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“Mental lapses happen. Things happen. It’s an unfortunate mistake. Dwayne was not conscious that he was in school with a gun.” – Rev. James E. Giles rationalizing the arrest of SAFE Act supporter Dwayne Ferguson, Associates defend man who had gun in school [at buffalonews.com]

(h/t instapundit.com)

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124 COMMENTS

    • Nope. His friends aren’t poo-pooing the GFZ, they just know HE is an upstanding person and should be allowed the benefit of the doubt, unlike the rest of those gun nuts, who of course need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

      • Zero Tolerance=Zero Justice.

        Our law is supposed to be based on intent; not just on the action. This why laws that are pre-crime- (to criminalize an object(a gun) before any obvious acts of unprovoked violence have been committed) are a complete violation of any aspect of justice.

        So the homicidal maniac ignores the sign and comes to a place that is mostly a free fire zone; and any law abiding citizen is either helpless in the face of a mad man or in carrying a gun, becomes a criminal even if he is the only one that would have a chance to stop the maniac; the absolutely crazy part; if it had been a mass murderer and Dwayne had used his illegal gun to stop the mad man; by the law, he should be arrested for committing a felony.

        Gun grabbers; my head hurts trying to come to terms with the bizarre “feelings/thoughts” that allow a supposedly intelligent person to come to such delusional if not out right crazy beliefs.

    • Seems to me only obvious that if you are one of those august personages who is even ABLE to get a CCW in New York you should be good to go to carry in the presence of God himself, or even Obama.

    • This is one line that keeps being repeated. “I just forgot I had it on!” Seriously?? He works as a part time security guard at events & doesn’t KNOW he’s packing?

      • I gotta be honest, sometimes I forget I have a gun on my hip. Since I carry it every day, all day, once I’ve left the house, I’m sometimes not conscious that I have it on.

        However, my consciousness runs in the direction of “yes” rather than “no.” By that I mean that if you asked me if I had it, I’d automatically say yes, then verify it to be true (which it virtually always would be). Just the other day, I got distracted and left to run an errand without putting on my holster. An hour later, I’m walking through Walmart and suddenly become conscious of my unarmed status. It didn’t make me uncomfortable or anything like that, it’s just that I was acutely aware that I didn’t have it.

        Unless it’s poking me in the side because of how I’m sitting, I routinely “forget” that it’s there.

        • I have forgotten a knife in my pocket, forgot a spare mag in a pocket, forgot my mini-visegrips in a pocket. I have never forgotten I had a firearm on me. As soon as the PA announced that there was a lockdown because of an armed person in the building he would have checked his piece. Natural as breathing. “I forgot” is the equivalent of “the dog ate my homework”. He was USED to carrying there, he was there routinely and you can bet your bippy he had carried there before.

          No mercy for this leftard. They would give none to you or me, thats a f*cking fact, Jack.

    • Funny, yesterday everyone here thought it was perfectly reasonable that the guy who accidentally drove to Canada “forgot” that he had a gun in his car, and that he should be cut some slack for his lack of awareness in location and possessing a weapon.

      • There’s a big difference between having a gun on your hip and one in the glove box. Also, as far as I know the guy in Canada wasn’t a public advocate of the law he broke.

        • Responsibility is still responsibility. I feel that they are both responsible. If you “forget” that you have a pistol in the car, you have no business carrying one.

          Ditto, for the proponent of the SAFE Act who broke the law.

        • In the case of the guy in Canada he took a wrong turn and did not mean to enter Canada in the first place and when he got on the bridge he tried to turn around. This douchebag was walking around the school. Even if you buy his story about being so incompetent (why do liberals always claim incompetence when ever they get called out on their falures?) that he didn’t realize he had a gun on his body, there still is the issue of hypocrisy.

        • I would have to say that unless you have the world’s most comfortable holster it would be very difficult to “forget” you had a pistol on your hip/belt. And if you know of such a holster, please post about it here so the rest of us can check it out.

