Ridiculous: Allowing Guns at Atlanta’s Harstfield-Jackson International Airport

There is a new gun law in Atlanta (Georgia) that allows “Georgians with carry permits
to tote guns into restaurants that sell alcohol, onto public
transportation and, supporters say, into the airport.”

This means starting July 1st 2008 (when the law comes into effect), people can carry concealed weapons into the non-secure areas (before TSA Checkpoint) of world’s busiest airport with over 245,000 passengers passing through the airport a day.

1st Question – Why would you like to carry a gun into an airport?
Maybe you are scared that airport is a dangerous place and while you are dropping off or picking up your loved ones, you might need some self defense. But wait, so far this year there have been only 19 people arrested at Atlanta’s airport of which 16 were for larceny, 2 for auto theft and 1 for aggravated assault with a knife on a police officer. So, for the busiest airport in the world it does sound like one of the safest places in Atlanta?

2nd Question – Does an armed citizen make an airport safer?
There are already enough guns at the airport in the hand of law enforcing police officers who are trained for different situations and proper weapon use, that the safety should not be an issue.

3rd Question – Doesn’t the airport get less safer?
“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.” (from here)

“To Bearden, GeorgiaCarry
and other supporters of the gun lobby, more guns in more places means
more safety. More guns in airports, more guns in restaurants, more guns
on MARTA, and even more guns on college campuses, as if public safety
is enhanced by drunk, emotionally unstable 18-year-olds with guns in
dormitories or at frat parties.

Like airports, college campuses are among the safest places in
America, even in the wake of tragedies such as that at Virginia Tech.
In fact, 93 percent of the crimes against college students occur off
campus. The same holds true for elementary, middle and high schools;
less than 1 percent of gun incidents involving children occur either at
school or going to or from school. It’s when they return home to their
neighborhoods and their homes that they encounter gun violence.” (from here)

I do not want to start a debate on gun control in US, but I think we should be a little reasonable in understanding the answers to questions of needs and consequences for a no gun-control atmosphere at sensitive places. We have already seen the school/college campus gun related problems, do we really want to cause one somewhere else too???