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
Action Alert – Congressional “Super Committee”
We need everyone to contact the Super Committee with your demands. Their contact information is below but first, here is a little background information that you may or may not know.
The “Super Committee” was formed as a condition to the “Debt Ceiling” debate, this past late-summer’s effort to increase federal spending authority for the president without really saying so.
We believe it is an unconstitutional construct, but it is there and we have to deal with it.
This Super Committee, comprised of twelve Congressmen (six from each party; half from the House and half from the Senate) was tasked to reduce the deficit. If the Super Committee does not come to bi-partisan terms, and Congress fails to pass the recommendations they propose, automatic “cuts” kick in.
Democrats are looking to pass $1.3 trillion in tax increases, with a similar amount in cuts, over the next 10 years. As usual, especially with the likes of Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Patty Murray sitting on this Super Committee, the Democrats are pushing for more spending on top of the tax increases. The same game plan they have been preaching for the last 3 years.
For a good analysis on the Super Committee, see this from The Heritage Foundation:
http://heritageaction.com/2011/10/note-to-super-committee-don%e2%80%99t-raise-taxes/
It appears that those involved are NOT attempting to look for real cuts. And any cuts to Medicare/Medicaid will be overturned as soon as the next Congress convenes.
Republicans offer to cut deficits by about $2.2 trillion over a decade; about one-third of that coming from increases in items such as Medicare premiums, the sale of public lands and airport fees — measures that increase government revenue without raising taxes. The GOP plan also assumes that tax reform would generate economic growth that would also lift revenues.
The GOP plan would also cut about $500 billion from Medicare over the next decade and $185 billion from Medicaid, officials said.
Democrats say that elsewhere in the budget they plan to reduce deficits by more than $3 trillion over the coming decade, while financing a $450 billion jobs bill along the lines that President Barack Obama is recommending. The same worthless “jobs bill” that was defeated in the Senate.
If the Democrats were serious, they would cut Obamacare, which could save over $2 trillion during same time ten-year period. See this link for the detail:
http://www.kiowacountysignal.com/opinions/x703875050/Repeal-of-Obamacare-could-save-2-6-trillion
Tea Party Patriots has railed over the last 2 ½ years – Reduce the size of government; Slash spending and Repeal Obamacare – for trillions in savings!
Credit rating agencies, yet again, have stated emphatically that nothing less than $4 to $5 trillion in spending cuts will stem another downgrade in the U.S. credit rating… but, apparently, members of the Super Committee believe their half-baked ideas (that they know will be rejected) will lead to some sort of consensus (and maybe political gain) in 2012?
Write to the Super Committee – but don’t just stop there; e-mail, phone, fax, and tweet!
Here is a direct link to their website:
http://www.deficitreduction.gov/public/index.cfm/contact
Whatever you can do – create a presence, from the Palm Beach County Tea Party as well as for the Tea Party Patriots groups all across the country!
The lobbyists are all there, waiting to add more dollars to Super Committee members’ campaign coffers! We have millions of members, enthusiastic Patriots who stand for their Country, NOT Party! Put pressure on them for: NO increase in ANY taxes, and CUT spending, PERIOD!
Here are your “Super Committee” members:
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) Committee Co-Chair: @RepHensarling
Phone: 202-225-3484 Fax: 202-226-4888
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) Committee Co-Chair: @PattyMurray
Phone: 202-224-2621 Fax: 202-224-0238 Toll Free: 866-481-9186
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD): @ChrisVanHollen
Phone: 202-225-5341 Fax: 202-225-0375
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ): @SenJonKyl
Phone: 202-224-4521 Fax: 202-224-2207
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA): @JohnKerry
Phone: 202-224-2742
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA): @SenToomey
Phone: 202-224-4254 Fax: 202-228-0284
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT): No Known Twitter Account
Phone: 202-224-2651 Fax: 202-224-9412
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH): @robportman
Phone: 202-224-3353
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA): @RepBecerra
Phone: 202-225-6235
Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI): No Known Twitter Account
Phone: 202-225-3561 Fax: 202-225-9679
Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC): @Clyburn
Phone: 202-225-3315 Fax: 202-225-2313
Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI): @RepFredUpton
Phone: 202-225-3761 Fax: 202-225-4986
Tweeting to the Super Committee, should have a # setup… something like this:
@RepHensarling #SuperCommittee – NO tax inc., CUT spending #tpp
@RepHensarling #SuperCommittee – Repeal Obamacare, Save $2T #tpp
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