Antonin Scalia: "I used to travel on the subway from Queens with a rifle"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Supreme Court Justice Champions Hunting

http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8G11RKO0.html

February 26,2006 | NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia fondly remembers carrying a rifle around New York City as a boy and says outdoorsmen should attack the idea that guns are only used for crimes.

An avid outdoorsmen who's hunted with Vice President Dick Cheney, Scalia spoke Saturday at the National Wild Turkey Federation's annual convention. "The attitude of people associating guns with nothing but crime, that is what has to be changed," Scalia told the audience of about 2,000.

"I grew up at a time when people were not afraid of people with firearms," said Scalia, noting that as a youth in New York City he was part of a rifle team at the military school he attended. "I used to travel on the subway from Queens to Manhattan with a rifle," he said. "Could you imagine doing that today in New York City?"

Scalia was criticized in 2004 for hunting ducks with Cheney while the Supreme Court was considering a case involving Cheney's energy task force. This month, a lawyer hunting with Cheney in Texas was wounded when he stepped in the way as Cheney fired at a bird. The nonprofit turkey federation is dedicated to conserving wild turkeys and preserving hunting traditions.

[MrBenchley]

1. Yeah, imagine....

Think how much better off America would have been if he'd have been arrested and thrown in the clink back then....

[bahrbearian]

2. "I remember carrying my AK-47 through the streets of Bagdad.".

What the Fuck?

[eppur_se_muova]

10. I thought rifle teams used DUMMY rifles ?? K&R

I remember seeing our rifle team members toss theirs around like old lumber. The mechanisms were totally fake.

on edit: Let's get this on the Greatest Page! Let people know this "Legal Scholar" is a few bricks shy of a load.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Now on CNN (AP)...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/02/26/scalia.hunting.ap/index.html

[aquart]

4. What year was that legal?

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. That is one scary guy.

[smtpgirl]

30. Scalia

is pretty much an asshole. Anyone watch him on C-SPAN last week, what a hoot. The audience made him look at his watch too much. After 2 questions he wanted to "duck" out.

[The Backlash Cometh]

31. I saw a recent picture of Scalia and he reminded me of a t.v. character

who played a slime ball love interest of Carla on Cheers. Do you remember who I'm thinking about?

[eppur_se_muova]

6. "Could you imagine doing that today in New York City?"

But don't you know EVERYTHING's CHANGED -- BY 9/11 !!!
Doesn't he listen to the guy he hired to be pResident?

[eleny]

7. I think he's a liar

I grew up in Queens and he and I are around the same age. I'm 59. My experience growing up there tells me loud and clear that he's a liar. No - make that a goddamnded liar.

[Steven_S]

15. I second that, eleny....

As a Bronx guy just slightly younger that you I can tell you that he would have been "disarmed" pretty damned quick.

I CALL BULLSHIT.

[eleny]

22. Hi Steven!

Yeah, doesn't this smack of some wiggy, macho fantasy? A tall tale to help him make a point. Like I said in a later post here in the thread, my dad would have done something and so would just about anyone else after fleeing the car.

P.S. Living out here in Colorado, I sure miss riding in between the cars or in the first or last car to see the sights. I remember when guys would go stand between cars to grab a quick smoke!

[oneighty]

21. I grew up in the wilds of Western NY

Do not get caught carrying a rifle down the highway if you are a kid.

180

[eleny]

24. Oh my god - Western NY is so beautiful

I remember the Finger Lakes area during the mid 1970s where a friend went to college. It opened my eyes to what NY State is all about.

[oneighty]

29. Yes it is. I was hatched in that area.

I am speaking of way west of there near Fredonia. I am right on Lake Erie.

180

[NYC]

33. What year does Scalia say he was carrying a rifle on the subway?

I'm curious about this. Can't imagine it was allowed.

[muntrv]

8. Then

why don't you go to Iraq, tough guy? Oh yes, it's because you're a chickenhawk like yo' boy, Dickie Deferments.

