Remember…. “open minded” means “agrees with me”. Remember… free speech, so long as I approve of it and it agrees with my beliefs.
*sigh*
Beck, Limbaugh, and Fox News irritate me, Maddow and HuffPo irritate me. Those precious 1A provisions are there precisely to protect unpopular speech. It’s a shame so few people understand that any more.
I was going to going to do it, but Linoge beat me to it.
Is roller derby a professional sporting event?
Before I attended my first Texas Roller Girls roller derby bout, I had to spend a good deal of time trying to figure out if I, as a concealed handgun license holder, could legally carry at the bout.
I spent time re-reading the Texas legal code. Specifically, PC §46.035 (b) (2) says:
(b) A license holder commits an offense if the license holder intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly carries a handgun under the authority of Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code, regardless of whether the handgun is concealed, on or about the license holder’s person:
(2) on the premises where a high school, collegiate, or professional sporting event or interscholastic event is taking place, unless the license holder is a participant in the event and a handgun is used in the event;
So… is roller derby a professional sporting event? Does this apply to me?
I asked some people, one of whom even asked a lawyer. I spent a lot of time in Google searching around trying to see if the question had been answered. Maybe the Austin Convention Center had 30.06 signs (it didn’t, from what I could see). Could there be security restrictions in place at the entrance such as metal detectors (no), bag checks (no), frisking (no), or any other such measures (nope, nothing really, but there were some DPS troopers present along with venue “security”). But I had no idea if there would be or not, and if I could and then there was a metal detector would they allow me through (regardless, setting off the detectors gives you a Scarlet A for the rest of the night); would I have to go back to the car and store my gun… but that’s just a recipe for a break-in and my gun ending up becoming an instrument of crime (as well as all the hassle and hell of dealing with repairs and insurance paperwork).
So more searching to try to determine what is a “professional sporting event”. Can’t find anywhere in the Texas law code that defines it, so I guess we turn to what “reasonable people” would define it as. Competition, ticket sales, money involved especially the players and participants being paid. Hrm. Texas Rollergirls are a registered non-profit and lots of things point to the ladies NOT getting paid… but with all the ticket sales, merch, concessions, sponsorships, where is all that money going? maybe they get some sort of stipend or allowance to help pay for some things? I don’t know. How can I know? In fact if anything, I keep seeing conflicting messages if it is a professional sporting event or not. Sporting event sure, but professional? I’m not meaning any disrespect to the ladies involved, merely trying to interpret and understand the law.
And the list goes on and on and on and on. So many things to consider, but in the end, no one seems to be willing to become the court precedent. That’s a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of risk. Furthermore, this is only this one event. Any time and any where I go, I have to think about these things, consider these things, research these things. That adds up to a lot of time, money, and effort spent.
But you know what’s sad?
Bad guys don’t care.
I’m spending all sorts of time and effort to try to ensure I follow the law. Bad guys, by definition, don’t care about the law. They won’t spend any time on this. They don’t care. So what does that do? It means bad guys have the free reign to go anywhere and do anything they want. Good guys don’t.
Does that seem right to you? Does it seem right to burden good people? To put good people at a legally mandated disadvantage? The law is supposed to abridge bad people, to make the burden so great that people wouldn’t want to do bad things. But all I see here is making a large burden for good people trying to do good things. How is that right?
People are more than happy to support the things they like.
When it comes to things they don’t like, the best we can usually hope for is ambivalence, but usually people want to stamp out things they don’t like.
But that’s why here in the USA we have the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The precise goal is to allow people to live free, which understands that living free isn’t the same as living popular. Much of what those documents are about is protecting that which is unpopular.
Take the beloved “freedom of speech”. I know there are people right now upset at the SCOTUS ruling regarding the Westboro Baptist Church, but folks… they ruled the correct way. Even tho I think Fred Phelps and his crew are distasteful assholes of the highest order that in no way are doing God’s work, we cannot deny them the ability to be the assholes they were born to be merely because we find them to be such great assholes. If there’s any speech these days that’s unpopular, they’d be it, and that’s what 1A is all about protecting.
Sure, Albert Snyder got hurt, bad. I can’t imagine what he went through nor would I want to be in his shoes; I have only compassion for the man. But when you step back from it all, he just has a big case of his feeling getting hurt. I mean, there are lots of other behaviors in this world that could elicit a similar situation, yet are we going to outlaw hurting people’s feelings? Don’t construe this as minimizing Mr. Snyder’s situation, but we have to consider the slippery slope.
