of firearms during an emergency. Let's hope it passes soon, before this regime and the rest of the gun-grabbers find an excuse to call for a state of emergency. On Starbuck$, I don't like them anyway. Their coffee tastes burnt and they support crap and tax, but I am a Woman, and I'm a strong supporter of our Second Amendment. I ALWAYS feel safe around an individual who open-carries, whether it be on their person or hanging on a rack in their truck. How dare these lefties project their own fears and weaknesses upon me. The FOOL at SB, who claims to own firearms, is probably talking about the puny .22 he had when he used to be a boy (Before he became a BOI). Yeah, "he" is probably from Seattle or San Francisco.
As a life-long North Carolinian, it is obvious to me that these statutes prohibiting firearms except on your premises during an "emergency" were aimed at African-Americans. The late 60's and early 70's were a period of significant racial unrest in the state which, on occasion, flared up into riots in some cities.
I'm sure the esteemed members of the General Assembly back then wanted to make sure "those people" would not have a means to resist the police or National Guard when an incident broke out.
Another instance of gun control tied to racism.
It was no emergency. The local officials called the emergency on their own accord. The governor of NC called the emergency for other countys but not this one. I live about 10 miles away. The roads were fine and the biggest problem seems to be power which is why I don't understand the curfew.
I this this is more of a way for the locals to grab "emegency funds".
Actually, Washington State has very similar provisions regarding state of emergency proclamations in RCW 43.06.220.
The City of King is one of those unique cities that is located in two counties, both Stokes and Forsyth Counties. So, Constitutionally speaking, they can only place a ban on gun sales and posession in the county that has a declared Emergency by the State of NC. Smart, REALLY SMART!
My wife and I live about 5 minutes from King, so we went and interviewed business owners and people there to get their thoughts and made a video of it which is now on YouTube -- search for "King, NC - State of Emergency". I'm not sure how long the news stations had to look for people to give a positive spin on this, but the folks we talked to weren't too happy.
WATCH THE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE. SEARCH FOR "KING, NC - STATE OF EMERGENCY"
That Wyomong coffee shop manager is not only an anti-Civil Rights Bigot, he's sexist as hell too. And an ageist to boot. What a loon.
"any dangerous weapon or substance in any area"... What is the NC definition of dangerous weapon? A peacefully carried firearm should always be carried safely. I would think that its not a dangerous weapon until employed as such. Any barstool in a tavern can become a dangerous weapon when employed as such. Just ask David Codrea. :) I think there is a person's defense if charged.
In 1969 during the Viet Nam war a lot of military stuff came home and went into the mountains of North Carolins including but not limited to captured weapons from the Viet Cong. A lot depends on the definition of a dangerous weapon. An unload gun is not as dangerous as a baseball bat in someone's hands. Not once does the above quoted sections of the law mention a gun much less a loaded gun. Either define dangerous weapons or revise the law. I doubt a cop is going to consider a hunting rifle hanging in the back window of a pickup a dangerous weapon if it is unloaded or at least a round is not chambered. Hopefully the cops use commons sense and some rationale thought.
As for Starbucks, the only smart thing they can do to weather this bad public relations issue is to say they defer to local, state,and federal law and shut up after that. Some states will allow open carry and others will not. Private property definitions and laws vary state to state as does discretion.
Ask the starbucks manager if he thinks it is OK for a gang-banger to carry his "gat" around his wife and kids? cause I guarantee that a gang-banger will not only carry his "gat" but use his "gat" as well.
America was founded by revolutionaries. We honor them, in part, because they had the guts to fight back against an imperial government. The words of the Declaration of Independence state very clearly that when government behaves in this manner that the people not only have the right to fight back against it, but the OBLIGATION! King, NC is no different from hundreds of other American towns. Public officials are sitting on a powder keg, and when (not if) it goes off it will be because of idiotic measures like this. I wonder if this is planned to provoke violence so that they can respond in time, because it's simply impossible to be this tone deaf, this clueless as to what the people in your community are thinking.
SEC. 706. FIREARMS POLICIES. (a) PROHIBITION ON CONFISCATION OF FIREARMS.— No officer or employee of the United States (including any member of the uniformed services), or person operating pursuant to or under color of Federal law, or receiving Federal funds, or under control of any Federal official, or providing services to such an officer, employee, or other person, while acting in support of relief from a major disaster or emergency, may— (1) temporarily or permanently seize, or authorize seizure of, any firearm the possession of which is not prohibited under Federal, State, or local law, other than for forfeiture in compliance with Federal law or as evidence in a criminal investigation; (2) require registration of any firearm for which registration is not required by Federal, State, or local law; (3) prohibit possession of any firearm, or promulgate any rule, regulation, or order prohibiting possession of any firearm, in any place or by any person where such possession is not other
I've carried openly for almost 15 years here in Wyoming, if not because CC Sheriff Jerry Colson won't let me carry polite, civil, and concealed.
