Gun in Airports - Atlanta Wins

David Walter Banks for The New York Times

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International is the nation's busiest airport and a magnet of sorts for gun-carrying fliers.

The New York Times

Across the country, people are increasingly being caught at security checkpoints with firearms in their carry-on bags. Nowhere does this happen more often than at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, the nation’s busiest airport and a magnet of sorts for gun-carrying fliers.

Through last week, the Transportation Security Administration had seized 67 guns this year at Hartsfield-Jackson, putting it ahead of last year’s pace and giving the airport a comfortable lead over Dallas-Fort Worth International in its defense of a dubious title. (Not every seizure results in an arrest; the exceptions include some military personnel.) Nationwide, security agents had seized 862 through the first half of 2013, a rate likely to eclipse last year’s record of 1,556.

I've already come up with a sure-fire way to stop this, or at least cut it way way down.

Atlanta Teen Gets Probation for Accidentally Killing his Friend

CBS Atlanta 46

The victim's family's reaction reminds me of those revenge seeking death penalty proponents. And my reaction is the same, vengeance should have no place in the administration of justice.

Probation and a serious felony conviction is perfectly right for an accidental shooting death.

I just hope Georgia is one of those states that  considers juvenile records when issuing adult background checks and concealed carry permits.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting in Atlanta High School - 17-Year-old Arrested

  Local news reports

A 17-year-old student shot herself in the upper leg Wednesday morning on the grounds of Grady High School, in what police are calling an accidental shooting.

The shooting occurred on the Grady High School campus in the courtyard outside the buildings.
Police identified the student as Morgan Tukes. She faces charges of Carrying Weapons within a School Safety Zone, Reckless Conduct, Possession of a Pistol by a Minor and Disruption of a Public School.

Rev. Creflo Dollar Talks about the Shooting

Local news reports

 

Atlanta Man Shoots and Kills Coworker in Church

AP reports

A former megachurch maintenance man accused of killing a volunteer leading a prayer service was charged more than a decade ago with a shooting at a mosque in Maryland, according to police documents.

Floyd Palmer was acting as security at a Baltimore mosque in June 2001 when he shot another man working with him, wounding him in the back. Palmer tried to fire the gun again, but it jammed. When other people ran over to him, he turned the gun on them, but it again wouldn't fire.

Palmer faced attempted murder, assault and handgun charges, and he was committed to a psychiatric hospital in 2004 after pleading not criminally responsible to lesser charges. Court records show he was released the next year.

It's not clear when he made his way south to Atlanta. He had been working at World Changers Church International, but quit in August for "personal reasons," Fulton County Police Cpl. Kay Lester said.

On Wednesday, authorities said Palmer, 51, calmly walked into a chapel as Greg McDowell, 39, was leading a morning prayer service for a group of about 25 people.

Palmer casually walked out of the chapel and police arrested him several hours later when they spotted his station wagon at a mall in suburban Atlanta. Police said they have not found the gun.

Let's continue to make it easy for guys like this to get guns. Let's continue giving them a slap on the wrist for first offenses. Let's continue listening to the gun-rights folks on this.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

An Implicit Repudiation by Occupy Atlanta of the AK47 Protester

The decision has been made, later than this video, to relocate the Occupy Atlanta protest to the federally owned and operated MLK site. I can't think of a better repudiation of carrying firearms to protest than this, with the late Reverend Martin Luther King being one ofthe foremost representatives of non-violent protest and civil disobedience in direct contrast to protest or resistance with any weapons.

Brian Nichols Guilty of Murder

Brian Nichols was convicted of the murder of four people in a rampage that started in the Atlanta court house. CNN reports that the jury is now going to decide if he faces the death penalty.

Nichols confessed to the killings but claimed he was legally insane and gripped by a delusional compulsion that he was a slave rebelling against authority. Jurors rejected defense arguments that he was legally insane or mentally ill at the time.

Nichols was accused of overpowering Fulton County sheriff's deputy Cynthia Hall on March 11, 2005, as he was being led into a courtroom where he was facing a second trial on rape charges.

Officials say he took Hall's gun from a lockbox and fatally shot three people at the courthouse: Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau and Fulton County sheriff's Sgt. Hoyt Teasley, who attempted to apprehend him outside the building.

Nichols also was convicted of killing David Wilhelm, a federal customs agent, hours later at Wilhelm's home in the Buckhead section of Atlanta.

It certainly sounds like a lame attempt at claiming mental incapacity. And there's no denying that a killing spree like this which was essentially an attempted escape from the second rape charge he was facing, makes him a very bad boy. The defense attorney must have felt this was their best shot, as opposed to the abusive childhood pitch, for example. The jury didn't agree, nor are they likely to in the penalty phase, I would say.

It's a case like this that tests one's resolve concerning abolition of the death penalty. I feel capital punishment is wrong because we should maintain consistency between what we preach and what we do, as a State. If it's wrong to kill, it's wrong for Brian Nichols as well as for the State of Georgia.

One comment by the lawyers really caught my attention because it's exactly the way I often feel on this blog.

They said he has been diagnosed with a disorder that involves delusions of persecution, as well as grandiose thinking.

I strenuously appeal to the readers of this blog for an acquittal based upon the above statement.

What say ye?