Ahab has a pretty good summary up of this. I haven’t covered it, because while I think these cases are good for everybody, just to get people debating the issue, I do kind of wonder why she’s taken this route.
If it were me, under threat of violence from another person, there’s no law or policy that’s going to prevent me from defending myself. In that circumstance, the last thing I would want to do would be to draw attention to the situation.
I do hope she wins, however, because it honestly doesn’t make a lot of sense to restrict someone who is licensed to carry everywhere else, from carrying in schools or other public building. A concealed weapon doesn’t suddenly become more dangerous by entering certain buildings.
It occurs to me that she might have taken the lawsuit route specifically because she wants to set a precedent.
Maybe she wants to stay alive AND keep her job. Her choice now is either give up her God-given right to defend herself by depending on a restraining order or quit teaching. Looks like she’s making the right choice.
I agree, she’s making the right choice. But keeping it concealed and keeping quiet is also an option. It’s a concealed weapon, which means people don’t see it unless you tell them it’s there.
Sebastian,
Except for the fear of prosecution for carrying in a prohibited place should anyone ever suspect and manage to discover a way to find out.
Although I personally agree with idea of carrying against the law, it leaves you no protection once your secret is out. It is a tough call to make as a law-abiding citizen since you have those moral checks in place and you are risking your freedom and your rights to do so. Once caught, you are no different than a gang banger caught with a gun. The end result is the same and you are now on the level of the criminal, rightly or wrongly, for the rest of your life.
It is a shame that we have to resort to suing the government to get back rights that should have never been taken from us in the first place. It used to be that a person could carry a gun (with the exception of New York) concealed without permission. It was accepted as a natural and unquestioned individual right. Within a generation, we have sunk to this.
She’s doing the right thing. I hope she wins.
There’s the issue as well that her school district might have metal detectors. It is entirely a possibility that the reason she can’t keep it concealed and quiet is because she has to walk through a metal dectector every day.
The attention is beneficial in that her antagonist will know she is armed basically everywhere… except for the school, which is the biggest downside.