Why? Probably because back in 1995, Senior FBI Agent Robert Jonstono hauled me into the Encampment PD (Openly carrying) and demanded, "Something HOMO******* happened to you in the Duesseldorf Consolute, didn't it! Didn't it!"
Referring to my past US Army MI undercover espionage and disinformation duties.
Well, time has passed, and wearing my .357 openly has meant meeting the crack-heads, Mckinney & Henderson, bought off by a local druggie vigilante, to do me and my son in while camping, and they failed: They kept looking at my face, my gun and each other, before rushing off. These families are big time here, like the movie, "Deliverance" But the Sheriff ignored my written reports about their actions, and they finally went on to do Matthew Sheppard in Laramie, later.
They don't like "Fa(((" in Wyoming, let me tell you...
If there's anyplace you want to avoid, it's both Rawlins Ntl Bank and Community 1st in Saratoga, Wy. Quite a while back, Manager Braun insisted on me meeting a couple of guys in suits with lapel pins, apparently Federal Attorney Generals, which she claimed where "Bank Presidents." They adamantly declared my open carry to be illegal (Which is not true)and so I respectfully have not since, actually leaving my entry into that establishment dangerous not only for me, but for the rest of anyone there. Then, similarly happened at the Rawlins Ntl Bank, and so I similarly obliged. Yet, they have recently went BONKERS even when I accompanied my disabled wife inside while wearing AN EMPTY HOLSTER! I guess the work of one feminist, Ashley, who aids our freminist prosecutor, Cindy Delancy, in putting away "Men like me." By whatever means.
A former local doctor who also refused my open carry within the clinic has long gone, perhaps because I forwarded her letter to me to the NRA...
There has been a recent article in the Billings Liar Gazette, which pointed out that Worland, I believe, is now the central point of Wyoming Women carrying open for political expression reasons.
Kinda nice and internally warming, isn't it? To see heat packing heat? It warms my soul. And it gives me an extra reason to want to look that over...
I mean? What caliber, make and model, after all...?
I'm waiting for Starbucks to put up a sign requesting Brady Bunch members to get their coffee elsewhere.
That's what happens when you forget your southern history? I hope these North Carolinian's wake up. Problem is, they have a bunch of leftist northerners who have come there for jobs, because they couldn't find them where they lived because of the tax problem, They take their brand of liberalism/progressivism with them. When in Rome?
Here is a simple answer for those gun grabbing ultra liberal leftists -
You can have my guns when you pry them from my cold dead fingers!
The problem rests with King Police Chief Paula May. What many don't realize is that Chief May has had problems with guns and alcohol herself. When May was a Deputy Sheriff in Watauga County, North Carolina, she left her police cruiser unlocked with her service weapon inside (why wasn't she carrying it?). The weapon was stolen of course. A year later it was recovered at a party where underage teens were consuming alcohol. And she is the one restricting the rights of others to drink and possess firearms?
Forgot to also mention, the police cruiser was parked at Watauga High School when the weapon theft occured!!! One might want to ask why Chief May was "let go" from Watauga County Sheriff's Department. Was it the false accusation of sexual harassment or the weapons theft, or both?
Does that mean when it snows we are safe from criminals? It rarely snows here.
Mr. Richardson,
I consider people with dark skin just as dangerous and guns. ...which is not dangerous at all.
Besides, a "dangerous weapon" is defined as, what? My weapon isn't dangerous. Its never hurt anyone.
Anti gun is pro crime anywhere and any time. Anytime you limit peoples ability to defend themselves you are on the wrong side of the law. "Shall not be infringed" means never at any time shall the use of arms be restricted in any way. Any restriction is an infringement. Now I know all you anti-gun (pro-crime) types will just have a fit, but, the law is the law, right? So when a law contradicts another law, you get to pick which one you obey, right? In NC, you have three to choose from: USCON 2A, NCCON A1S30 and the emergency gun ban law. Take your pick. The first two choices stand for each other. Carry. If they arrest you, find a gun rights foundation and sue their asses until they bleed!
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