By now, pretty much the entire country has probably heard about Leonard Embody carrying his “AK-47-style” handgun into Radnor Lake State Park in Nashville last weekend, and I want to thank WizardPC for fielding the story while I was more-or-less away from the keyboard for the holidays (gotta love being able to schedule posts for the future). However, now that I am back in the proverbial saddle, I figure I might as well have a crack at the situation as well.
First, we should go ahead and establish identities. It is pretty much a given that Leonard Embody’s online handle is “kwikrnu”, given the copious number of forum threads he started talking about his first-hand experiences at Radnor Park. This carbon-life/online-life connection is important for two reasons: first, kwikrnu/Leonard Embody has a history of causing problems concerning how he carries firearms, and second, “kwikrnu” has been banned from an impressively large number of forums. In short, we appear to have what I believe to be a pure-and-simple rabble-rouser/attention-whore looking to stir up trouble and get publicity, for whatever reason he holds dear.
Second, we should clarify some technical details. Tennessee House Bill 716 / Senate Bill 976 was signed by the Governor on 12JUN09, and took effect on that date, allowing background-checked, trained, licensed, law-abiding citizens to carry their handguns into any state, county, or municipality park or parkish area unless otherwise excepted. Radnor Lake State Park is, indeed, a state park, and the State of Tennessee has not excepted any of its parks, or opted-out any of its parks from HB716 (unlike some cities and counties). According to Tennessee’s Attorney General’s Opinion Number 05-154, no portion of the State Code “requires the holder of a handgun carry permit to carry the handgun in a concealed manner” (though, bear in mind that this is an opinion, is not legally binding, and has no case-history precedence to support it). News reports indicate that Leonard Embody has a handgun carry permit. The firearm Leonard was carrying is described, by him, as a “Romanian Draco AK pistol”, and is probably something like this or this – these firearms do not have stocks attached to them, never had stocks attached to them, have 12″-ish barrels, and meet both federal and Tennessee requirements for being “handguns” (despite their scary, assault-rifle-ish appearance). Neither carrying a firearm with a stock (collapsible or fixed) nor carrying a designated-and-stamped short-barreled rifle is permissable under Tennessee State Code. I think that about covers everything.
Third, in my non-lawyer, have-not-passed-the-bar opinion, Leonard Embody’s actions at Radnor Lake State Park were legal – he was openly carrying a handgun in an area where it is legal to do so, and was not assaulting or threatening anyone with it. Seems like a pretty standard case of open carry to me.
Fourth, using the same disclaimers as above, the actions of the police at Radnor Lake State Park were legal (and appropriate) as well. As previously mentioned, neither SBRs nor stock-equipped firearms nor long-guns of any variety are legal for loaded carry (either openly or concealed) in Tennessee, unless you are hunting, going to or from a range, on private property, or other similar exceptions. At first glance, neither the park rangers nor the responding police officers had any way of guaranteeing that the firearm in question really was a legally-acceptable handgun, and thus had probable cause to detain an individual who appeared to be in the commission of a crime (carrying a firearm that is not a handgun). The 2.5-hour detention may have been a little lengthy, but I do not blame the police officers, at all, for making the detention in the first place.
Fifth, Leonard probably could have saved himself a world of figurative hurt if he had simply had a better grasp of how to make his point. However, engaging in a playground-esque “nuh-uh, you are!” conversation with a park ranger is bound to get you more attention.
And that about sums up the documentation of specifics concerning this incident, as well as my opinions concerning it – what Leonard did was legal, what the cops did appears appropriate, and all of the pants-wetting hysterics over it seem normal for any news story covering anything even remotely firearm-related. At least this time the media more-or-less got it right when they described the firearm in question as an “AK-47-style” gun.
That said, I want absolutely nothing to do with kwikrnu/Leonard Embody, and I sincerely wish he would stop “helping”, not because of his openly carrying a Draco pistol in Radnor Lake Park, but because of everything else he has done, is doing, and appears to be planning to do. As previously mentioned, his behavior and actions at a Nashville Costco conviced the entire chain of Costco stores in Tennessee to post their premises with admittedly-non-binding signs. Certainly, the issue would not have come up if he was not open carrying, but the issue also would not have escalated if he had not forced it to do so – as far as I am concerned, property owners are within their rights to prohibit open, concealed, or any carry, just as we, as customers, are within our rights to shop elsewhere.
