What’s with our 4th District reps?

By Neal Boortz

FOR the AJC

Call the EPA. Something’s in the water 
supply serving Georgia’s 4th Congressional District — and it’s been there for a while.

Could be di-hydrogen monoxide. I hear that stuff’s dangerous if you inhale it. There may be other reasons, but there just has to be an explanation for the moon bats the voters of the 4th send to Washington to represent them in Congress. You know — Cynthia McKinney, Hank Johnson.

Johnson is making a bit of news right now. He must have tired of waiting for Guam to capsize and sink into the Pacific, so he has chosen another problem to address —guns at airports.

Johnson has taken it as his personal goal to make sure that no husband can pick up his wife curbside at Hartsfield-Jackson if he has the means to protect her from a carjacking or some other assault on the way home.

Johnson is upset over a bill that passed the Georgia Legislature this year. Why Gov. Sonny Perdue hasn’t signed it with great flourish, I don’t understand. The bill would allow people to have firearms in their cars, if properly stored, on airport property. It would also allow people with valid concealed weapons permits to carry firearms into the terminal, so long as they didn’t try to get through security.

Johnson, in an attempt at some election-year newsmaking, has introduced a bill that would forbid a private citizen, concealed permit or not, from carrying a firearm onto airport property. This would include having that gun in the glove box of your car.

My guess is that sooner or later you’re going to see an editorial on these pages praising Johnson for his efforts, so I’m getting the first lick in.

Johnson’s bill would make a virtual sitting duck out of every person exiting airport property. Here’s why.

Several years ago the gun laws were liberalized in Florida. It became much easier for a law-abiding citizen with no criminal record to obtain a concealed weapons permit. Crime rates in Florida immediately started a steady decline. Predators fear a victim with a gun more than they do the cops. But the predators in Florida soon figured out where they could find victims who most assuredly would not have guns. Airports! They knew that tourists getting off flights at Miami International would be unarmed, so the predators staked out car rental agencies and started robbing tourists as they drove their rental cars into the city. They would bump the rental car. The tourist would think that he’s been in an accident and stop. The thugs would then relieve the tourist family of everything they had that might be valuable.

Johnson, in establishing a gun-free zone around Hartsfield-Jackson, will simply be creating a happy hunting ground for Atlanta’s finest predators. If the car is leaving Hartsfield-Jackson, there’s no gun inside. Let’s follow them to see if a good carjacking opportunity presents itself!

No, I’m not saying this will be a daily occurrence. It will happen though, and for what? To address a nonexistent problem?

The people who would be carrying guns into the nonsecure areas of Hartsfield-Jackson would be carry permit holders. Statistically these people have been shown to be among the most law-abiding of Americans. Anyone who wanted to carry a gun into an airport for nefarious purposes isn’t going to be stopped by Johnson’s grandstanding law. And if some maniac does start shooting up an airport, just stand me next to some redneck with a carry permit and a .38 on his belt.

And just what, pray tell, would be the problem with someone having a gun in their glove compartment in the parking lot? Do you really think those parking lots are oases of safety?

Oh, and Sonny. What’s the problem? Why isn’t that bill signed yet? Pressure?

From whom?

Listen to Neal Boortz live from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays on AM750 WSB Radio. His column appears every Saturday. For more Boortz, go to boortz.com