          Meanwhile, when I used to carry an S&W Airweight in a Remora it was fairly comfortable. I put it in the glove box when I was going into a post office once and only realized it was still in the glove box when I was getting ready for bed. That would have been embarrassing if I had actually needed it in the meantime. And it is the ONLY time I have not known EXACTLY where each and every one of my pistols is at all times, especially the one on my belt.

      • We would have been just pleased with this story if the outcome were the same as the O’ Canada story…

        Laws for Thee but not for me are complete horse shit…

      • In the Army a unit commander knows where 100% of his assigned weapons are, 100% of the time. If one is reported missing, total lockdown is imposed until it’s recovered. He’s responsible for each & every one of them.

        I know where 100% of my guns are located 100% of the time. If one is discovered to be misplaced, I turn the house upside down until I find it & think of nothing else until I do. Those guns are my responsibility until traded or sold (and then I keep records).

        “Positive personal control at all times” is the standard. Simple.

        • He was among local activists who stood with Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes last year lobbying for a law that would make possessing a gun on school property a felony.

          People are creatures of habit. Dwayne no doubt gets around via his car. It’s Buffalo. Why think that he did not follow his routine that day, as on any other. I will assume, then, that he carried his gun into that school every day for the afternoon program.

          “I’m sure Dwayne went into the school not thinking he had shouldn’t have the gun on him,” said Rev. James E. Giles, a friend of Ferguson and president of Back to Basics Outreach Ministries. ”

          As for the Right Reverend James Giles pointing out that Ferguson actually asked “why the lockdown?” and, when told there was someone with a gun, still refused to come forward, well….exactly.

      • Actually I missed that thread. Had he not admitted that HE moved his wife’s pistol into a hidden position in the car and then continued driving said car I would have more sympathy for him. That said, he was not entering Canada. Once he explained that to CBP they should have turned him around, admonished him to more familiar with his route in future, and sent him on his way. There is all manner of stupid going on in that case.

      • The Justice Brothers will leap into action to support this downtrodden, abused, misunderstood Man Of Color. You bet’chya, skippy, just as soon as they figure out who they can MauMau into giving them bags-O-money for their valuable time, that is.

  1. He not only carried the gun but made a conscious decision not to tell anyone (especially the police) when it became clear they were looking for someone with a gun in the school. If at that point he didn’t realize he was carrying, he’s a fool but he made the decision to just shut up and try to ride it out.

    Simple case, just follow the law. Anything else is BS.

    • No, not a simple case. First, the SAFE Act is not a simple law to follow, and continues to be plagued with difficulties and challenges. Despite that reality, this man brought a gun onto school grounds in violation of the law. Given this man’s propensity to be an upstanding citizen and help the community, his friends and colleagues are defending him.

      So a guy who seems like a decent chap other than being anti gun fall afoul of the law that he helped to pass. To me, that’s a clear indication that both school GFZ’s and the SAFE Act are BS. Patriots might even go so far as to cheer this man for violating an unconstitutional law.

      If the DA prosecutes to the full extent of the law, then they have imprisoned a man who did not do any harm. If the man gets a vastly reduced sentence, he could set a precedent. Since this “gun nut” carried a gun onto school property without actually harming anyone, he puts a whole can of worms into effect. God forbid, other lowly civilians could also carry on school property without immediately turning into Adam Lanzas.

      This guy is an inadvertent gun rights martyr.

      • Agreed. I would like to see them reduce this to community service, (which apparently he already does), and no loss of his gun rights.
        That would be an excellent precedent.

        • Hell no, this DB should lose his gun privileges (they aren’t rights in NY, and are in fact less so thanks his efforts), if for no other reason than being the hypocritical twat that he is. Anyone who campaigns to disarm law abiding citizens should be the first to be disarmed.

        • You’re dreaming. Not this soon after the SAFE Act was enacted. Cuomo & company need bodies on crosses to set an example for the common folk.

        • Anon, no matter where you are, the natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms does NOT go away, even in New York. All that has happened there is that the heavy, hob-nailed boot of the local tyranny has placed itself on the neck of New Yorkers and (temporarily) prevented them from exercising that right. This situation will exist ONLY until the people of New York find a way to throw off this oppression.