Moving more recently, Leonard has decided to paint the tip of his Draco AK-47 pistol orange, imitating airsoft toys. Why, might you ask? His own words are all the explanation you need:
Cops don’t shoot people with airsoft guns. If this handgun looks like an airsoft the cops won’t shoot me.
Police officers’ reactions to this kind of idea are about what you would expect.
I will refrain from making my own opinions on the matter known until after I point you at a thread where kwikrnu was shopping around for an airsoft toy that looks like his painted Draco.
What. The. Flying. Frak? Why the hell would you want to intentionally and deceptively disguise a firearm to confuse police officers? Why the hell would you want an exact airsoft-toy replica of a firearm you have dressed up to look like an airsoft toy? No, painting a firearm to ascribe to whatever aesthetic you so desire is not illegal in Tennessee, nor should it be… but doing so with the express intent of confusing police officers is simply beyond frakking idiotic.
It is my not-so-humble opinion that this … individual … is looking to get himself shot/shot-at/arrested/otherwise engaged, then sue, and woe be to the police officer or (potentially worse) handgun carry permit holder who gives this … individual … his pipe-dream pay-off. (It should probably go without saying (despite me continuing to say it) that permit holders and police officers in the Nashville region should be mindful of an individual carrying what appears to be an orange-tipped AK-47 pistol.) In my opinion, this individual has sacrificed whatever integrity he might have had in order to make a point, whatever it might be (even if it is a point of how badly he can take the state’s lawsuit system for a spin), and I refuse to have anything to do with those kinds of individuals.
Yes, what Leonard did at Radnor Lake Park is 100% legal. Yes, painting your firearms as you like is legal. Yes, owning toys is legal. Yes, open carry is legal. Yes, being an asshole is legal. But that is the last ounce of “support” you will see me give him. My only hope is that he will slip up and have his permit revoked before he completely ruins someone’s life in what appears to be a glory-hound quest for attention. For those with far too much time and patience, the full event, Leonard’s history, and all of the various takes and perspectives on all of the situations are all rolled up into one massively long thread over at TGO. Knock yourselves out.
Just goes to show that Libbers don’t have the monopoly on stoopid. Thanks for helping, Leonard.
Guess I’m stuck with Sam’s.
i support carry
To provide something of a counterpoint for my previous post, I openly carried my Walther PPS in its new rig twice this past week at the Trader Joe’s in Midtown, Atlanta, GA – possibly a more-trendy/hip/yuppy store in possibly a…
2 recent federal court cases make the guns-in-bars law (however fashioned) a real nightmare for police and permit holders. Basically in GA and MA permit holders lawfully carrying (Sen. Jackson’s law-abiding types) were stopped by police when police saw them with a gun on their person in/near : a MARTA station (in GA) and a courthouse (in MA). In both cases the federal courts held that police could lawfully stop, detain, question, and pull a gun and seize the weapon (in the MA case) because there was probable cause to believe the gun carrier was about to commit a crime.
The point vis-a-vis TN: It’s illegal to have a gun in a bar in TN, except, if Jackson succeeds in a new law, for handgun carry permit holders. But police may lawfully, under these cases, stop and detain a person they see/suspect has a gun and is or is about to carry a gun into a bar/park. Thus the Radnor Lake incident was lawful police action and Metro cops may stop/detain gun carriers into/near bars, parks no matter their permit status if they approach or are in a bar or a park or a courthouse with a gun.
In other news, Randy Rayburn’s lawyer reads this site.
Awesome.
Steve: Hell, I might almost admit that us conservative types might have the majority of whackjobs, especially if you start counting libertarians with us. That, however, does not mean the movement is in the wrong, nor does it mean those people should stop being whackjobs – it is, after all, their God-granted right. But sometimes, just sometimes, you wish they would stop helping…
Mr. Smith: I am certainly not going to hold you (or anyone else) to this request, but I would certainly appreciate it if you could keep your comments topical. We writers here have taken your client to task over his pointless lawsuit and pyrrhic victory sufficiently for you to find one of those posts and leave your related opinions at it. However, since your last sentence at least comes back to the topic at hand, we will address it here.
