Lawsuit Filed To Carry Weapons In Atlanta Airport

ATLANTA — The nation's busiest airport dueled with gun rights advocates Tuesday over whether a new Georgia state law allows visitors to carry firearms at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

City officials in charge of the airport declared it a "gun-free zone" when a law allowing people to carry guns on public transit and other places took effect Tuesday. Gun rights supporters, including a state legislator who helped pass the law, quickly filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the designation.

"My message is simple: Leave your firearms at home," airport general manager Ben DeCosta told reporters at a news conference.

Atlanta officials said anyone carrying a gun at the airport could be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor.

The new state law allows people with a concealed weapons permit to carry guns into restaurants, state parks and on public transportation.

John Monroe, an attorney for the gun rights backers who filed the lawsuit, argued the Atlanta airport qualifies as public transportation. There are also restaurants in the terminal, which Monroe said should be accessible to gun-toting visitors under the new law.

Rep. Tim Bearden, a Republican from Villa Rica and a former police officer, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Bearden sponsored the state law.

He had told a newspaper he would carry a concealed weapon to the airport Tuesday when he picked up his family. But he told The Associated Press by telephone Tuesday morning, "There will be no reason for any confrontation at the airport."

The gun group argues that weapons should be allowed in the terminal up to the point where passengers pass through security to board their flights. The parking lot is off limits under the state law, but it allows travelers to carry a gun on MARTA trains and buses, which run directly to the airport.

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said citizens can't bring guns into the terminal and argued that airports remain attractive targets for terrorism.

Allowing citizens to carry firearms "would create an environment that would endanger millions of people," she said.

Franklin said she will lobby Congress to withhold federal funds from facilities that allow firearms on their premises.

Comments

[PixieThis]

It's sad and pathetic how people who pretend to be intellectuals suggest to someone else that they shoot themselves with a gun. Is that the brave, hopeful, peaceful world that most of us want? Silence in the face of such comments is a form of approval for this behavior.

[BlueStateMan]

Sadder still... is when intellectual lightweights who purport they posses a sense of humor & pretend that they are clever have ZERO capacity to recognize comic irony when they see it.

BTW... all of the "gang-flagging" only amplifies the hypocrisy in those who PRETEND to be "liberals"­.... & those charlatans who wish for a "brave, hopeful, peaceful world" (for only those whom they feel are WORTHY of it) only points to their utter lack of TRUE character.

Christ, Pixie..... if someone put a lump of coal up your butt, in 5 minutes they'd have a DIAMOND.

[Superbus]

Again sports fans, those of us with handgun permits are law abiding and responsible citizens. Many of us are hunters, former military and a number have had handgun safety training beyond the basic NRA handgun course..

While the possession of a firearm is guaranteed by the Constitution, the decision to own a firearm and especially to carry a concealed firearm is serious undertaking and most who do, do so with that knowledge.

[blueshield]

No argument with the point, Superbus. Most drivers on the road with licenses are law abiding and responsible too. But we don't let them drive on the sidewalk, or drunk, or over the speed limit. If the regulations for firearms also included designated use, excluded locations, strict enforcement, license renewal and testing, and so forth, it would be a start. Then we'll just have to accept the carnage - nearly 30,000 gunshot dead a year, another 300,000 wounded, maimed.

[qdog112]

Do you use protection when you conceal or do you screw bareback? Are you in for a surprise once you graduate to a woman or at least another living being. (with 2 legs)

[ChiGuy]

That's a crock right out of the NRA's talking points.

In my days on this Earth, I've met many people that own guns and treat them like toys.
I personally know 3 people that have accidentally discharged their weapon. Two into their own bodies (leg and hand), and one through the floor of their apartment right into the middle of the waterbed in the apartment below. Fortunately, no one was home at the time.

And no one has yet to explain to me in a sensible manner why they need to own multiple firearms. Particularly fully automatic ones in numbers.

There must be a whole lot of small d**ks out there.

[Superbus]

It is illegal to won automatic firearms in the United States of America. Your post proves my point. Your friends were untrained in the care and proper care of firearms.

[Chillinout]

Well, I called the Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco Agency up and they informed that if you are drinking beer you need a shotgun and Marlboros, with whiskey you need a handgun and Winstons, and with Tequila, you need an AK and Camel non-filters.

[Nochnoi]

Tell that to my d...e...a.­..d.... friend.... he would love to hear about it.......

[huzzah]

I have to take issue with the your use of the word "most" in your last sentence if applied to firearm owners. Plenty of people who own guns didn't think twice before buying them. I will grant you that people who get concealed carry permits probably take it all a lot more seriously, but I'll also say that I think many who feel the need to carry at all times might have a touch of paranoia..­.

Furthermore, you make the blanket statement about handgun owners being "law abiding and responsible". I'll wager that the majority of the handguns used in criminal activities belonged at some point in their histories to your "responsible" brethren, yet they still somehow made it into the hands of violent criminals.

[ewadswor]

Overheard at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport McDonalds.

Which small caliber handgun would your child like with his Happy Meal or would he like the toy for children under three years old?