          The RIGHT remains even when the MIGHT of the state is turned full-force against it.

        • Mr Ferguson was one of the loudly vocal proponents of this sh*t, so that hobnailed boot needs rammed up his ass for this. THEN, and only then, when he is sitting his ass in prison does SAFE get thrown out. Burn his ass down with the law he helped ram down gun owners throats.

        • CT State Constitution, SEC. 15: Every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state.

          And yet.

          And yet.

          Even those who double-registered their scary black guns can’t shoot them at the local range because the incompetent jackboots haven’t returned the registration certificates yet, and won’t give an estimate when it will happen.

      • Yes, its tempting to come down on this fool because he got caught by his own law. He is a closet gun rights person. Its also tempting to expect special treatment for this Black person, we all know how the knockout game prosecutions went. I don’t see him as the “good person” like you, looks more like a POS hypocrite to me, Randy

      • You’re a fool if you think letting this guy off would become a precedent for ignoring the unconstitutional law. To be a martyr you have to suffer. Let him spend the next 4 years in prison and be a rallying call for repeal. Otherwise it’s just another example of one set of rules for the ruling class and another for the country class.

        • It won’t be a precedent, only someone that was allowed to skate.

          This isn’t even a SAFE violation as it was the law long before the SAFE Act was passed.

          Having the law be in place to prosecute in a selective manner is BS – changing it should be a goal but selective enforcement of an existing law is BS because it lets some folks skate while others will bear the full brunt of the law. Typically based on political connections and not intent of the accused or “common sense”.

        • The best result that could come of this is that every time someone is busted on this Gun Free School Zone crap their defense attorney should jump up and LOUDLY proclaim, “But what about Mr. Dwayne Ferguson, HE wasn’t prosecuted for this! We demand equal protection under the law!”

      • A possessory crime does not require intent. There are possible defenses, but “I forgot I had it on me” is not one of them.

      • Agreed. Though anyone honest would admit to a feeling of schadenfreude at seeing anti-gun folks hoist on their own petard, the fact remains that anyone who is prosecuted for violation of a bad law is being done an injustice, no matter their personal politics.

      • The Safe Act did not create the law disallowing guns in schools, it only increased the penalties. You think this guy happened to get caught the first time he ‘inadvertently’ carried a gun where he’s not supposed to, breaking the law for which he advocated? Doubt it.

  2. Wow! So, let me get this straight…if “I forgot! I forgot I had a gun on my person when I went into that “Gun Free School Zone” and sent everybody there into a screaming panic and lockdown…So excusszzze me! Mr Police Officers!” It’s all good, according to this guy, because…well Sh*t happens due to occasional mental lapse!

    Nope. I don’t think I’ll be trying that one out. Thanks, anyway….

    This just goes to show how corrupt the thinking of the “Obama’s above the law” emboldened liberals are in this country today and why we need to vote them out of Congress in November, and the White House in 2016.

    • That would be a lot easier if Bloomberg wasn’t buying off the “vote counters”. I mean really…they were celebrating a win before all the votes were in. How could Obama win when Romney got every state except Cali/Illinois/Michigan/NY/NJ?

      • It’s the Electoral College. The 5 States you noted comprise 134 Electoral College Votes, Throw in Florida and Pennsylvania (which Obama won) and you’ve got 183, which is more than half the 270 needed to win the Election. Obama won a bunch of other States and got 332, whereas Romney’s biggest win was Texas with 38 and a pile of States with 10 or less (total 206). California alone is worth 55 and New York 29, or more than double Texas’ votes.
        THIS could happen again in 2016, which is why it is almost more critical to get Conservative control of Congress in 2014 and keep it in 2016, because, if Hillary Clinton wins the Electoral College Vote in 2016 and becomes President, a Conservative Congress would be able to contain her Liberal Progressive agenda. If we get a Liberal Democrat President and Liberal Democrat Controlled Congress in 2016…well…”it will be ugly” might be a severe understatement.
        Obama won 51.1% of the Popular Vote (Romney 47.2%), but a “landslide” in the Electoral College.

