Keeping Us All SAFE in New York State
Dec. 13th, 2018 01:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewdayAmong my errands this morning was a stop at the Home Depot for some interlocking foam tiles, along with a carpet knife to trim them to size so they'll fit the small platform I'm building for my basement airgun range.
I always go through self-checkout, because it's faster, and so I scanned my bundle of tiles and set them up on the counter with no problem.
Then I scanned my HD-brand carpet knife and all hell breaks loose. Immediately, all the lights in the store start flashing, a buzzer begins sounding, and a spotlight blazes down on the lane where I'm checking out. WTF?!?
Then I was told to "get on the floor and spread 'em" by a burly security chick who looked like she murdered her family before she came to work and wouldn't mind doing the same to me.
OK, that's a slight exaggeration. The part about the buzzer sounding. There was no buzzer.
Seriously though, the second I scanned my carpet knife a yellow flag popped up on the screen that said I had to show a picture ID to the attendant in order to make this purchase. Again, WTF?!? And this time, I'm serious.
So I said to the girl, "Why are we doing this?"
And she said, "Because you're buying something with a blade in it."
To which I replied, "So is this part of the NYS SAFE Act?"
Which she ignored.
For those of my readers who are not from New York State, the SAFE Act is a state law which makes it difficult or impossible for the ordinary citizen to own certain types of firearms while doing nothing to protect that citizen from those who would actually use them to break the law.
(Let me hasten to add that I'm not against gun control, per se. Just some of its needlessly restrictive aspects, along with some of the assumptions used to support it.)
However, upon stepping outside of the store and into the cold air of a December day in Central New York, I was able to more calmly reflect on the possible benefits of Home Depot's policy with respect to rogue carpet tools.
With a comprehensive database of people like myself, now available to authorities, they'll be able to quickly narrow the search for anyone suspected of maliciously wounding an innocent carpet.
After all, didn't Ani DeFranco famously say that, "Any tool held the right way can become a weapon?"
With that in mind, I know that I for one will sleep more soundly tonight...
LPK
Dreamwidth
12.13.2018
I always go through self-checkout, because it's faster, and so I scanned my bundle of tiles and set them up on the counter with no problem.
Then I scanned my HD-brand carpet knife and all hell breaks loose. Immediately, all the lights in the store start flashing, a buzzer begins sounding, and a spotlight blazes down on the lane where I'm checking out. WTF?!?
Then I was told to "get on the floor and spread 'em" by a burly security chick who looked like she murdered her family before she came to work and wouldn't mind doing the same to me.
OK, that's a slight exaggeration. The part about the buzzer sounding. There was no buzzer.
Seriously though, the second I scanned my carpet knife a yellow flag popped up on the screen that said I had to show a picture ID to the attendant in order to make this purchase. Again, WTF?!? And this time, I'm serious.
So I said to the girl, "Why are we doing this?"
And she said, "Because you're buying something with a blade in it."
To which I replied, "So is this part of the NYS SAFE Act?"
Which she ignored.
For those of my readers who are not from New York State, the SAFE Act is a state law which makes it difficult or impossible for the ordinary citizen to own certain types of firearms while doing nothing to protect that citizen from those who would actually use them to break the law.
(Let me hasten to add that I'm not against gun control, per se. Just some of its needlessly restrictive aspects, along with some of the assumptions used to support it.)
However, upon stepping outside of the store and into the cold air of a December day in Central New York, I was able to more calmly reflect on the possible benefits of Home Depot's policy with respect to rogue carpet tools.
With a comprehensive database of people like myself, now available to authorities, they'll be able to quickly narrow the search for anyone suspected of maliciously wounding an innocent carpet.
After all, didn't Ani DeFranco famously say that, "Any tool held the right way can become a weapon?"
With that in mind, I know that I for one will sleep more soundly tonight...
LPK
Dreamwidth
12.13.2018
