Tea Party Leader Mark Meckler Arrested With Handgun At Airport

TPM reports Tea Party Leader Mark Meckler Arrested With Handgun At Airport. The headline is a little misleading.

"According to the Queens District Attorney’s office, Meckler arrived at the airport with the gun, a Glock 27, and ammunition locked in a safe and presented it to the flight attendant at the Delta counter. He allegedly told authorities that he needed the gun for protection after receiving threats, but did not have a New York State license to carry the weapon. He’s being charged with second degree possession of an illegal weapon, a charge that carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

“Before leaving home, passengers should acquaint themselves with the weapon laws of the jurisdiction that they are visiting and comply with any and all legal requirements if they choose to travel with a weapon,” Queens DA Richard Brown said in a statement. “Otherwise, they may find themselves being arrested and charged with a felony - as is what occurred in this case.”"

The Wall Street Journal has a little more info. It wasn't just a connecting flight, he had been in New York from Sunday to Thursday, with the gun, in violation of New York state law.

"Spokesman Kevin Ryan said the Queens District Attorney's Office, which has jurisdiction over both the city's major airports, handles approximate 50 to 60 cases of airline passengers transporting weapons licensed in places other than New York a year. The gun charge is a Class C felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. However, "if the weapon is not illegal and the person can prove that they are duly licensed to possess the weapon in their state, then they could walk away with just a violation [a non-criminal offense with a fine]. But in all cases the weapons are confiscated and destroyed," Mr. Ryan said."

I wonder if it's any different if he carried it in NYC as opposed to just leaving it in his hotel room. It will also be interesting to see if and how he fights this. The tea party is all about states' rights so New York should be free to have different laws. Any effort to standardize them among the states would I would think be viewed as over-reaching federalism. But then there's the second amendment which in Heller the Supreme Court said is an individual right and in McDonald said it's incorporated to the states, meaning that neither the federal government nor state governments can infringe the right to keep and bear arms. There's debate, since Heller, about NYC's gun laws, this might be a test case. The specifics in this case make the law seem kinda dumb. He was trying to leave the state, wasn't resisting or hiding the gun in any way, and was carrying it responsibly. New York felt the need to arrest him and then let him go, but according to the WSJ report, felt the need to keep and destroy the weapon. I don't in any way see how this action in this case is supposed to limit gun violence.