There shouldn’t be any humor in this thread, but guys will nervously laugh at this the same way they nervously laugh at some poor guy who gets hit in the stones with a softball.
It is human nature.
This guy made a mistake about two things: The company he keeps, and the concept of traveling with a weapon. He apparently was not given the opportunity to learn from his mistake about the company he keeps. Many of us do get to learn without going to jail. He didn’t get that opportunity.
But if anyone owns a weapon in this country, it is absolutely essential before he ever purchases it that he knows exactly what can legally be done with it and where it can legally be taken, and under what conditions or restrictions.
That is simple self preservation, and in this environment of gun ownership, essential.
I think it is wrong. I think it is a crime that I live in a country where I am allowed to exercise my Constitutional rights one way in one state, but if I drive two miles and cross over a border into a neighboring state, I may end up in prison for two years and branded as a felon for exercising my Constitutional rights in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY.
That is wrong. We all know it, but that is reality.
Even what you two have said is borderline capitulation - You have shrunk down and accepted that this sort of outcome has reason. You have blamed the American for exercising his federal, country-wide constitutional right.
These laws, all of them outside of the constitution are illegal. And jail time is faced for breaking these stinking, illegal laws but that to blame him for this is ridiculous.
Your anger, as mine, should be focused squarely on the root of all of our problems - The state.
Granted, I am taking a road trip this year and I had to plan around visiting a few states (In other words, circumnavigating them) to avoid the penalty of jail. So I too have accepted this sort of crap but I’m squarely with this guy on this.
He kept bad company. He didn’t pay attention to these ridiculous laws. But Ultimately it’s his girlfriend’s fault, and the state of NY that he is going to jail.