The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote an editorial today about Monday's common-sense Federal court decision to keep guns out of Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport:

... In his decision, [Judge] Shoob cut through the pro-gun rhetoric and sided with public safety: "Where there is any question as to whether the public safety and welfare is threatened, the court must rule on the side of that public interest." GeorgiaCarry.org claims Atlanta's ban violates a new state law that allows Georgians with concealed weapons permits to bring weapons to state parks, restaurants that serve alcohol and on public transportation. GeorgiaCarry.org contends that non-secure areas of the airport, including terminals, parking lots and baggage claim, qualify as public transportation. Atlanta disagrees that the airport was covered by the law.

Shoob could have granted a preliminary injunction to GeorgiaCarry.org only if he decided that the group had "a substantial likelihood" of winning once the full case is heard and decided. But as Shoob noted, it's a stretch to define an international airport as public transportation. (An airplane is a means of transportation; an airport is not.)

Shoob treated other arguments offered by GeorgiaCarry.org with equal skepticism, especially its insistence that concealed permit holders are vetted carefully by the state and pose no risk to Hartsfield's 90 million annual passengers.

As Shoob noted, "The only requirements to obtain a firearms license in Georgia are to pay a $15 fee and undergo a criminal background check and, at the discretion of the probate court, a mental health background check. There is no requirement that applicants demonstrate any proficiency in the handling of a firearm."

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Brady President Paul Helmke also issued a statement applauding the decision, available here.

Keep guns out of airports after 9/11?

It's just common sense.

In USA Today:

The Transportation Security Administration may allow airports to ban firearms from terminals, parking lots, roads and other airport areas where many states currently allow passengers to carry lethal weapons.

Airport officials and lawmakers are watching closely as the TSA weighs a request by Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to modify its security program to impose an airportwide ban on guns. It is the first such request to TSA from an airport.

"Any decisions we make that affect (Atlanta) could affect every other airport in the country," TSA spokesman Christopher White said Thursday.

Federal law bars passengers from bringing weapons to or past airport checkpoints. But in many airports, state law allows passengers to carry guns and knives in unsecured areas such as a main terminal — often to airport officials' dismay.

...

Hartsfield's effort is backed by airport groups and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who plans hearings next month on airport efforts to ban guns. "If airports think (guns) should not be allowed, they should have the right to modify their security plan to reflect that," he said.

The Airports Council International said in a recent letter to Hartsfield, "There is no justification for permitting firearms at any airport." Policies vary from state to state and from airport to airport. Some bar guns fully, others allow them, sometimes in areas such as a parking lot, said Charles Chambers, the council's security chief.

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"It was a senseless armed robbery over a $129 car stereo," one witness said.

In the St. Petersburg Times:

Sean Ellenberger of St. Petersburg was a 39-year-old teacher, a techie and a science and politics buff who dreamed of having a wife and family.

He had little in common with Titus Hill, 19, of Seffner, an aspiring college student who dreamed of becoming a rap star.

Late Friday night, they shot each other to death in a midnight gun battle in a working-class suburban neighborhood.

The shooting erupted as Hill and an accomplice tried to rob Ellenberger outside the home of Bob Mess, 48, a longtime friend who had just installed a new stereo in Ellenberger's Jeep Cherokee, Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies said.

Hill carried a handgun, but so did Ellenberger, a gun enthusiast with a concealed weapons permit.

Mess said the two engaged in a running shootout. As it ended, Hill limped feebly to a getaway car, Mess said. Ellenberger lay in the middle of Orange Avenue, screaming, "I've been hit. Call 911."

Within hours, each was dead.

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As Tom Toles once ruefully observed:

The judge didn't, either.

An update on a post from two weeks ago, in today's Monadnock Ledger-Transcript:

A District Court judge ruled Monday that the Greenville man denied a concealed weapon permit by police was in fact not "a suitable person to be licensed."

Doug Smith of Greenville petitioned the court when he was denied the permit by Temple-Greenville Police Chief James McTague. "I think I am eligible," he wrote to the court in his request for a hearing on the matter.

Jaffrey-Peterborough District Court Judge L. Phillips Runyon III decided against Smith Monday, citing a part of RSA 159:6 that a gun license can be denied if the applicant is not "a suitable person to be licensed."

"The state based its denial on the plaintiff's criminal record of convictions for simple assault (four), criminal trespass (five), and criminal mischief (two), but primarily on his currently suspended 12-month jail sentence for simple assault, which also includes a substantial amount of restitution, that has not yet been fully satisfied," Runyon wrote in his decision.

At the hearing on July 10, Temple-Greenville Prosecutor Vint Boggis spoke in support of McTague's decision to deny the permit. According to Boggis, Smith had a record including 15 criminal convictions and 13 motor vehicle convictions, including failure to pay child support and a stabbing.

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The article goes on to say that Smith actually can still purchase a firearm, just that he can't carry it concealed.

When the judge asked why he doesn't carry openly, Smith reportedly answered, "Openly carrying a firearm tends to alarm the public quite a bit."

His 15 criminal convictions might have something to do with it, too.

When we say we make it too easy for dangerous people to get guns in America, remember that weak Federal gun laws would reportedly allow even a recidivist criminal like Doug Smith to buy a firearm from a licensed gun dealer.

An editorial in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

... However, in this post-terrorism environment, there are already plenty of guns at the airport, and they're being carried by trained law enforcement officers charged with keeping the public safe. Among the agencies safeguarding Hartsfield are the Airport Security Division, the Transportation Security Administration, the Atlanta Police Department, FBI and federal air marshals.

Airport General Manager Ben DeCosta fears airport safety would be compromised if trained law enforcement professionals were forced to assume that all civilians are carrying concealed firearms. As he also points out, the accidental discharge of a firearm in a terminal or parking lot could create a panic similar to what happened seven years ago when a traveler breached security checkpoints to retrieve a camera left at the checkpoint. The airport shut down, between 5,000 and 10,000 people were evacuated and Delta and other airlines lost millions of dollars.

The ban on guns at airports also makes legal sense.

When the U.S. Supreme Court last month affirmed the constitutional right to have guns for self-defense in the home, it took special care to stipulate that guns could be still be banned in "sensitive places." Certainly, the world's busiest airport qualifies as a sensitive place.

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It is important to remember that Hartsfield-Jackson Airport has had problems keeping guns off of airplanes since 9/11, let alone keeping them out of the terminals.

It is also important to note that simply being a concealed carry permit-holder is no guarantee that someone is a "law-abiding gun owner" - or even that they're competent to own a weapon.

Since May 29, NewsWatch has collected some 25 incidents of accidents, crimes and other misdeeds by concealed carry permit-holders (including attempts to carry weapons through airport security).

Many have resulted in death.

And these are just the incidents reported and found in common news searches. Many others surely go undetected.