US District Court in Tennessee - No violation of 4th or 2nd re open carry in park

[nogods]

I believe the case decided yesterday is about this incident:

Open carry incident in Nashville gets me detained 2.5 hour at gun point carried AK-47

Given that Plaintiff was in personal possession of a loaded weapon 5 in a public park, the Court concludes that the temporary seizure of Plaintiff's weapon did not violate the Second Amendment

The article at 2ATalk.com has a summary of the court's decision and a link to the full decision.

Court dismisses civil suit over stop of open carry in state park

[firelooker]

The case of the Tenn man carrying an AK47 type pistol is strange in that he had modified the gun to look like a toy. I think this may have triggered the incident. If the defendant was using his legal right to carry why paint the tip of the barrel orange?

[TheSp8]

I think the judge was stretching for grounds to support the police action. We were home for Christmas when this hit the news. The guy was wearing camo pants and a black sweater. If the police hassle everyone in the south that wears cammo pants that is open carrying then they'll be stopping lots of folks. Plus, according to what we saw on the news, the guy was in the parking lot getting ready to get in his car to go home when the rangers came running up with their weapons drawn and aimed at him. My son and I got in a big disagreement with my father over open carry and weapon choice over this and in the end had to agree to disagree. The people they talked to that had seen the guy walking the trails in the park were not native southerners so they were supporting the hoplophobia of yankee immigrants.

YMOS,
Tony

[nogods]

I think the painting of the tip orange was probably a big factor. It just made it look like he was trying to "hide" the fact that it was a real firearm.

The judge also mentioned that "an elderly couple was beating on the door of Ward’s home in the park area to report a man with an assault rifle in the park" so perhaps the panic of uninformed citizens was also a factor.

The critical legal issue seems to be whether the 2nd amendment allows the government to stop and question citizens to determine whether a firearm is legal. I suspect that most courts are going to agree that the 2nd does allow such stops when there is any reason to beyond just "hey he has a gun." Painting the tip orange will probably be a sufficient reason.

[RJ_Whitlock]

He got his weapon back right away, why cry and waste everyone's time if you got your firearm back right away? Some people these days, if they actually took it down to the station, then I would file a suit.

I read the guys article that this thread is about and he said they gave him back his weapon and he was on his way.

[Bighouse Doc]

Crackpot, mentally disturbed, lame-brained mall-ninja, attention whore.

Paints a weapon to look like a toy and then, with malice and aforethought, attempts to terrify everyone around him.

Deliberate, calculated attempt to cause a disturbance.

Now that he lost, I hope his attorney costs bankrupt him! Even better, I hope the city tries to recover their costs.

-Doc

[Swinokur]

I believe his handle is Kwikrnu or some such.

Kinda flaky IMO

[Iteach4U]

Please don't lend any more attention to that individual. His MO is to go places and attempt to draw LEO attention as well as make attempts to make things appear different than they actually are, ie the orange paint on the tip of the barrel which is an indicator of a non-firearm like airsoft. Read the last post on that thread....banned.