While, I agree with most of your comments; I would like to shed a little light on what drove the individual to do what he did at the CADL main branch.
It was a bad idea, but remember he is a 19 yr. old as I understand it, hence the poor judgment call. Why carry the long gun?
He was frustrated with Lansing PD. They have illegally refused to issue him a pistol purchase permit, hence leaving his choice of firearms for protection very limited. Why would LPD do this? Simple, the youngster spoke ill of them in a news report in regards to their lack of knowledge when it came to the law & OC. So they showed him, they have sat on his pistol purchase permit request for over a year now saying "it's still under review".
This is PC speak for you made us look bad, so we'll show you kid! Ha take that you little punk.
Now remember, you have a law enforcement agency breaking/bending the law because they don't like a citizen who otherwise meets the requirements to obtain a pistol permit. Sadly this happens because there are no teeth in the law to force a local Police Department to issue.
In fact they can just stall to infinity under the current structure of the law in MI. Oh and you can only obtain a pistol purchase permit from your local Police Agency, so if they don't like you even though you qualify under the law, YOU ARE SCREWED PERIOD!
While his actions were in poor judgment, I believe all law abiding citizens should have the right to defend themselves with the best tool they have available to them, in this case thanks to LPD being ASSHATS it was a shotgun so who really deserves our venom here? I think there are plenty in authority who have managed so far to keep the other side of the story from getting to the public.
Sincerely,
A law abiding citizen who believes the law should apply to all, even those charged with upholding it, but I guess that's too much to ask of LPD, Virg Benero, or any of the other flunkies in Lansing city government.
