There's politics, and then there's gun politics: You cannot bring squirt guns to certain areas of the GOP convention in Tampa, Florida - safety reasons, you understand - but real guns? Those are perfectly fine as long as you have a concealed carry permit.
Tampa’s Mayor has produced a list of items that will be considered security threats during the week-long event.
The list runs from air pistols to water pistols and also includes items such as masks, plastic or metal pipes, hair spray, mace, placards and string more than six inches long.
The city is proposing a ‘clean zone’, which has drawn rallies about the wide restrictions on protesters over a large area, but “if we’d tried to regulate guns, it wouldn’t have worked,” said City Attorney Jim Shimberg.
The city cannot put actual firearms on a ‘security threat’ list because state law bans local governments from placing any restrictions whatsoever on the carrying of guns in public spaces.
Guns will be banned from the security zone the Secret Service will set up around the convention site, but not immediately outside that perimeter. So protesters cannot wield a piece of wood larger than a ruler but they can carry a concealed handgun.
Cred points just went down 5 in my opinion.
The other items on the list also sound like a challenge
gun barrels are metal pipes, a hair spray round should be possible, a mace round is standard, ..
placards and string more than six inches long are more difficile.
Please do a few more 'political' articles. The sooner these po-faced, humourless clowns leave Neatorama, the better the comments section will be.
Seriously, guys, November can wait. Make with the puppy links already and quit it. This is in no was Neato.
Here are some quotes from the articles to back this up:
/**********************/
Conspicuously absent from the list of potential weapons: Firearms.
"If we'd tried to regulate guns, it wouldn't have worked," said City Attorney Jim Shimberg.
State law bans civilians from openly carrying handguns. But anyone – even protesters banned by the proposed city ordinance from wielding a piece of wood larger than a ruler – may carry a concealed handgun if they're licensed to do so.
/**********************/
So outside of the Secret Service protected zone, water guns are off limits but actual guns are not. That is the irony. Neatorama has plenty of articles dealing with irony. Ironic is a government official wanting to ban fake weapons at this convention but has to allow real ones in because of a state law. I see nothing wrong in the way Neatorama presented this information.
By the way, I used to read BoingBoing a lot (a site NeatORama frequently refers from) but stopped after their continued over the top political articles that, of course, only gave one side of the story. If I want an article like the above, I'll go back there. If I want an article that gives the other side of the story, I'll go elsewhere. If I want articles that talk about neat stuff, where can I go?
And I agree with the others above. Stick to your name's sake of "neat" or be prepared to lose a large chunk of your audience (including me). I can read about this on a lot of other sites on the Internet. I don't need to read it here as well.
They should also ban hoodies, just to be on the safe side.
That's the irony of gun politics, and that's why it's on this site.
Thanks SD Tom, great write-up.
I wish "neatorama" would stick to neat things, rather than political commentary. It's the reason I've stopped reading many other sites... is this the next one on the list?
Gosh. I wonder why.
Probably because even NEATORAMA knows that that assertion is as blatantly ludicrous as the creatively written assertion in the rest of the post that loaded concealed firearms will be allowed inside the convention and inside the convention security zone -- which they will not -- but squirt guns and other various seemingly benign items will not be allowed. The article refers simply and only to the Tampa Mayor's "list" of things that could be considered threats to security and he abides by the law in doing so in the fashion that he has.
The article clearly states, at the very end of course, that firearms will be banned -- along with squirt guns too and everything else on 'The List' -- in the security zone around the GOP Convention as well as inside. The bans do not extend out beyond the GOP Convention perimeter security zone, naturally, to anything mentioned from 'The List'.
I will be loving to see what kind of security considerations the DNC Convention shall impose for their Charlotte, N. Carolina convention -- that is if the DNC ever actually publicly releases any info since they are blacking out and redacting everything they have released so far and only after a FOI demand was granted by court order.
www(DOT)charlotteobserver(DOT)com/2012/03/21/3113397/blacked-out-dnc-emails-questioned(DOT)html
NEATORAMA becomes a little less NEATO bit by bit, post by post, as the days go by leading up to November 2012. But you'll never find a NEATORAMA post that addresses BOTH sides -- it is only ever one sided and sometimes blatantly misleading and maliciously one sided at that. Sad.