Mississippi Judge Blocks Open Carry Law

BY Herschel Smith
10 years, 9 months ago

We’ve previously discussed the Mississippi open carry law, and how LEOs in particular don’t approve of the new law.  And yet, it is still new law, and the LEOs must honor the rights of citizens.  When progressives said Mississippi would turn into the Wild, Wild West, I demurred and pointed out that my own home state of North Carolina was a traditional open carry state.  Everything would turn out fine, I admonished.  But rather than accept the new law, progressives found themselves an activist judge who would side with them.

A Hinds County circuit court judge, initially appointed to the bench by a Democrat governor, granted the wishes of a Democrat prosecutor on Friday in an “emergency hearing” to halt implementation of a gun bill opposed by Democrat lawmakers, the Associated Press reported . Judge Winston Kidd issued a temporary injunction after Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith requested that he block a new law from going into effect.

[ … ]

“For the purposes of this section, ‘concealed’ … shall not include … a loaded or unloaded pistol carried upon the person in a sheath, belt holster or shoulder holster that is wholly or partially visible, or carried upon the person in a scabbard or case for carrying the weapon that is wholly or partially visible,” the bill states, essentially clarifying that open carrying of firearms by non-prohibited persons in non-prohibited locations is lawful activity.

In an unabashed feat of judicial and linguistic contortion, Kidd ruled that specific language is “vague,” and justified his injunction on the grounds that allowing the bill to take effect would cause “irreparable harm.”

“We’re looking at a Wild West scenario,” Jody Owens, Managing Attorney of the Southern Poverty Law Center charged … repeating the meme again.  The judge should now be seen as a lawbreaker himself, because there is nothing in the Mississippi constitution that allows a judge to override the legislature and Governor just because he doesn’t read as clearly as we do.

The judge should be impeached, and as for the claim that Mississippi would turn into the Wild, Wild West, I think that the fear is exactly the opposite.  I think that everyone knows that nothing untoward will occur, and thus Mississippi will become an example to the rest of the states (e.g., Texas, South Carolina, etc.) that have not been traditional open carry states but choose to change that.

As for the LEOs, it’s difficult to change, even when facing the inevitable.  Thus we have scenes like this.

Biloxi_Chief_John_Miller

Biloxi Police Chief John Miller holds up a sign he has made to help business owners who wish to keep people from entering their establishments while carrying guns.

But it isn’t within their charge to ensure that weapons aren’t carried in and through Mississippi, concealed or openly.  LEOs and politics don’t mix, and police chiefs can be replaced.

In the end, this stolid judge’s day in the sun will soon go away, guns will be openly carried in Mississippi, the Wild, Wild West will not obtain, and LEOs like Chief John Miller will be ridiculed for their fear mongering.

And everything will be made right.

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Comments

  1. On July 1, 2013 at 6:38 pm, DAN III said:

    Some years ago Pennsylvania decided to legislate a “no helmet” law for motorcyclists. Anti-freedom individuals cried and whined that “no helmets” would lead to massive deaths of motorcyclists if they didn’t wear the prescribed .gov helmet. Right next door in Ohio bikers had been riding for decades without helmets and no consequences. Pennsylvania passed the “no helmet” required law and the injuries/deaths as predicted never occurred.

    About the same time the Ohio legislature decided it was time to allow citizens to carry concealed weapons. They introduced a bill to allow such. Immediately the gun-control fanatics cried and whined that concealed carry would lead to carnage in the streets and Wild West shootouts. Ohio passed concealed carry. No shootouts. No Wild West shootouts.

    Odd how one group of people will refuse to use living examples of what is good while they push their agendas of control. Pennsylvania and Ohio are proof positive that those who make up our varied governments are out of control. And just as is being done in Colorado people must be dissidents. And it’s time for folks to start taking control of their lives and tell those in the government to go to hell.

  2. On July 3, 2013 at 7:02 pm, 1SG Bud said:

    I find it amazing that we have morphed into a society that can, and does, select which laws our various levels of government will enforce and abide by. Judges usurp the will of the people and their duly elected representatives within the government. As for Law Enforcement folks, they have been the only allowed armed citizens for a long, long time. Oh, there was the select few with a concealed carry permit, but generally speaking anyone with the gall to have a firearm in public was eyeballed hard, harassed, and/or arrested.

    Which day in the history of our Nation was the decision made that American citizens could not go about with the means of self defense? When only LEO’s and criminals can have firearms the citizens suffer.

  3. On July 3, 2013 at 7:25 pm, Herschel Smith said:

    Well, 1SG Bud, see my:

    http://www.captainsjournal.com/2012/09/25/christians-the-second-amendment-and-the-duty-of-self-defense/

    For what Colonial America looked like in terms of citizens carrying arms in public. And then think hard about the concept of a “Peace Officer,” or local constable, and how far we have morphed indeed.

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This article is filed under the category(s) Gun Control,Guns and was published June 30th, 2013 by Herschel Smith.

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