[KillTheMessenger]

3 year olds: bebe guns.
5 year olds: Smith and Wesson.
12 year olds: hunting rifles.
18 and above: miniguns and laser guided ground-to-air missiles.

[ChiGuy]

I wonder what the members of the SCOTUS that sided with gun nuts are thinking tonight.

[phreso]

Alright Volvo, explain how this is different than mandating business owners to not allow smoking in their restaurants.

Either you are advocating their rights or you are telling them that laws dictate how they do business.

One or the other dear.

[VolvoBirkenstock]

I never mentioned smoking, you drunken p.o.s.

[phreso]

No, you aren't paying attention. You were too busy slamming me to pay attention to the discussion.

But, I will explain it to you (patiently)

You want laws that dictates NO smoking, because you think us snowflakes need to be protected from ourselves. You even advocate that the decks that have been built, so that restaurants that have conformed to your laws, still are accommodated. You are all in favor of the same laws that dictate what OILS restaurant owners use in their food (we are too fat).

But a law that mandates something that you DISAGREE with, namely the second ammendment, oh YUCK, you are all up in arms, defending the restaurant owner.

Give me a break

H Y P O C R I T E

[Chillinout]

On guns:

You can get more with a kind word and a gun, than you can with a kind word alone - Johnny Carson

[BlueStateMan]

One of our greatest moralists, yes?

[wmbear]

SUCH AS...

More cash from the teller?...

[SCG]

Heeerre's Johnny ! - Ed Mc Mann

[NoblesseOblige]

Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me? - Mae West

[bar1ed]

if, and when, the time comes that all your rights have been stripped away, and a foot has been placed upon your neck, you'll be grateful for the 2nd amendment.

[qdog112]

You've had 8 years of that and did NOTHING!

[SweetSydney]

You don't think two justices on the SCOTUS had anything to do with it?

[BlueStateMan]

Just how far up La Pierre's A$$ ARE you?

[NTO08]

Nonsense..­.this is not the OK Corral, and if guns can come into airports, what's to stop terrorists from legally coming in and blowing away everyone before they get to security? What's to stop some crazy nut from coming in, legally, and doing the same thing also? This insane notion of a free for all for gun ownership has to end...peop­le in the rest of the world, besides outlaw nations, see this as why America is such a mess with violence.

[99hockeyman]

If that day ever comes, they will have more weapons than the common citizen.

[Spokane]

You are not allowed to carry a gun as a concealed weapon (even if you have a permit )to the gates.
You will only be allowed to carry them in the main portion of the airport

. Anything past that will require you to run with weapon in hand past the remaining barriers.

[wmbear]

WHAT???...

But, but but...not being allowed to carry my AK on board my flight is a gross violation of my Second Amendment right to bear arms!

[BlueStateMan]

After all... it IS "public transportation".

[Spokane]

You can carry the AK in the main airport but getting on the flight with it will require some deft running.

[rooks]

That makes me feel so much safer. All non-passengers, bring your guns. Makes so much sense if you are an imbecile.

[jsvg00]

I don't know. Maybe I'm in the minority. If this paves the way for people carrying weapons on tours of the White House or Congress, we might just see in practice what the founding fathers intended. You know, the whole protecting citizens from a corrupt government thing.

[lornejl]

Anyone worried about their safety let me ease your mind, they don't allow smoking at the airport.

[BlueStateMan]

What about smoking guns?

[wmbear]

GREAT MINDS...

Think alike....

[wmbear]

INCLUDING.­..

Smoking guns?...

[qdog112]

Dem turists got us shootin' each other in the back. They don't have to attack - we'll cause our own country to fall.

[wmbear]

HAH! I JUST REALIZED..­.

"Tourist" and "terrorist" sound alike, especially if you're from the South or Midwest;..­..

[huzzah]

Bush's most recent State Of the Union speech had the words "terror" and "tyranny" used in the same sentence. I couldn't tell which word was which...

[Clevelanded]

Maybe the constitution needs to be amended.

[BlueStateMan]

You can't repeal one of the Bill of Rights.

[Nochnoi]

Yes you can.....

[philinmedford]

I didn't know that. I always thought you could repeal any amendment in the same fashion as the 18th was, by creating a new amendment (the 21st in this case) and following the procedure set forth.

Not true?

[Nochnoi]

No.... it really doesn't...­. as much as I hate guns, I do support the right to own them per the Constituti­on..... however...­. I would like to see better regulation­...... I don't know the solution personally­.... wish I did..... maybe my friend would be alive today if I did......

[wmbear]

THIS IS ALL GOING TO COME BACK...

And bite the NRA in the @ss at some point....

[se7enMMBsg]

. . . more and more i appreciate the fact that i live near the Canadian border. (until late January It's nice to cross the border once and a while and breath the air of a more sane country. . . just sayin'. . .)

~se7en

[Nochnoi]

As do I.... every time I go to Canada.... it is like going to another world.....­..

[Chillinout]

Agreed.

[BlueStateMan]

I wonder how many BILLIONS in tourism Atlanta will lose with this INSANITY?

[Lynette]

All of it. That state would shutdown. Nobody wants to live in Afganistan where's klans run around with guns. We live in America not a third world country. But closer we slip away to being third world, the better Canada sounds.