  3. As a black man I can honestly say, “That was not the first time that black man entered the school with a gun on him. He knows the law. Hell, him helped promote it. But he chose to break it, anyway. hmm.

    • It is right up there with the actor who played McGruff the anti-Crime Dog getting busted for running a grow house that also contained weapons. “Take a Bite Out of Crime.” Then pass the spliff.

  4. IMHO THIS is the difference between Pro 2a and ANTIS . WE who support a persons rights don’t demand that every body has to carry or own but, the antis demand that everybody ( EXCEPT them) should not have the right. They believe THEY (the holier than thou) are the best and most fit to do as they please. HYPOCRITES the lot of them!

    • Thank you for pointing this out. None of the TV talking heads ever make this point. Pro-gunners aren’t trying to impose their will on others (If you don’t want to carry, then don’t! But I’m going to carry whether or not you do) – anti-gunners ARE trying to impose their will on others ( but not themselves, of course).

  5. Maybe the NY group that is trying to overturn SAFE act can use this incident as an example of how out of control this law really is…

    • This would be somewhat effective, Ray, if it were actually the SAFE act that he violated. It would appear that the issue here is the Gun Free School Zone act perpetrated by Bush Sr.

      I am a life long (R), but at this point I can agree, on this one point only, with Jesse Jackson Sr. – “STAY OUT THE BUSHES!” You feel me, Jeb?

      • False; that federal act exempts persons with a permit. He ran afoul of § 265.01-a (NY Penal code) which does not exempt permit-holders.

        • The federal law bans firearms on school property EXCEPT where allowed by state law, which makes it stupid and redundant, but what else do you expect from the federal government. Mr. Ferguson will be prosecuted (hopefully) by the state, unless Eric Holder decides to get involved.

  6. I find it alarming how liberals make excuses either for themselves or for those they like in order to justify their innate stupidity…

    • To be fair, extremests on both sides (liberals and conservatives) do this. The fault is more with the extremeness of the position than the actual position itself. People who can see both sides of an issue and make a rational decison on the merits rather than on emotion are less likely to fall onto this trap.

      • What laws do conservatives (as opposed to Republicans) support that trap otherwise well meaning people into committing felonies?

        • In his defense (YEs, I will stand up for Rush Limbaugh), he was addicted to Oxycodone which was originally prescribed by a doctor for severe back pain. Conservatives stood up for him because he was medically addicted, NOT a recreational user just looking to get high.

          And if you don’t think he was punished for this lapse keep in mind that he is now 100% deaf in both ears as a result of the Oxy abuse. Sorry if you don’t agree with him or like him, but he was never just some low-life street punk interested in getting a fix or a pampered Liberal rich kid who thinks the laws don’t apply when he wants a drug-induced good time to counter-act the awful angst of being forced to live in America.

        • Drug laws were introduced by progressives in 1906. I suppose the old ‘tough on crime’ Republicans should share some of the blame for the ‘War on Drugs’ and the subsequent militarization of the civilian police, but Nixon was no conservative. Conservatives have always been compassionate toward addicts. And they tend to be far more libertarian than they were 30 years ago. Anyway, I’ve never heard anyone use the excuse that they didn’t know it was a crime to carry a pound of heroin into a school, so I don’t see how the nation’s drug laws are anything like the nation’s firearms laws.

      • Ah yes; the balancing of the states interest in deciding how much our rights (privileges) should be balanced with the states interest in preserving the public (It’s own control of the public) safety.

        Freedom; Jim; means not having to ask permission of the state to practice a right; only a statist would want government mandated training and permission to practice a right.

  7. …”but we’re sure he didn’t mean the kids any harm.” Too bad. The law this joker supported doesn’t consider intent. It only concerns itself with whether or not you carried on school property. He did and he should get the book thrown at him. Make an example of him to show others what happens when you break the law. It might also be an example to others the next time they think about backing a law that could end up getting them in hot water…

  8. I’m finding the schadenfreude pretty rich here. It’s imperative that he is charged and prosecuted for his felony just like anyone else. Without equal protection under law the (NY state) government is illegitimate. Shut up and do your time Mr. Ferguson. Maybe in 4 years when they let you out you can be a vocal advocate for repealing the law you helped pass.

