Free Republic

A Blount County woman arrested on a gun possession charge while visiting New York City has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge, according to the Associated Press. Meredith Graves, a registered nurse from Louisville, was spared jail time under the plea deal. She pleaded guilty Monday to criminal possession of a weapon, according to the AP. Charged with felony gun possession, Graves posted a $2,000 bond and faced a minimum sentence of 3½ years in prison after reportedly requesting to check her loaded, .32-caliber handgun with police at the World Trade Center Memorial on Dec. 22.

The Manhattan district attorney is reported to be in plea-deal negotiations with Meredith Graves, the nurse who faces serious felony firearms charges after bringing her Tennessee-permitted .32-caliber pistol to Ground Zero, apparently unaware of the fact that New York declines to recognize out-of-state concealed-carry licenses, and that New York City declines to recognize even New York State permits. Ms. Graves, upon seeing the no-guns sign at the memorial, naïvely asked a security guard whether it would be possible to check in her pistol; this attempt to comply with the posted rules resulted in her arrest, and could well result in...

I fully expect that Meredith Graves will do time for having had the bad sense to attempt to exercise certain God-given and unalienable rights at a place in which they were famously attacked. While I have enjoyed the back-and-forth between Robert VerBruggen and the others on the legal and constitutional questions of interstate concealed-carry protocols, I enjoy them the way I enjoy watching a tennis match: The skill involved in the volleys is impressive, but it is only a game. Our Second Amendment jurisprudence, like our First Amendment jurisprudence, seems to me to be simply an unprincipled political fight....

On December 22, registered nurse and fourth-year medical student Meredith Graves, from Tennessee, was visiting the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. Ms. Graves, rather than abdicating responsibility for her security to others, was carrying a defensive handgun, as she is licensed to do in Tennessee. That, unfortunately, avails her nothing in New York. When she saw the "No Guns" sign before entering, she did her best to comply with the law, asking a security guard where she could check her gun. The guard directed her to a police officer, who promptly arrested her for violation of New York's laws...