A woman accused of bringing a gun to a girls softball game says she had no intention of using the weapon. Instead, Rhonda Smith claims she put it in her purse for protection.
Hmmm.... On the basis of this paragraph alone I'm inclined to side with Ms. Smith. Let's read on, shall we? Seems Ms. Smith became involved with an argument with another fan attending the game:
"This man was sitting beside me. He said, ugha! ugha! ugha! nothing. I said 'excuse me?' I said from what I gather you don't think our kids should score. Why?" asked Rhonda Smith.
Rhonda Smith was cheering her daughter's team when she says a fan on the opposing side began taunting her. "He told me you need to shut up."
I took the liberty of correcting an apparent typo, and the quote here isn't completely clear but it sounds like a man who was rooting for the opposing team told Ms. Smith that she needed to stop cheering for her daughter's team. It doesn't say just what Ms. Smith was shouting in support of her team but, unless it was liberally laced with profanity and/or she was shouting it through a bullhorn, telling her to stop cheering for her daughter just flies in the face of the whole purpose of having these events. Moving on:
Smith says the two exchanged words, then she went for help. "I was scared, upset. I was kind of angry that this team will do anything to beat us because we were first place last year and they were last place," says Smith.
I don't know if telling you to "shut up" qualifies as "do(ing) anything" but I get the impression here that there was more going on than just this incident. What happened next clearly shows that Ms. Smith felt personally threatened, and also feared for her daughter's safety:
Smith asked to have the man removed from the game but says nobody would do anything to help her. That's when she walked to the parking lot and picked up a case wrapped in a white towel. Inside the black case was a 380-caliber pistol.
Smith says she put it inside her purse, zipped it up and headed back to the game.
"I was thinking about the safety of my baby because like I said, I never seen this man before."
Predictable results followed:
But police say Smith shouldn't have had the gun at the game even though she had a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
"This behavior is not going to be tolerated," commented Lt. John Bradford with the Decatur Police Department.
Okay, police say she shouldn't have had the gun there. But was it *illegal*? If there was no law specifically banning firearms from that venue, then what she did was totally legal as she had a concealed weapon permit. Finally we have:
Smith admits what she did was wrong but says she never meant for things to go this far. "I'm sincerely sorry. I made a bad judgement call but I was afraid. I didn't know what else to do. I didn't. My life is over. My life as I knew it is over. I will never be the same again."
Rhonda Smith has been banned from all city park and rec softball games. The sheriff's department also revoked her pistol permit.
Saying her life is over is a bit extreme, unless she's now a total social outcast and can't show her face among the backward masses that would have to be occupying her home town for that to be the case. In which case I would suggest that she move as quickly as possible to a state and community that recognizes the right to self-defense. It is true, however, that she will likely be unable to obtain a concealed weapon permit anywhere else since this will be on her record.*
I do have one question. How did the police find out she had the gun? Was she searched or did she draw it while at the game? If she was searched, why was that done? If she drew it, why did she do so? Was she physically threatened? The article does not say. In this case, we don't know the complete story. If she pulled out the gun and started brandishing it about, then she was indeed foolish and deserves the punishment she got. However, if that were the case, I have absolutely zero doubt that it would have been mentioned prominently in this article. My guess is that she did not draw the gun, except possibly in a defensive situation. If she didn't, somehow the police found out about it. In any case, nobody was hurt. She didn't hurt anyone, she did no harm. She clearly felt that she and/or her daughter were in danger and she took steps to provide their defense should it prove necessary. I would need to know more to be more definitive. What I can say, though, is that if she didn't break the law, then she should not have any legal sanction brought against her.
* I have a friend who cannot obtain a concealed pistol license (which is what we call it here in Washington State) because, some years back, she was pulled over on her motorcycle in Arizona. The officer found a small quantity of marijuana on the motorcycle. However, although she was arrested, she was never charged, let alone convicted. Yet the mere presence of the arrest on her record prevents her from obtaining the permit.
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