Asymmetrical Information

Mr. Bloomberg also said, "I don't know why people carry guns. Guns kill people."

Accordingly, to reduce deaths in NYC, the remaining legal guns in the city are going to be banned. The police turn theirs in tomorrow . . .

The problem is not with Councilmen being waved in, the problem is with allowing them to wave anybody right along with them.

I don't have a problem with Councilmen (and Congressmen) not having to go through metal detectors. They just shouldn't be allowed to wave anybody through.

If you want top security, you can't make any exceptions. You're either secure or not; just as you can't be a little bit pregnant.

I have an extreme problem with waving politicos through. The law binds all men, or it's not a law. Nor do I subscribe to the belief that politicians are less able than myself to blow people away.

So, from now on the time to pop a cap in a NYC council member is while he's standing in line waiting to go through the metal detector.
When will governments realize that shutting the barn door after the horse is out is not only ineffective, but often counterproductive?

HBChrist: It's thinking like that that has old people taking off their shoes at airports. The law binds all men, but it also should be practical. There are limited security resources, and they should be applied according to the threat involved. A council member is much more likely to be shot at than to shoot.

The US Marshals are allowed to have guns in federal courthouses; no one else can. See why that might be a good idea?

Security checks are stupid. If they checked everybody for guns in City Hall, the murder would have occurred outside City Hall. Also, the wands don't detect plastic explosives.

I have problems with the attitude that forces normal citizens to submit to this BS just because they are exercising their rights to participate in government. If City Hall attracts wackos (and I'm sorry, but one murder doesn't make a trend, so this isn't established), that's a sign that the political process should be reformed, not a sign that the government should start treating everyone, including council members, as potential psycho killers as soon as they step into City Hall.

a policy of not waving politicos through is a good idea for the security people

how would you like to be the new guy who doesn't recognize the dorky guy in a lame free corporate cap that says bloomberg?

To me this focus on the breach of security -- while possibly relevant in other circumstances -- had no real effect here. The killer was waived in by his own victim. They knew each other, walked in together, and spent time together outside of City Hall. Which means that the killer could have killed his victim just as easily in the parking lot, the sidewalk, the park nearby, or at several other times and locations. To the extent that others were put in danger, that also would have taken place on the sidewalk, in the park, etc. Security measures will almost never prevent acquaintance murders.

So while it is worthwhile to consider how to prevent someone from killing half of the City Council in the future, the security failure here had no effect, except for the location of the murder. No one would feel any better if he were killed on the front steps to City Hall, where, by the way, politicians routinely hold press conferences attended by several council members. So unless you want to institute screening of everyone who enters City Hall Park, there will always be opportunity for mischief.

Denise:

It's not thinking like mine that has old people getting their shoes searched. Just because a law is poorly conceived, written, or executed doesn't exempt people from the law for convenience's sake.

Yeah, I know "hoi" means "the" in Greek. But I think it still ought to be "the hoi polloi" in English usage. Omitting the "the" just hits a little too high on the pretentiousness meter -- at least IMHO.

"With au jus" is still beyond the pale, though.

What I don't get is, why was the neighborhood sealed off, and why were the bridges and tunnels closed, when the assailant was shot at the scene?

Hbchrist,

For the same reason that Congressmen don;t have to go through metal detectors when they enter their own offices they don't ahve to get a security clearence before thy recieve a classifed briefing from the CIA, because being elected representatives of the people of the United States, we decided that regardless of their background or their history, that they will represents us in Congress. The whole reaon there are metal detectors there in the first place is to protect THEM so that they can represent US.

Before they exempt anyone, they should look up the Moscone/Milk murders in San Francisco by a former councilmember who had recently resigned.

It is more famous for being a successful use of the "Twinkie Defense".

TomP -
didn't Eugene Volokh just cite the world's shortest joke - "Pretentious? Moi?"

Speaking of the Moscone/Milk asssassination, one of these days, I'd love to ask now-Senator Feinstein in a public forum: "Can you propose a gun-control law which could conceivably be enacted, yet would have prevented you from becoming Mayor of San Francisco had it been in force at the time?"

Dan White was an ex-councilman and an ex-cop. He'd have been exempt from nearly any gun control law, and would probably get a concealed-carry permit even in San Francisco.

Javier,

Congress is not subject to the same restrictions in D.C. because Congress exempts itself from nearly every law it passes. Regardless, imputing moral caliber or emotional fortitude into a person because of their elevation to public office is a bad idea.

Besides, how does that level of expectation get shrugged off when the representative gets voted out of office? Should they be forevermore exempt from metal detectors because they once served in Congress, or are they assumed to be a one of the potential nutcases among the masses because they are no longer a member of the august body of federal legislators?

They are only exempted from going through metal detectors when they go to work, in Congress, not anywhere else.

And nobody here said that getting elected imbues them with emotional fortituted or moral caliber. What does that have to do with getting elected to serve the American people?

"Pols excuse only themselves from the inconveniences of hoi polloi."

Yeah. OSHA, EPA, minimum-wage, and a host of other things do not apply.

Denise: "So, from now on the time to pop a cap in a NYC council member is while he's standing in line waiting to go through the metal detector." It's already happened - not in NYC or at a government building, but a year or so ago some Muslim nutcase tried to gun down the passengers waiting in line at an airport. It would have worked too, if he hadn't picked on El Al, which had people ready and able to shoot back...

The reason for making politicians go through the security checks isn't to improve security (they do far more damage to all of us with their votes than they could with a machine gun), but just to see that they suffer from the same inconveniences they impose on the rest of us.

I have definitely seen pilots going through security checkpoints along with the passengers. This is a silly rule - they can't carry a nail file, but they get the keys to a weapon of mass destruction!

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