Sixth Circuit Rules that Park Ranger Was Right to Detain Man Carrying AK-47

In Embody v. Ward the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that a park ranger did not violate the rights of a man who wore camouflage and carried an AK-47-style pistol across his chest with a loaded 30-round clip in a Nashville park.

The gun toting man from Brentwood, Leonard Embody, sued park ranger Steve Ward for detaining him at the Radnor Lake State Natural area back in December 2009. Ward held Embody while he investigated whether the gun was legal and whether Embody had a permit to lawfully carry it. The investigation revealed that Tennessee law allows guns with barrels of less than 12 inches in state parks. Luckily for Embody, his gun just squeaked by, with his barrel a half-inch under the limit. The stupidity of the Tennessee legislature to pass such a law allowing a man to bring a AK-47 into a state park was not at issue.

Embody also painted the  tip of his gun orange, an attempt to make the gun look like a toy. The Sixth Circuit said that given this, “An officer could fairly suspect that Embody had used the paint to disguise an illegal weapon.”

The Court also mentioned the concern raised by other park-goers: evidently one person raised his hands in the air when he ran across Embody while two other park visitors came to Ward to say they were “very concerned” about the man. Later an elderly couple reported that a man was wandering through the park with an assault rifle. All of this was further evidence, according to the Court, that Ward behaved reasonably when detaining Embody.

The Sixth Circuit said that Embody’s detention was predictable and that Embody himself suspected it might happen which is why he carried an audio-recording device on his person. The Court clearly felt little sympathy for Embody, saying that having worked hard to appear suspicious, Embody cannot later complain because park rangers took the bait.

Full opinion can be found here.

TN Guns-on-Campus Bill

As many have learned, there is currently pending in Nashville legislation that allows college professors and staff to carry weapons onto campuses of Tennessee’s public colleges and universities.  Here in Chattanooga that means at UTC and Chatt. State everyone from the grounds keepers to the Chancellor, from part-time adjunct instructors to full time coaches can carry concealed weapons at work and amidst students. In response today, campus police officers from Memphis to Chattanooga to Knoxville, concerned parents, and college professors paid a trip to the capital to voice their concerns and to stop this bill.


Jennifer Brooks' Tennessean article  describes the scene that finally culminated in what almost passes for common sense in the legislature.  The state House Judiciary Committee has decided to send State Rep. Andy Holt’s bill to a summer study committee. This is the legislative equivalent of a time out and such a maneuverer lets the bill in all likelihood expire. What one friend described as a face saving move which allows the legislation to wither away without the necessity of a vote on a polarizing issue.


Regardless of where you stand on other aspects of the second amendment, how can mixing gun toting staff and professors with student populations that average between 18-22 years of age be considered responsible?    Security is best left to the police. In the words of ETSU campus Police Chief Jack Cortrell “We train {officers} to take down the guys with the guns.”