What makes this more difficult is the best way to deal with assholes is to ignore them, but Phelps makes a living out of making himself and his group impossible to ignore; it’s hard to ignore someone being so ugly right in your face. But part of what is supposed to make America great isn’t that we try to abridge others because we don’t like them or what they do (tho, you’d think these days we’ve lost sight of that), but rather we allow people to freely act and react. So one of those free reactions is groups like the Patriot Guard Riders.
Yes, I wish Fred Phelps and crew would shut up and go away; actually do God’s work and quit standing on the streetcorner. But if he wants to continue being an asshole and letting the world know what an asshole he is well… he’s got that right and we cannot abridge it, else we don’t really understand what freedom means.
I received word back from HSLDA about the 3 homeschool-related bills introduced in the current Texas legislative session.
My take? You can debate the merit of the intentions behind the bills, but from a legal perspective they are bad bills.
Would you have the same outrage if this was about free speech?
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer is going to introduce “Common-Sense Concealed Firearms Act of 2011”.
Let’s take her press release and do a little word-substitution:
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today announced that next week she will introduce the Common-Sense Speech Act of 2011, which would require all states that allow residents to speak in public to have minimum standards for granting permits.
Senator Boxer said, “The tragic events in Tucson earlier this month are a reminder of why we need common-sense speech laws. This measure will establish reasonable permitting standards for Americans who wish to speak. According to a recent poll, more than 60 percent of respondents believe there should be a reasonable permitting process for those who wish to speak.”
Senator Boxer’s legislation would require all states that allow residents to speak to establish permitting processes that would include meaningful consultation with local law enforcement authorities to determine whether the permit applicant is worthy of the public trust and has shown good cause to speak.
Currently, two states do not permit residents to speak, while three states, including Arizona, allow residents to speak in public without a permit. The other 45 states require residents to obtain permits to speak, but the majority of these states would not meet the standard set in this bill.
Words can be even more damaging than a gun, but if anyone tried the above, they’d be rode out on a rail.
Your 2A rights are what maintain your 1A rights. Lose your 2A rights and your 1A rights aren’t far behind.
This is no different than someone proposing the right to freedom of association should be limited to those groups that pass a sporting purpose test and be restricted to ten people or less. After all you only need five people for a basketball team and ten people can make a baseball team. If you want to associate in groups larger than if can only mean you want to form an angry mob and riot. You don’t need to associate in larger groups than ten, right?
Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his “I Have A Dream” speech
The First Amendment is the singer on stage in front of everyone whose voice can not be ignored, while the Second Amendment is the individual in front of the stage making sure no one kills the performance.
— Matthew
One of the local Austin news stations posted 2 stories on the same day that when taken together, it’s a wonderful “Big Brother” “all in the name of public safety” moment.
Downtown safety cameras could keep an eye over Austin.
More than a dozen public safety cameras are likely headed for Downtown Austin.
[…]
“We’re trying to protect assets,” Downtown Austin Alliance spokesperson Bill Brice said. “East Sixth Street in particular is an area in which visitors, conventioneers, locals and a lot of special events draw thousands to tens of thousands of people every weekend of the year. We know that it’s important to protect those assets and make sure that, that particular district remains safe for everyone who enjoys it.”
But the gem is from APD Top Cop, Art Acevedo:
“The bottom line is everybody knows that when you’re walking down a public street, there’s absolutely no expectation of privacy. There’s no expectation of privacy from the people around you. There’s no expectation of privacy from the government and that is something that people know, they’ve known for many years,” he said.
This is true. But officer, I hope you also realize this means that the citizenry is open and free to film the actions of you and your officers. Just remember that, Mr. Gander.
I do think his last statement is a little chilling… that there’s no expectation of privacy from the government.
Now couple that with the second news story about area law enforcement coming together to share intelligence information:
The Austin Regional Intelligence Center is open for business.Ten area law enforcement agencies will now share information through a centralized “fusion center.”
[…]
By sharing information with other area law enforcement agencies, Police Chief Art Acevedo said, they’ll be able to recognize trends and identify suspects more efficiently.
Fair enough. But of course, people fear breach of privacy rights.
Acevedo said they’ll work to ensure constitutional rights are protected.”Our challenge, and the challenge to all the members working in this center, is to make sure we police with respect to privacy rights,” Acevedo said.
But Chief, I thought we shouldn’t have any expectation of privacy from the government?
Stuff From Hsoi 