  9. He might be a jerk, I don’t know him personally. But I still support his right to carry a gun in school. He doesn’t need my permission or the government’s.

    • I agree with you. But I also believe in following the law. I’m all for civil disobedience but the purpose of it is if you get arrested while doing it you do the time and let the people protest and pressure the gov into dropping the charges. One can’t be a martyr without accepting the consequences. In this case the guy supported a law that he broke. He deserves to have the book thrown at him considering he had the chance to help squash it.

      • The thing is, the Gun Right groups should be taking the lead in defending him–the same standards should apply to him as to any Joe (or Jane) who finds themselves in the same situation. Let it be the gun haters that show themselves to be the duplicitous hypocrites they are, not the Gun Rights folks.

        • He was among local activists who stood with Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes last year lobbying for a law that would make possessing a gun on school property a felony.

          Gun rights activists, out of respect for Ferguson’s principles, should not defend him. It was Mr. Ferguson’s publicly expressed desire to render felonious the very act he committed. Please, respect his choices.

        • He is a “gun hater” and was instrumental, according to all his fellow “gun haters” in getting the SAFE Act forced into law. Burn his hypocritical ass to the ground using his own law. F**k him.

        • Gun Rights people who don’t stand up for EVERY person’s right to arm himself display themselves to be the same duplicitous hypocrites as the gun haters who stand for “rights for me but not for thee.”

        • There’s a difference between taking the high road and sitting one out because the universe has it under control.

  10. Sorry in advance for taking two spots but, this is an idea that WE should try.:
    Make a petition at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/ for the DOJ and the President to fully enforce the full weight of the law on Dwayne Ferguson, the man who fought for the SAFE (yeah right) act and then broke the very law he supported! He and the rest of his HYPOCRITICAL anti 2A ilk should be punished to the fullest extent of the laws they have enacted!

    • Goes to show: When the antis try to to take away the rights of others they also do it to themselves. I hope it HURTS real good!!!!!

  11. Maybe the law is bigoted & unfairly targets this Black guy? No? I didn’t think so. It’s a real bitch when your ankle gets caught in your own “bear” trap. I predict the felony charges will be amended so he can keep his gun, its dangerous out there you know, ya think. Nothing left to do now but sit back & watch the circus, Randy

  12. “Was not conscious he was in a school with a gun…”

    Yeah I just forgot that buildings with the word school on the front aren’t Macdonalds

  13. What I find most amusing about this is that some of the people defending him are making the same arguments people make against gun free zones.
    “He was in a position to help the police!” “He has no ill intent towards the kids!” “He’s well known here, not a person you’d expect to maliciously carry a gun into a school!”
    Huh, you mean a lawfully carrying citizen isn’t a threat to school safety? Imagine that.

  14. Funny how they convinced this guy to support the SAFE act yet somehow he did not believe it applied to him. He says he didn’t know he had the gun, but that is horse shit if it was printing large enough for someone to call 911. He never told the police he had the gun either, they had to search him.

    I once brought a very small spyderco folder to school by accident in my gym bag. It fell out in the locker room and everyone went “Ooooooooooooooh” but nobody ratted me out, just stuffed it away until I went home. I can’t imagine bringing a loaded gun with me anywhere by accident, not on my person.

    I would love to feel sorry for the guy, say he should be there every day with that gun… but clearly he shouldn’t be. He is an arrogant, two faced bastard who thinks he and his will still carry when “the other” is disarmed, and that is just messed up.

