Northern District of Georgia federal judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. ruled today that carrying a firearm on MARTA justifies forcible detention by the police, in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed over the half hour long detention and disarmament of GeorgiaCarry.Org member Christopher Raissi.

Judge [...]]]> A Federal judge holds that carrying a firearm concealed justifies detention and disarmament!

Northern District of Georgia federal judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. ruled today that carrying a firearm on MARTA justifies forcible detention by the police, in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed over the half hour long detention and disarmament of GeorgiaCarry.Org member Christopher Raissi.

Judge Thrash also held that merely carrying a concealed firearm justifies detention and disarmament.  He wrote in his opinion that “possession of a firearms license is an affirmative defense to, not an element of, the crimes of boarding [MARTA] with a concealed weapon and carrying a concealed weapon.”

After Raissi concealed his handgun and started walking to toward the MARTA station, he had committed all of the acts required for the crime of boarding with a concealed weapon and the crime of carrying a concealed weapon.
As a result, Judge Thrash concluded that the officers had reasonable suspicion that Raissi was committing two crimes.

As a result, the officers were justified in using force to detain him, and the “officers were entitled to take Raissi’s handgun because they knew Raissi had concealed it on his person and would have easy access to it while they questioned him.”    The officers were also entitled to ask him for his social security number and transport him to a locked area out of the public view.

This makes carrying a handgun openly different from carrying concealed, as the officers seeing an open handgun bear the burden of having a reasonable suspicion that the person carrying openly does not have a firearms license.  Carrying openly on MARTA under this court’s ruling, however, would still subject one to detention and disarmament, since boarding the MARTA system requires a license as an “affirmative defense,” and not as an “element of the crime.” – [source]