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Gun Case Resolved for Tea Party Patriots Leader Mark Meckler


Many of our Palm Beach County Tea Party members met Mark Meckler last September when he and Dawn Wildman visited all three of our chapters.  Just before Christmas, you may have read that Mark was arrested in LaGuardia airport on a firearms charge.  The liberal media portrayed this as a major arrest and that Mark was facing 15 years in prison due to a firearms charge.  This situation has been resolved positively Mark can finally explain what happened.   Since our major media outlets will not cover this positive outcome, I want to share Mark’s statement with you.  It is lengthy but well worth the read!

From Mark Meckler:

On December 15, 2011 at approximately 5:15 a.m., I was at LaGuardia International airport preparing to check in for a flight out of the city.  During a routine check-in, I requested a firearms declaration form from the ticket agent.  It was my intent to declare and check my unloaded firearm.

I purchased this firearm legally, and I have a valid concealed carry permit for it issued in California.  The unloaded gun was locked inside a TSA-approved travel case, and the case was locked inside my checked luggage.  I carry the firearm for my personal safety, having received numerous threats due to my role in the Tea Party Patriots.  I have checked this firearm at airports dozens of times before, all across the country.

As I traveled through LaGuardia that morning, I passed TSA signs telling me I had the right to check this unloaded firearm in my luggage, and that I am required by law to declare the firearm to the ticketing agent.  This is exactly what I did.

The ticketing agent provided me with the declaration form, and I signed it and returned it to her.  She advised me that she would need to call Port Authority police to inspect.  This is not unusual when traveling with a firearm.  Procedures vary from airport to airport, from airline to airline, and even from day to day, and as a law-abiding citizen, I have always been happy to cooperate.

Unfortunately, that day, I didn’t realize that I was about to cross paths with New York City’s anti-Second Amendment stance.  Upon showing my case and the weapon to the officer who arrived on the scene, and after a few brief questions, she advised me that she was placing me under arrest for violating New York City’s firearms laws.

To say that I was stunned would be an understatement.  I am from a law enforcement family.  My mother is a retired correctional officer, and I have spent my life around folks from the law enforcement community.  I have always considered myself a law-abiding citizen.  I have never been arrested before.  I have never been in police custody.  I can never say those things again.  On December 15th, 2011, I was arrested, handcuffed at the ticket counter, and taken to a waiting squad car for transport to the Port Authority Police station at LaGuardia.

I was subsequently transferred, in handcuffs, to the Queens Central booking facility in New York City.  I was charged with felony possession of a firearm with intent to do harm.  I spent the day in Queens…in jail.

It was a nightmare that I can scarcely describe to you.  Until you have felt the handcuffs on your wrists, and until you have heard that cell door close behind you, it is impossible to understand what it means to actually lose your liberty.  And since that day, my liberty has been at stake, and because of that threat, based upon the advice of counsel, I’ve been unable to publicly speak about this case.  Today the silence ends.

I am pleased to announce that the criminal case against me has been dropped.  Although I was originally charged with a violent felony, the case against me was resolved with a plea to “disorderly conduct. ” Disorderly Conduct is not a felony or a misdemeanor, or even a crime.    The facts underlying my plea are that I declared a legally purchased, properly licensed and unloaded firearm at an airport counter.  Apparently, much to my surprise, in New York City, it is considered “disorderly conduct” to exercise your constitutionally guaranteed, Second Amendment rights.

Strangely, now that the case against me is over,  the authorities refuse to return my firearm.  There is no law that allows them to confiscate a weapon in this manner.  They simply say “no” when you ask for your weapon back.  This is apparently their “policy.”  This is apparently done regularly in New York.  This is government robbery.  Not only is New York City anti-Second Amendment rights, but they are depriving citizens of their legally owned property.  My lawyer has advised me that I can attempt to pursue the return of my firearm, but that to do so would cost me more than the firearm is worth.  I am not alone in facing this tyranny.  It has happened to hundreds of people in the New York metro area.  My lawyer, Brian Stapleton, has handled over 400 of these cases himself, so he is an expert on the subject.

While the end of this case is the end of a horrible nightmare for my family and I, it is not the end of this fight.  It is just the beginning.  Since the original incident, I have received more emails, phone calls, texts and tweets of support than you can possibly imagine.  To those people, I want to say heart-felt thanks on behalf of my entire family.  We have come to know that we are not alone in this particular fight.  Apparently, this happens to hundreds of people per year in New York City.  And New York City is not alone in its attack on our rights.  This sort of Constitutional abuse, Second Amendment and otherwise, is taking place all over the nation.  And we as citizens must stand against it.  We must protect our rights, or we will lose them.

Many of you know me as someone who is willing to stand and fight for self-governance in this country.   I’m no politician, and I’m not from a powerful or connected family.   I’m an average American citizen.  And I stand shoulder to shoulder with millions of other Americans who, despite enormous obstacles, and despite the politicians and ruling elite who oppose us, intend to return this country to the bounds of the United States Constitution.

