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So why did they go through his bag and frisk him exactly?
So why did they go through his bag and frisk him exactly?
Is this a good time to ask if I should open carry in Mass?
Wait, five people saw an umbrella with a samurai sword style handle and reported a rifle? Nobody reported a man with a samurai sword? Maybe he was carrying a Shootrite Katana? Is this a good time to ask if I should open carry in Mass?
On second thought, mistaking it for a sword...sure. In fact, I kinda want one now.
And this, 226 years to the day after local Massachusetts citizens first stood up against government oppression, and refused to give up their guns...
How do they say it? Never let a good crisis go to waste?Somewhere inside the state house there is a democrat legislator trying to figure out how to leverage this situation in order to pass more laws...
These IDIOTS are reinforcing this paranoia!
I graduated from UMass Amherst 2 years ago. Being such a liberal school, many of my facebook friends are antis. I figured I'd throw this news story up there just to tick some of them off but I was shocked. Not a single "what if it was a gun" comment yet.
Link to my status
Police said the umbrella, which had a samurai sword-style handle, did look like a rifle, and they didn't fault those at the Burlington Mall who had reported the man.
“It was interpreted to be a gun by five different people,” said Burlington Police Chief Michael Kent. “We are always telling people to be vigilant. This is what we want.”
“I’d do it all over again if this happened tomorrow,” said Kent, who said about 40 officers responded to the scene from his department, surrounding departments, the State Police and federal agencies such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
Chief Kent praised the man, whom he would not identify, saying he had helped to bring the crisis to quicker end by contacting police. "We appreciate that he put an end to it a lot sooner," he said. The man still has his umbrella.
These IDIOTS are reinforcing this paranoia! The state police and/or a town PD is going to be sued for a MONSTER civil rights lawsuit if they EVER arrest someone on the basis of one of these calls.
I saw one of those samurai umbrellas on the T last week. I thought, "Cool, that guy has a sword. Oh wait, it's just one of the those umbrellas from ThinkGeek."
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. If it wasn't for the report from Roanoke, VA of a similar incident in a free state, I would just chalk this up to MA stupidity, but apparently the stupid is strong in this country.
I say, group buy on those umbrellas and we stage a protest at the mall. 100 NESers with samurai umbrellas.