Mike
Site Co-Founder
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/carpenter/mc-paul-carpenter-gun-right-20101120,0,318503.column
SNIP
The taxpayers of Allentown just got stuck with an unnecessary $23,500 tab.
That may not be much in a city that treats tax money like the water flowing over the Hamilton Street Dam (proposed new budget: $88.5 million), but it might have been avoided if people paid to enforce the law could be persuaded to obey it themselves.
On Oct. 6, 2008, Jerry Corliss, a law-abiding citizen who then lived in Allentown, was carrying a Glock handgun in a holster when he visited the Home Depot store just off Lehigh Street. It appears that somebody there became hysterical over the idea that anyone not in government might exercise his or her right to bear arms.
Soon, according to court documents, Dale Stokes, an Allentown police officer, stormed into the store, detained Corliss for doing absolutely nothing illegal, searched him without a warrant and seized his pistol.
. . .
Corliss was not charged and the weapon was returned, but those actions clashed with both the Bill of Rights and the Pennsylvania Constitution, which will cost the city, or its insurance carrier, $23,500 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by Corliss, who now lives in Lebanon.
City officials do not seem eager to publicize the case and I learned about its resolution last month only when Corliss called me — because, he said, somebody told him I support the Bill of Rights, as if that's something unusual these days.
Even if people can distort the meaning of the Bill of Rights to justify gun control, there is no mistaking the "Declaration of Rights" at the start of the Pennsylvania Constitution. "The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned," it says.
. . .
Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin said essentially the same thing. "The permit permits you to carry a concealed weapon," Martin said. "You don't need a permit to carry a gun openly."
. . .
SNIP
The taxpayers of Allentown just got stuck with an unnecessary $23,500 tab.
That may not be much in a city that treats tax money like the water flowing over the Hamilton Street Dam (proposed new budget: $88.5 million), but it might have been avoided if people paid to enforce the law could be persuaded to obey it themselves.
On Oct. 6, 2008, Jerry Corliss, a law-abiding citizen who then lived in Allentown, was carrying a Glock handgun in a holster when he visited the Home Depot store just off Lehigh Street. It appears that somebody there became hysterical over the idea that anyone not in government might exercise his or her right to bear arms.
Soon, according to court documents, Dale Stokes, an Allentown police officer, stormed into the store, detained Corliss for doing absolutely nothing illegal, searched him without a warrant and seized his pistol.
. . .
Corliss was not charged and the weapon was returned, but those actions clashed with both the Bill of Rights and the Pennsylvania Constitution, which will cost the city, or its insurance carrier, $23,500 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by Corliss, who now lives in Lebanon.
City officials do not seem eager to publicize the case and I learned about its resolution last month only when Corliss called me — because, he said, somebody told him I support the Bill of Rights, as if that's something unusual these days.
Even if people can distort the meaning of the Bill of Rights to justify gun control, there is no mistaking the "Declaration of Rights" at the start of the Pennsylvania Constitution. "The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned," it says.
. . .
Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin said essentially the same thing. "The permit permits you to carry a concealed weapon," Martin said. "You don't need a permit to carry a gun openly."
. . .