The politicians and ruling elite will try, but we must not let them label us Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal.  We cannot let them make us fight against each other.  Too much is at stake.  We the People are losing our sovereignty to the government.   We the People, must stand and fight for our inalienable rights.

I’m not alone in this fight.  There are so many laws, that no one can possibly know or understand them.  We are all affected.  From the inner city to the farm, from the heartland of America to the coasts, people are under pressure from a government that no longer serves them.   From my home in California, to the farmland of Kansas… from the small towns of South Carolina to the metropolis of New York, every year the legislatures pass thousands of laws and regulations that do not serve the people.

The legislators don’t read the bills they pass, and even if they did, they couldn’t understand them.  Our criminal justice system is terribly broken, and no longer serves the people and the communities it was intended to serve.  Our regulatory system is broken; small businesses and the communities that rely on them crushed under the weight of unnecessary regulation.

We are, step by step, destroying the heart of America.  And we are doing so because we are not governing ourselves according to the Constitution.  It’s up to us…the People.

It’s time to stand for self-governance.  It is time to stand for the plain meaning of the Constitution.  Every word of the Constitution is important, and we must fight for them all.  We must fight for every inch of this country, from the inner city to the smallest rural town.  We are, all of us, first and foremost, American citizens.  We’ve always governed ourselves…and we always intend to.  And we’ve always been willing to stand when freedom is at stake.   It is time to stand…time for all of us, every race, every religion, every gender, every American to stand up and fight for liberty and take responsibility for governing ourselves.

No one should ever have to go through what my family has been through, simply for exercising a fundamental right, specifically enumerated in the United States Constitution.  I am committed to making sure no one does.  And I’m willing to work with anyone…anyone, who agrees that it’s time for the people to govern themselves once again.

Will we as citizens fight for our inalienable right to govern ourselves, or will we quietly allow ourselves to be “governed” into submission by a ruling elite, disconnected from our citizens and our communities?  Only history will tell, but I intend to fight.

Mark Meckler

 

 

Comments

8 Responses to “Gun Case Resolved for Tea Party Patriots Leader Mark Meckler”
  1. Al Raden Al says:

    Just another example of how we’ve gone from a nation of laws to a nation of men. The administration of NYC is very much against individuals being able to exercise their rights – from what you eat to the ability to defend yourself. We have woven such a network of laws that it is impossible for any of us to go through a day without breaking a few – so any government agent that wants to ensnare you has a net. What Mark went through should not happen in this country, and wouldn’t have happened in what this country once was.

    Freedoms lost are much more difficult to get back than they would have been to keep.

  2. Ralph Donabed RalphDonabed says:

    Mark,
    Why isn’t the NRA involved in this matter? I give them money every year even though I’ve never owned a firearm and would love to know that the considerable sums they collect are used to fight such tyranny as you experienced.
    Never give up!
    Ralph

    • Glitzel Splitz says:

      As a life member of the NRA (my mistake) I can tell you that they are too busy getting exemptions for themselves to bother with standing up for the rest of us.

  3. Milt Farrow says:

    When The law can be manipulated to be or mean anything that the Law Enforcement minions entrusted with
    supporting the constitution and defending the nation-when a Supreme Court can be “bought and paid for, what is the purpose
    of the futility of “playing the game in the criminals ballpark-The Police have been pimped by H.S and are nothing more than “street whores”-I have lost my respect for law enforcement in general as they have become an evil tool of the criminal element in Washington that has taken over our government -it is no longer Congress, it is Homeland Security and the stazi bastards-please read “The Greedy Bastards” Ratigan*

  4. Francis says:

    The NRA is silent on many issues – they have become part of the system IMHO.

    I suggest you contact the National Association for Gun Rights (http://www.nationalgunrights.org/).

    Have you considered organizing a class action suit if this has happened to others. Then the cost of retrieving your personal property will drop and the threat posed by the socialists will drop.

    “Those would trade freedom for security deserve neither [New Yorkers in this case].” Ben Franklin (possibly a paraphrase)

  5. Frank says:

    Another example of an out-of-control big government that is turning us into a police state with ridiculous & arbitrarily enforced laws. Wake up America, we are having our freedoms constantly eroded away. The solution is not more big government D or R. The solution is return to a small Constitutional government & balanced budgets. It’s to the point where I almost don’t recognize the country I was born into. It was never perfect, but it was supposed to be headed in the right direction. We’re now headed in exactly the wrong direction. P.B. Co.Tea Party: think very carefully about who you support.

  6. Gus says:

    The NRA should gather as many of those people who have had their guns taken away from them and form a class action law suit. Maybe then they will back off. But I doubt it. There is an element in this country that wants to take away private ownership of all guns. Once that is done it will be able to force other ‘changes’ upon the people.

  7. Bill Martin says:

    We gave America away Many years ago!! It’s time we get our freedom back. Americans must stand up together or we will be ” subjects” of the new world order which Obama and his butt kissers really want. As the man said ” from my cold dead hands”. God bless us all..

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