Some of you might remember my post from back in December on Open Carry Incidents. I was mainly critical about how a situation in Tennessee’s Radnor Lake State Park was handled, where a man (Leonard Embody) was open carrying a Draco AK-47 pistol. He was detained because the park ranger thought it was a modified rifle, and not a pistol.
After the way Leonard was treated, he finally decided to sue the park ranger who stopped him.
Good for him, I hope he wins and gets awarded damages.
Source – NewsChannel5
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I am surprised by your position largely critical of the park rangers and sympathetic towards the gun activist. Here in TN, and yes I am a carry permit holder, I would say that the public opinion of gun-people and non-gun-people alike is overwhelmingly critical of Mr. Embody.
The majority opinion seems to be that Mr. Leonard was clearly looking for trouble, was looking to cause a public stir, and continues to look to participate in unsafe and irresponsible carry behavior. He appears to have been banned from numerous online gun forums. All you have to do is visit some TN gun forums to see the opinions of people who personally know Mr. Embody and/or know the park he was carrying at, and you will find virtually no support for Mr. Embody’s actions.
Sir, I respectfully submit that you are going to find yourself in the minority opinion with regards to those who are well-informed of the details of this incident.
From what I read on Embody, he definitely does seem like a bit of an asshat. That said, I am really not into supporting law enforcement when they abuse their power. If a person can have their day ruined for obeying the law (pushing it to the limit or not) then L.E. is not is not doing their job correctly. If they don’t like the laws they are paid to enforce (or worse, don’t even know the laws), then they should either quit and find a new job, or else jump on the bandwagon of trying to do something about changing them. There needs to be more accountability… If we as gun owners let something like this slide, in my opinion it will only get worse.
The man may be a douche with a chip on his shoulder, but that the point he managed to illustrate is valid – the law enforcement personnel didn’t know the law, and he shouldn’t have been detained or questioned for more than 30 seconds.
I really, really wish I could throw my support in behind this guy – after all, his rights were abridged, he was obeying the (admittedly asinine) law, and the police officer was out of line.
HOWEVER, kwikrnu/Leonard does have a documented, self-admitted history of creating, engaging in, and living off of lawsuits like these, and even more frivolous ones, and the last thing we need is a glorified ambulance chaser acting as the face of the pro-rights community.
Yeah, what he did was legal, and what the cop did was wrong. The guy is still an idiot.
I have a concealed carry permit in Ohio. Why open carry and leave your self open for a hassle. A spouting whale is the one that gets harpooned! You dont flash money, keep the firearm in your pants!