A University of Kentucky graduate student has sued the university and others, claiming he was wrongfully fired from his job at the UK Chandler Medical Center because he had a handgun in his car. [More]Not that there should be any damn rules forcing one to be circumspect in the first place, but realizing that there are, what did we learn from this?
There's no shortage of snitches. When disregarding "rules," keep your mouth shut unless your intent is to make a civil disobedience statement.
When someone wants to search you or your property, insist on a warrant. And if you're not being detained, remove any incriminating evidence.
The part that gives me a headache is that this guy didn't do anything wrong. He had the gun stored and locked, and he was lawfully going about his business. Makes about as much sense as putting a football player in jail for accidentaly shooting himself in the leg.
ReplyDeleteLexington has been a hellhole for years. They tried imposing gun permits, but the state stepped in and stopped them. During the debate over the CC bill, the Lexington police chief said that if the bill was passed he would instruct his officers to "at every traffic stop, pull every driver out of the car, cuff them and bend them over the hood of the car for a pat down." I think he ended up backing down from that threat.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that some comments to the article refer to the weapon in the vehicle being associated with the promotion of violence rather than the diminishment of violence. Armed defense and repelling an attack may in some perverted sense be considered a "doubling" of violence, but from the viewpoint of the victim it is a reduction in violence inflicted on the victim.
ReplyDeleteA remote mental health outpatient clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston recently had an incident where a large male patient attacked a small female psychiatrist, repeatedly stabbing her. Alerted by the screams and people rushing away, a visiting armed security officer not employed by MGH who also was a Boston Special Police Officer, shot and killed the attacker. MGH has a "no weapons" employee policy, so no employees had the means to stop this attack, or worse, chose not to risk discharge from their employment with an armed response to the attack.
Twenty years ago ago, a friend of mine was a nurse working in the main building of MGH. She carried a .357 magnum revolver in her purse while walking to and from the parking garage and the hospital, securing the purse in her locker. Her attitude was that if MGH discovered the weapon and fired her, that she would continue living, as the job was not worth her life and safety, which was not guaranteed by MGH.
Well it is Kentucky, the horse capital of the world. Odd, though that there are so many more horse's asses than there are horses, doncha think?
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