Here is a story about Army Master Sergeant C. J. Grisham, a
serving American soldier and veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, who
recently was illegally disarmed by the Temple Police Department while out for a
walk with his son.
He and his son were
on a ten-mile hike so that his son could earn his hiking merit badge – it’s the
last badge he needs to become an Eagle Scout.” But half way into the
hike, a police officer pulled up. Initially, the officer was “cordial” and he
“asked what we were doing.” Grisham told him.
Then the officer
asked where he was going with that rifle. (He
always carries a rifle any time he walks around because there are feral hogs
and cougars and things like that.) He
said, “Does it matter? Am I breaking any laws?”
Then, he says, the officer “grabbed the rifle without telling me –
but it was attached to me. My immediate reaction as a combat veteran was
to grab it back and then take a step back. I asked him what he was
doing. So he pulled his gun on
me. Then I thought about my son, so I put my hands off my
gun and he told me to move over to the car. Luckily my son had the video
camera to document the hike for his merit badge. I told him to turn it on.”
The video of the incident is below. I’d recommend you watch the
whole thing. Note the officers’ ignorance of the rules they are there to
uphold, the suggestion that the law doesn’t apply in this “day and age,” and
the persistent claim that American citizens are presumed to have their weapons
illegally unless otherwise demonstrated. Note the officer’s claim that merely
owning a gun makes someone dangerous. Note the conflation of a soldier in a war
zone with a citizen in rural Texas. Note
the persistent refusal to explain what law Grisham has broken.
Particularly chilling is the officer’s telling Grisham that a
police officer is “allowed to” carry a weapon, but that Grisham is not —
despite Grisham’s having a permit. “We’re exempt from the law” is not a phrase
you want to hear from law enforcement in a constitutional republic.
Later, when Grisham was asked why he thought the officer behaved
in this way, He said, “I don’t know, it’s not the law. You can’t go around
taking guns without probable cause or a reasonable suspicion that someone is
about to commit a crime. A lot of what
the officers said is illegal, against Texas law, against national precedent, against
Supreme Court decisions. I was legally
exercising a right, especially in Texas where we have a right to carry weapons
openly, and I have a concealed-carry permit. I wasn’t looking to make an issue out of it. I go up to Austin for Second Amendment rallies with my AR
[rifle] all the time. But here in the
country?
Ultimately, it happened because I stood up to a police officer. I support the police. I’m on the public safety
committee. But I also know that when I’m
stopped by a police officer, I don’t have to say anything unless I’m accused of
committing a crime. I’m not being a
prick. I don’t think it was the gun
initially, I think it was that my reaction hurt his ego.”
When asked what”rudely displaying a firearm” means. Grisham said,”There’s no such wording,” “I
couldn’t find the word ‘rude’ in the penal code at all. You can openly carry a rifle as long as it’s
not threatening. If it’s slung across
your shoulder, it’s not threatening. When
you point a gun at somebody then you’re breaking the law. But just walking around with a gun strapped in
front of you is not threatening in any manner.”
What happens next? “I still
don’t have my guns back and they took my concealed-carry license. I’m not accused of a gun crime, so there’s no
reason for them to have my guns right now and the problem is that, what’s
happened in the past with other soldiers is that the prosecutors will try and
get the soldiers to agree to the police dropping the charges if they confiscate
the gun — to have the charges dropped at the expense of their gun. This is a workaround loophole for gun
confiscation.”
HERE'S THE VIDEO. Http://WWW.youtube.Com/watch?v=LgXCL4P8vL0
When asked, “Does this happen to soldiers a lot?” He replied,”Yes, this has happened several
times in this area. To Staff Sergeant Nate Samson, for example. He had to fight these guys for ten months. The
charges were dropped, but he has no justice. He doesn’t have a lot of money to fight them. I have a pretrial hearing on May 29. The police are dragging their feet, not
releasing the video. They’re waiting as
long as they can — playing hard to get. . . . The reason I’m aggressive on this
is that, in the military, if this happens, they initiate a flag that halts your
career. You can’t take leave, you can’t
be promoted, can’t receive awards or decorations. I am supposed to move to new base in July. I can’t do that. I’ve been on active duty for 18 and a half
years and it’s got my career on a hold.
I’ve tried to tell my son that this isn’t normal; that police
officers don’t walk around doing this. He’s
developed an unrealistic fear of police officers. We were bowling yesterday and he freaked out
when a police officer walked in. He’s traumatized
by the incident — seeing a gun pulled on his dad. I’m proud of him for his reaction. He’s doing
well . . . we sit down and talk to our kids about the Constitution and guns and
safety. My son can use every single
weapon I have in the house from the AK-47 to .38 special.”
Is it particularly bad at the moment? ”I think so, yes. All the attention that the media and the
politicians are giving to ‘assault weapons’ — I insist that none of my guns are
‘assault’ anything – is causing people to call and complain about seeing one. And instead of saying, ‘hey there’s nothing to
be afraid of,’ they go out and hassle legal gun owners. Law enforcement has a duty to recognize that
if someone is lawfully carrying a weapon then you should leave them alone. Who cares what somebody complains about?”
Here are some important updates to this story…PLEASE
READ
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