Gun Owners Beware Of Maryland

Maryland governor Martin O'Malley is often mentioned as a leading democrat presidential candidate in 2016.

After Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is one of the most talked-about potential candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.

The two-term governor reiterated Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that he's considering the opportunity, but his attention is mostly on his current job.

However, if this is any indication of how things are done in his state, we can only hope and pray that he doesn't get anywhere near the White House.

John Filippidis is a Florida resident. He is licensed to carry a concealed firearm in that state. By all accounts he is careful and conscientious, locking his pistol in a safe at his Florida home when he's not carrying it.

Around Christmas time Filippidis took his family to New Jersey for the holidays and a family wedding. He left his pistol locked up in the safe in Florida.

...The state of Florida might have codified his Second Amendment rights, but he knew he’d be passing through states where recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions affirming the rights of individuals to keep and bear arms have been met by hostile legislatures and local officials.

“I know the laws and I know the rules,” Filippidis says. There are, after all, ways gun owners can travel legally with firearms through hostile states. “But I just think it’s a better idea to leave it home.”

So there the Filippidises were on New Year’s Eve eve, southbound on Interstate 95 — John; wife Kally (his Gulf High sweetheart); the 17-year-old twins Nasia and Yianni; and 13-year-old Gina in their 2012 Ford Expedition — just barely out of the Fort McHenry Tunnel into Maryland, blissfully unarmed and minding their own business when they noticed they were being bird-dogged by an unmarked patrol car. It flanked them a while, then pulled ahead of them, then fell in behind them.

“Ten minutes he’s behind us,” John says. “We weren’t speeding. In fact, lots of other cars were whizzing past.”

Finally the patrol car’s emergency lights come on, and it’s almost a relief. Whatever was going on, they’d be able to get it over with now. The officer — from the Transportation Authority Police, as it turns out, Maryland’s version of the New York-New Jersey Port Authority — strolls up, does the license and registration bit, and returns to his car.

According to Kally and John (but not MTAP, which, pending investigation, could not comment), what happened next went like this:

Ten minutes later he’s back, and he wants John out of the Expedition. Retreating to the space between the SUV and the unmarked car, the officer orders John to hook his thumbs behind his back and spread his feet. “You own a gun,” the officer says. “Where is it?”

“At home in my safe,” John answers.

“Don’t move,” says the officer.

Now he’s at the passenger’s window. “Your husband owns a gun,” he says. “Where is it?”

First Kally says, “I don’t know.” Retelling it later she says, “And that’s all I should have said.” Instead, attempting to be helpful, she added, “Maybe in the glove [box]. Maybe in the console. I’m scared of it. I don’t want to have anything to do with it. I might shoot right through my foot.”

The officer came back to John. “You’re a liar. You’re lying to me. Your family says you have it. Where is the gun? Tell me where it is and we can resolve this right now.”

Of course, John couldn’t show him what didn’t exist, but Kally’s failure to corroborate John’s account, the officer would tell them later, was the probable cause that allowed him to summon backup — three marked cars joined the lineup along the I-95 shoulder — and empty the Expedition of riders, luggage, Christmas gifts, laundry bags; to pat down Kally and Yianni; to explore the engine compartment and probe inside door panels; and to separate and isolate the Filippidises in the back seats of the patrol cars.

Ninety minutes later, or maybe it was two hours — “It felt like forever,” Kally says — no weapon found and their possessions repacked, the episode ended ... with the officer writing out a warning.

“All that time, he’s humiliating me in front of my family, making me feel like a criminal,” John says. “I’ve never been to prison, never declared bankruptcy, I pay my taxes, support my 20 employees’ families; I’ve never been in any kind of trouble.”

Face red, eyes shining, John pounds his knees. “And he wants to put me in jail. He wants to put me in jail. For no reason. He wants to take my wife and children away and put me in jail. In America, how does such a thing happen? ... And after all that, he didn’t even write me a ticket.”

So many questions:

How did the cop know Filippidis owned a gun? (Big Brother, anyone...?)

Why did the cop pull Filippidis over? (Out of state plates ... run them ... cross-reference to a database of gun owners...)

Wasn't that 'probable cause' pretty flimsy? (Damn right it was. Because his wife doesn't know where her husband's pistol is, that gives the cops the right to search the car and passengers? I call Bullshit.)

If Chris Christie gets castigated for creating an atmosphere where his subordinates feel free to bully political opponents, shouldn't Martin O'Malley be held to the same standard regarding the Gestapo-like behavior of his state cops?

Enquiring minds want to know...