A left-wing buddy of mine posted a link to this article on Facebook and stated “I can’t wait to learn if this was a permit-holding ‘responsible’ gun owner.”
I was able to quickly tell him “uh… no.”
See… as the law stands right now in the state of Tennessee, you can’t legally carry without a permit, which you can’t obtain until you’re 21, and the guy was 19. Oh, and he was carrying while in a Davidson County park, which, while we’re trying to change that, is currently illegal even if you have a permit. Throw on top of that that he’s carrying without a holster (if you believe the story), which is one of those stupid things that folks that are carrying legally tend not to do, and since he’s 19 and in a low-income high-crime area, I’d guess that he probably didn’t acquire the firearm in a totally legal fashion.
Of course, the story of “he was minding my own business, playing with my cat, when his gun fell out of his pocket, went off, and shot him in the head” reeks of choir boy syndrome to me. My guess is that he was a gangbanger who got shot while playing with other gangbangers, and well… he and his buddies “ain’t no snitch.”