Non-executive non-order
I was talking with my friend the other day, and the conversation went around to his place of work, a gun store, and specifically a small sign I had noticed. The sign said something like ?no cellphones allowed?.
I, like everyone else, thought that was in place for the usual polite reasons, but the real reason is actually a bit more interesting. It seems gun stores up around Baltimore, Maryland were getting cased by thugs, and their preferred method was to scope out the shop by taking a bunch of cellphone pictures. Hence the ban.
Now this is wacky on so many levels. The first thing I asked if if the shop banned cameras in PDAs, or belt buckle cameras, or wireless X-10 cameras hidden in purses or bags, and my friend shot back that the ban was not in place because of the management, but because of the *cough* ?request? of the state police.
Okay, let’s work our way through this. It isn’t a state law. It isn’t a federal law. It isn’t the opinion of the Tobacco Ninjas, dutifully coded in the federal register as BATFE regulations (with the force of law after the prescribed waiting period.) It isn’t an equally constitutionally questionable executive order from el Presidente of the United States of America. Nor is is some screed signed off by Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich.
If I’m getting my story straight from my source, this isn’t even a polite request by officer friendly of the Maryland state police. Apparently some thug from the government decided that banning all cellphones was an effective method of thwarting crime against gun stores and instead of every other legitimate and non-legitimate (but still commonly used) method of creating yet another onerous requirement that must be followed by the merchant, they just issued a memo. Great.
And I suppose that because this isn’t anything near a legitimate law with prescribed penalties, the only way the troopers can force compliance would be through threats, intimidation, and selective enforcement.
Maryland had a 7-day waiting period long before the feds did. The actual text of the law stated that if the dealer did not hear back from the police with a yay/nay within the prescribed time, it was OK to release the firearm. However, because of wholly inappropriate police pressure, many FFL holders had a policy to not release anything until they got the OK, even if it took forever. One of my approvals took almost a month. For that privilege, I wrote a check to the state police to have them investigate me. I didn’t even get a refund after my good name came back clear (like Mr. Buttle did in the movie Brazil).
I’d like to meet this person at the state police who creates new powers out of thin air. Are we a nation of laws or of men?