[tularetom]

9. So he attended a military school huh?

Did he put all that training to good use and serve his country in Vietnam? Or did he have "other priorities" like his duck hunting bud penis cheney?

[DemGirl7]

11. Was he hunting for rats in the subways or something???

I don't care what era this was in, but I don't think carrying a rifle with oneself in a New York City subway was ever considered NORMAL or SANE, thats just my guess.

[eleny]

19. Absolutely

At a big stretch, he was traveling out of Queens on the Long Island Railroad perhaps to some area on eastern Long Island to hunt fowl. And his rifle was in a case. That's the only scenario I would even begin to accept. But the subway? Not on your life unless he concealed it very well.

"Accepted" my fat ass. If my dad saw someone with a rifle on the subway back then, he would have gotten off at the next station and alerted the cop or token seller. That shit never flew except in Scalia's imagination.

[Coexist]

12. So he STEPPED IN THE WAY of Cheney's birdshot now??!

"This month, a lawyer hunting with Cheney in Texas was wounded when he stepped in the way as Cheney fired at a bird."

What a joke.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

14. I imagine Salon had mixed feelings about running that...

...they have the following disclaimer at the end of all AP articles:

"Salon provides breaking news articles from the Associated Press as a service to its readers, but does not edit the AP articles it publishes."

...so in this situation, they neither edit nor comment, but yeah...DAMN that Whttington for stepping in the beloved Veep's kill range!

:silly:

[Cronus Protagonist]

36. Actually, Cheney mistook him for a turkey

He wasn't that far off...

[lumpy]

13. Scalia must be getting old

before his time. I can remember when waving the 'red, white and blue' was done with some kind of pride. No sense living in the past, Mr.Scalia. "9/11 changed everything".

[AlCzervik]

16. yeah and i used to get on the orange line carrying a book!

so there!

[ewagner]

17. He and Cheney both belong

to this Wild Turkey Association

[bahrbearian]

18. As a hunter , I always feared people with firearms..

" I grew up at a time when people were not afraid of people with firearms" you never strutted down the street Sporting a firearm,, you put it some where safe, or disassembled.

[oblivious]

20. I carried my shotgun on the bus in high school.

A classmate wanted to go duck hunting after school and we couldn't get a ride, so we took our shotguns and ammo on the bus, and actually transferred since had to go clear across the city. I realize that may seem a bit odd these days, but I'm only middle-aged. It just wasn't a big deal.

[eleny]

26. Where and when the heck was this?

I'm really curious as I've been pretty adamant that Scalia is making it up.

You mean you carried your shotguns on the bus in open view? And no one gave you any "looks"? Just asking. I don't mean to try and start an argument. Since you did this, then that's it. But I'm shaking my head. If you tried to get on a bus in Woodhaven, I can't imagine the driver letting you get on.

[oblivious]

28. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in the 70s.

I felt kind of funny doing it, but my classmate did it all the time.

[DoYouEverWonder]

23. Oh no, Scalia went to the same HS has my brother

Scalia attended Xavier High School, a Catholic and Jesuit school in Manhattan.

http://www.stanford.edu/~tonyc/research/justices.htm

What Scalia fails to mention is that when he attended Xavier, military dress was required, so if he was riding the train to school with his rifle then he would also be in uniform and the rifle would probably be in a case. However, I really doubt if students normally took their rifles home from school and I seriously doubt that students were ever allowed to carry a rifle openly while riding the subway.

[MasonJar]

25. Why wasn't he arrested?

[eleny]

27. Because it never happened

[Cleita]

32. Sounds like a tall tale to me too. n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

34. Xavier High School

was a military school back when Scalia attended. All students had to wear military style uniforms and most students were either on the rifle team or the precision drill team called the X-Squad. Rifles were standard equipment for those teams. However has I noted above, I seriously doubt if any student would be allowed to carry their rifles in the open on any train in NYC, even back then.

[radio4progressives]

35. One of you all from Scalia's neck of the Woods should write a LTTE

calling Scalia out on this hyperbolic tripe..

i'm dead serious.... this guy is a cult freak.