Regarding the firearms-in-restaurants-that-serve-alcohol legislation, that is certainly your opinion, and you are welcome to it. I am not familiar with the MA case, but I firmly believe that the GA case was a blatant abuse of police power, should be appealed, and will hopefully be overturned in the future. I do not have a significant problem with police verifying that a firearm-carrier also has a permit, but arresting that permit holder after he has displayed the aforementioned permit? That is just excessive.
Of course, I would point out that Georgia’s laws concerning that particular situation, and Tennessee’s laws concerning firearms in restaurants that serve alcohol are markedly different. Georgia outlaws the carrying of firearms, with the clause that a handgun carry permit is an “affirmative defense”. The amendment to Tennessee State Code 39-17-1305 very clearly states that the provisions of subsection (a) (dictating that it is a criminal offense to take a firearm into an establishment that serves alcohol) simply shall not apply to a person who is authorized to carry a firearm by possessing a permit. In my admittedly non-lawyerish opinion, your analogy does not hold.
In any case, I am more than willing to tolerate the police checking my permit periodically/rarely if it means I am more-capable of defending myself and my family while I have dinner at a restaurant that just happens to serve alcohol. Or perhaps you can articulate why I, a law-abiding, background-checked, no-criminal-history, trained, and permitted Tennessee resident and American citizen, should be disarmed at an Outback when I can still carry my sidearm at Tony Gore’s BBQ, especially taking into account that consuming alcohol while carrying is still against the law?
This is all skimming past what I (and many other handgun carry permit holders) hope Representative Jackson will do, and what he honestly should do – carve out the same kind of exception for handgun carry permit holders at establishments that serve alcohol that police officers currently enjoy. There is simply no rational reason why I should be disarmed at a restaurant when I am not consuming alcohol (which still was and is against the law).
WizardPC: Damn. I think that means we made the big leagues…
The First Circuit (MA) case, decided Dec. 23rd is here:
http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/09-1370P-01A.pdf
The district court opinion is here:
http://www.drslawfirm.com/gunsinbars/schubertdct.pdf
fyi: see footnote 2
I believe my comment/post was very much on topic: to wit–was Leonard Embody lawfully detained & how does this affect TN?
A Google alert brought me to your forum (re the curious Mr. Embody). I was not a reader beforehand although your style and content is very good.
Thanks for the links to the MA case. I will have to do some reading.
As I mentioned, your last sentence did manage to bring your comment back on-topic, however, the extraneous propagandizing concerning your recent case with Rayburn was just that – extraneous.
Good to know that Google Alerts are back to functioning properly… they were having some relatively significant problems in the past, though I think it is fair to say that they might be a little over-sensitive now.
TN’s constitution wasn’t always as retarded as it is today. In any case, I don’t know why anyone would disparage those who seek liberty today, in some contrast with those who plan for liberty tomorrow.
Anyone ‘quietly and respectfully’ waiting for liberty to come to one’s door will not see liberty in their lifetime. Wouldn’t you prefer liberty or death? If you demand the respect of the entirety of your rights now, you will inflame the passions of the People now and achieve the liberty you deserve, or you will inflame the passions of tyrants and will need to rise to arms to abolish or reform government. Because you deserve your rights entire, any holding back will always be a compromise /away/ from your natural right to that which those had to compromise nothing themselves.
So, when kwikrnu-like characters act, they hasten the timeframe for a better Tennessee, even when you don’t like what or how they do it.
You are more than welcome to believe as you so desire, but I have one (admittedly crude) word that sums up how I view those beliefs: bullshit.
Kwikrnu is intentionally and maliciously misleading and confusing people. He is intentionally and maliciously attempting to entice police officers or, God forbid, handgun carry permit holders into doing something. He is solely and exclusively looking for his big pay-off (after all, much of his current income comes from frivolous and pointless – but floatable in today’s “judicial” system – lawsuits).
Nothing he is doing has anything to do with rights or liberties, and everything to do with attention for him, and potential legal money for him, and once he pushes that self-serving button hard enough and long enough, there will be backlash.
I will grant you one thing, though – TN’s constitution was not always this retarded. In the past, it was worse. In fact, even a year ago, it was worse. But in working within the system, we are improving it. Funny how that happens.
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