I am always very happy to be responsible citizen and member of the firearms community. I make myself and others that I work with available to the press to answer questions and to help spread the word that gun ownership and shooting sports are lawful, normal, healthy and fun.
I am very happy when news organizations seek out comment and then report matters factually and without unwarranted negative spin.
Over the years, ABC27 has been just that type of classical honorable news gathering organization.
Yesterday, they did a story on the 9th circuit case that we covered in great detail in yesterday’s blog: Medical Marijuana 9th Circuit Court Opinion-The Whole Truth
Here is the story by Andrew Forgotch. I found Mr. Forgotch to be a good reporter. He tried really hard to be totally informed on a complicated issue in a very short period. And, all in all, he did a very good job. You can see the story below:
And here is the text of the story: http://abc27.com/2016/09/01/medical-marijuana-users-may-risk-2nd-amendment-rights/
As you see the story or as you read the text, your antenna should go up at the very end of it. We in the gun community are very very hyper critical of folks both within the community and outside of it when it comes to concepts and terms. We are the first to point out anything that is even in the smallest way incorrect. We do so even at the expense of harming someone’s good intentions. Without a doubt Mr. Forgotch and ABC27 wanted to run a good story on a topic of interest and one that is important here in the midstate. So we must keep that in mind. However, we rightfully cannot let stand an inaccuracy. So as this matter was published at 6:03 pm, I wrote a comment about it on their website within minutes (it wasn’t published because it had a link to our blog post so I re=posted it this morning). It said this:
This is Justin McShane.
90+% of this story is correct. Thank you for covering this important story. No one wants to be an accidental criminal.
That last paragraph is incorrect. I never said “it’s not clear what will happen to those who have open-carry permits and seek to use medical marijuana.”
Point of fact, Pennsylvania except for cities of the first class (meaning Philadelphia), as long as you are not a prohibited person one does not need a license to open carry. There is no such thing as an open carry license. Please correct your inaccuracies and do not attribute that to me, please.
A License to Carry a Firearm will only be affected if the courts adopt the BAFTE interpretation that being a medicinal marijuana user is considered a violation of18 USC 922(g)(3).
We in the gun community are very very hyper critical of folks both within the community and outside of it when it comes to concepts and terms. We are the first to point out anything that is even in the smallest way incorrect. We do so even at the expense of harming someone’s good intentions. Without a doubt Mr. Forgotch and ABC27 wanted to run a good story on a topic of interest and one that is important here in the midstate. We thank you for it. Great story and wonderful effort. Thank you.
So thank you to ABC27 for the coverage on this topic. And thank you all for reading my comment here. Cheers.
Justin J. McShane