IT'S OK TO CARRY GUNS INTO OUR AIRPORTS, REALLY?

How could any legislator, at any level, in any place in this country, who is presumably entrusted to maintain public saftey ever vote for a law making it legal to carry even a legally registered concealed weapon into an airport is beyond me.

If you read this and it is not beyond you as well, well then there is something wrong with you too:

May 5, 2010


Suspect’s Gun Proved Easy to Obtain

By MICHAEL WILSON and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM - NY Times

The mammoth clock-to-wire-to-gasoline-to-propane car bomb that the authorities said Faisal Shahzad hoped would claim many lives in Times Square has been analyzed, diagrammed, prodded and pored over. But just before his arrest Mr. Shahzad had also been equipped with a less eccentric — and yet, more dependably lethal — weapon. And he owned it legally.

It is fearsome looking, a carbine hybrid of pistol and long gun with a mouthful of a name: the Kel-Tec Sub Rifle 2000. Mr. Shahzad bought it, new, in March for about $400. It was found in the car that he drove to Kennedy International Airport on Monday, loaded, with multiple extra clips.

Because it is classified as a rifle, it required no permit, as pistols do in Connecticut. But with its folding stock, hand grip, and appetite for pistol ammunition and not rifle ammunition, the Kelt-Tech was about as close as one could get to a pistol that is not technically one. The authorities have not disclosed, if they have learned, what Mr. Shahzad planned to do with that gun. But some law enforcement experts have surmised that he had it in case he was pulled over.

The Kel-Tec was briefly center stage on Wednesday as New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly addressed U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. He said that Mr. Shahzad bought the gun amid obtaining supplies for the bomb.

Mr. Shahzad — who the authorities have described as bent on taking American lives —made missteps while he was designing and building his weapon of mass destruction, including buying what looks to be the wrong kind of fertilizer. But all along he was in possession of a weapon that could have easily done extreme damage, one rapidly fired round at a time.

It was about two months ago when Mr. Shahzad walked into Valley Firearms in Shelton, Conn., which is situated on a downtown street between beside a tattoo parlor and beneath a karate studio, flying two American flags out front.

Inside were the urban parapets of the trade: metal prison bars behind the windows, glass cases securing the guns. He had not lived in Shelton for nine months, having had lost his home there to foreclosure while on a long trip to Pakistan. For the last month, he had lived 12 miles away, in an apartment in Bridgeport.

“The area’s largest used gun buyer,” as Valley Firearms boasts on its recording to callers to the store.

He made his choice of gun and produced his Connecticut driver’s license. He left for a two week waiting period, and returned March 15, plunking down about $400 not for a used gun, but for a brand new rifle, serial number E7L98, according to a law enforcement official. The gun is packaged in what resembles a pizza box.
The gun was manufactured by Kel-Tec CNC Industries, founded 19 years ago in Cocoa, Fla., which makes semi-automatic pistols, rifles and the Sub 2000, a combination of the two. The gun was designed by George Kellgren, perhaps best known for having designed early versions of the Tec-9 handgun that became a favorite of street criminals and was later banned.

The Kel-Tec gun is about two-and-a-half feet long, but for storage or carrying, the barrel can be folded back over the stock, cutting its length almost in half.

It weighs four pounds unloaded, and has front and rear sights for aiming and a grip like a pistol. The rifle is somewhat unique in that it fires pistol rounds — in this particular gun’s case, 9 millimeter rounds. It fires its rounds as quickly as one can pull the trigger; it is not a machine gun, but fast enough. The number of bullets it holds varies with the size of the magazine. Kel-Tec sells it with 10-round magazines.

It is, in effect, a low-powered rifle. Unlike some rifles, its bullets would not likely penetrate a police officer’s bulletproof vest, a law enforcement official said.

Why buy one?

“Why not just get a pistol if somebody wants a handgun round?” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the case. One theory: “It looks more intimidating than a pistol. It’s an intimidating-looking contraption. It’s black, it has some plastic and polymer — it has that military look, but all it really is is a really big handgun.”

Unlike the Tec-9, it is not frequently used by criminals, the official said.

The manufacturer said the long barrel increases accuracy and range. “The superior precision is also very useful against small or partially covered targets at shorter range,” Kel-Tec said on its web site. “The amount of training to master the SUB-2000 is only a fraction of that required for a handgun.”
A customer service representative who gave only his first name, Bill — company policy so that employees cannot be identified and threatened by someone who wants guns — said the Sub 2000 is good for hunting and target shooting and is typically sold with a 10-round magazine. The company sells 2,000 or 3,000 of them a year, he said.

“There are a number of police departments that use them as rifles, so they can use the same magazines as their sidearms,” he said. “Just keep things simple sometimes.”

Suggested retail price: $390.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, in his testimony on Wednesday before the senate committee, urged that suspects on terrorism watch lists be blocked from buying guns and explosives. “When gun dealers run background checks, should FBI agents have the authority to block sales of guns and explosives to those on the terror watch lists – and deemed to dangerous to fly?” the mayor asked. “I believe strongly that they should.”

Such a matter seems irrelevant in Mr. Shahzad’s case, as he was on no such list in March.

It is unclear whether, in the 50 days Mr. Shahzad was a registered gun owner, he ever once pulled the trigger.

Again I ask what is wrong with these people who would vote to allow even American citizens to carry concealed weapons into an airport or any other public place even if they have been legally obtained and registered?

One thing is for certain, something is wrong with them because it is just not right!