U of Sioux Falls president sues Delta Airlines over gun incident, jailing
June 10, 2012 at 7:00 pm in Grand Forks Herald
The president of the University of Sioux Falls is suing Delta Airlines over an incident last fall that ended with him spending a night in a New York jail. University president Mark Benedetto was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm after an autumn trip to New York City. Continue Reading
It was his responsibility to find out what the gun laws were for the area he was traveling to. All he had to do was look on the internet.
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This is right off of the Delta Airlines website:
“If you need to travel with a weapon as checked baggage, you are responsible for knowledge of and compliance with all Federal, State, or Local laws regarding the possession and transportation of firearms. For more information about this regulation you can visit the TSA site”
It’s embarrassing that a university president would bring such a lawsuit. Sure seems as if he didn’t “do his homework”. I wonder if he feels that the students attending his school can make similar decisions about not doing their homework as well.
He’s going to learn the hard way that the jail time was a minor inconvenience, and that his own ignorance and subsequent baseless lawsuit are going to have possible career-affecting repercussions…
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As an educator, this guy should not be able to plead ignorance!!
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One of the big problems in traveling with a gun is that planes don’t always end up where planned.
I know a fellow who got diverted to Canada with his handgun. Wasn’t his fault that he was there. Canadians didn’t have much sense of humor about the handgun, which he did not conceal that he had it.
You also get lots of planes over a year diverted to New York. Say there’s a weather problem in Philly, the plane might end up in New York.
At the very least, for passengers not leaving the terminals, the terminals should be a zone free of local restrictions.
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It’s ok for resident criminals to have guns in New York. They’re criminals after all and criminals ignore the laws. This unjust New York law makes criminals out of law abiding citizens.
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The Second Amendment already covers this. Neither a State nor a business has a right to criminalize firearm possession.
I hope he wins millions of dollars from both the state and the airline as punitive damages.
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“I hope he wins millions of dollars from both the state and the airline as punitive damages.”
from the article:
“The lawsuit charges Delta with negligence, breach of contract, breach of good faith and fair dealing, and asks for compensatory and punitive damages of an unspecified amount.”
How was the airline negligent? What “contract” with him did they breach? How did they deal with him unfairly or not in good faith?
Seems to me that the airline and its employee(s) followed a procedure that they were given to follow. Why not bring a suit against the party responsible? The airline is absolutely not responsible for any destination city’s rules and regulations, nor are they “polled” by anyone to see if they “agree” with any locale’s rules and regulations. I’m pretty sure that if the crack legal team dug a little deeper, they’d find wording in the airlines’ contracts with any locale’s they serve that prohibits them from “interpreting” and/or “selectively applying” any laws or regulations they’re supposed to abide by.
Hence the not-in-fine-print-at-all wording right on the airlines’ websites. Anyone that cannot read and understand the meaning of a simple statement such as this….
***you are responsible for knowledge of and compliance with all Federal, State, or Local laws regarding the possession and transportation of firearms. ***
….isn’t a “victim” of anything.
Assuming the gun owner doesn’t “feel” that he has anything to be “concerned about” because he’s memorized the second amendment doesn’t mean he gets to ignore the first part of the statement about having KNOWLEDGE OF any federal, state, or local laws.
He seems to think that it’s the airline’s job to inform him of whatever the laws or regs might be. Ridiculous.
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