the thing that bothers me is he had it off his belt, sitting on the table in a public place. your not in contact with it, your not in control.
So when I take my firearm and place it in my night-stand it then becomes a dangerous firearm becuase my hands are not on it? I believe it would become a SAFE firearm since my hands were not on it, because hands are what makes it go BANG!
So my firearms that are setting in my gun-safe are dangerous because they are laying on a flat surface?
If all this man did was set his firearm on a flat table then I see no problem other than he made a poor decision doing so in front of other people he did not know. It is not dangerous to place a firearm on a table, and I don't understand how anyone could argue a firearm laying on a table is more dangerous than a firearm setting in a holster.
You claim that setting a firearm on a table is enough to strip someone of their right to bear arms? How can you even justify such rhetoric? In no way should this man lose his gun-rights, and thankfully we don't have tyrants in office that believe he should lose his rights over something I do every single day! If he should lose his rights because he placed a firearm on a table, then I would guess we would all have lost our rights.
If this man actually threatened someone while placing his firearm on the table then I see a severe problem. However, I cannot "assume" this is what he did based on the story.
If we stripped folks' rights from them for such a petty mistake (getting his firearm out in public; not setting it on a table) then ALL of us would have lost our rights by now.
If setting a firearm on a table is dangerous, then shoulder-holsters should be banned.
Do we know that his firearm crossed anyone? No. Do we know if he placed the firearm on the table with malicious intent? No.
All we do know is that he had a firearm on a table, and nothing more.
With this logic, anyone that carries a firearm in a shoulder-holster is more malicous than this man because their firearm is pointing at anyone that walks behind them. Would someone be charged for such a crime as this man for carrying a firearm in a properly holstered firearm in a shoulder-holster? I doubt it. So, if all this man did was place his firearm on a table with no mens rea then he never should have been charged with a crime. I guess we will just have to wait for more details to derive a logical conclusion of his acts.