    • As someone above mentioned, he probably carried into the afterschool programs regularly. If he did, and someone knew about it, perhaps they reported him knowing he would be carrying as he always does. Why report him, I don’t know; Spite, revenge, genuine concern, something, but someone called the school and the police to tell them about it.
      If he routinely carried into the school, he likely had the gun well concealed and carried with it a mindset of ‘if no one knows, it’s not a problem’. Problems arose when the lockdown came, which provides two scenarios for why he didn’t tell the police he was packing: 1] He thought there was someone other than himself with a gun in the school and didn’t want to be disarmed and vulnerable, or 2] He knew he was the one they were looking for and hoped they wouldn’t search him, avoiding getting slapped with a felony.

      ‘I forgot I was carrying it’ sounds like a lame excuse to roll the heat off his back. For someone who carries regularly, hearing that there’s a gunman in the school should have gotten him to think about his gun, by that point he would remember the firearm if he had actually forgotten about it.

  15. How do this guy even get a permit to carry? I thought those were pretty much nonexistent in NY State. The idea that someone with a carry permit supported this law is absurd to begin with.

    And why is it that we accept the testimony of clergy as relevant in legal matters? I’m a religious guy, but I don’t get all the ‘Reverends’ who speak out on legal matters.

    • They are buddies. What you want to bet this “rev” carries, too? And is a vocal opponent of 2nd A. And who did he vote for? What Party have they both spent their lives voting for?

      Use THEIR law to burn them both, and all the other gungrabbers. Use their law to beat the living sh*t out of them, cause no one who believes in the Constitution of the United States and of the states severally voted for this sh*t.

    • NYC permits are found in the same aisle as fairy dust and Pegasus feathers.

      NY State permits are there to be had once you get outside of NYC and its surrounding communities. You just can’t use it inside NYC without the city’s special snowflake permit.

  16. Will any of the gun rights groups publicly respond to this? And if so, how? Seems like an opportunity to educated, but damn is it slippery.

  17. Just went through the comments on this at Buffalonews and they are running 25-30 to 1 in favor of burning this booboo down with the law he pushed on everyone else.

  18. Yeah, he supported the SAFE act, however, let’s realize that his “crime” was in no way related to NY SAFE.

    Can someone kindly point out to me who the victim of said crime was?

  19. What I don’t understand is why NY law does not exempt CCW permit holders from the GFSZA. [Even California law provides for such an exemption, although sheriffs are given the discretionary authority to impose “reasonable” restrictions which, in some places, include a prohibition of carrying on school property.] Without such an exemption, it is virtually impossible to carry in any urban area without violation the 1000 foot restriction. Now I haven’t seen any maps for NY, but the ones I’ve seen for California (produced when open carry unloaded was still legal) showed that there was no way to cross town in any city in the Bay Area, Stockton or Fresno without entering multiple school zones. Same is true in my little town–I live within a few blocks of an elementary school, and if I leave the neighborhood, there is another elementary school, a middle school and two high schools within a 1 mile radius, all of which you pass within 1000 feet on any major road. The rest of town is pretty much the same story.

  20. SCREW THIS GUY. I say let all of his “gun supporter” friends pony up the $$ to bail him out, let him wait a year or more for trial, lose his business from legal fees and being shunned for being “one of them” with a gun, and then and only then, maybe have one of the top pro-gun attorneys defend this c**ksucker and score him an acquittal . . . . this is his Road to Damascus but he needs to suffer a little more on the journey first. . . . then other gun grabbers will see how they turn on their own and decide for themselves how to behave.

  21. Anyone know what firearm this guy didn’t know he was concealing? Was it a semi-auto? If so, I’d be curious to know how many rounds were in the magazine. Perhaps he violated two SAFE act laws he was instrumental in getting passed. 😉

    “… 911 received two calls about the incident, prompting the school to go into lockdown and touching off a search of the building by police and SWAT team responders.. . …”

    Also, I think he should reimburse the tax payers of Buffalo for the huge expense of the lockdown and SWAT deployment.

  22. My theory:

    -This guy carries in that school all the time.

    -On this day, he pissed off someone who knows that and that someone called the fuzz.

    -That someone is female.

    • Your powers of deduction are quite astute. Reading the original article it does seem a bit sketchy. 911 systems record the number and name of all callers. What you want to bet this one had a “hiccup” on these particular callers?

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