Leonard Embody has received notice that this Tennessee Handgun Carry Permit is being revoked. If you don’t know this guy’s background, I’ve written on it here.
This was his response to the media:
“I’m a private person,” Embody said. “I didn’t want to be in the spotlight. I didn’t want my name in the news reports.”
…which would be why he has gone to great lengths to bait law-enforcement with his antics, posting the results to every internet forum and blog he could find. His last stunt was to walk down the streets of Belle Meade in an orange reflective vest, carrying an 1851 Navy in his right hand.
Apparently, this didn’t go as well as he’d hoped. In response to this incident, the Belle Meade police department made the recommendation to the Tennessee Department of Safety that Mr. Embody’s permit be revoked. The text of their letter reads, in part,
This request is not made lightly and based on the increasingly unsafe methods of displaying and/or carrying a firearm by Leonard Stanni Embody over the past 24 months.
Leonard Stanni Embody has show by his actions that he is repeatedly engaging in behavior while carrying or displaying a firearm that compromises the safety of the general public, responding law enforcement officers, and his own.
Leonard Stanni Embody did carry the weapon in an unsafe manner, in an unsafe location and in an unsafe condition. Tennessee Code Annotated 39-17-1352 (a) (3) states that any actions by the permit holder that poses [sic] a material likelihood of risk or harm to the public will be grounds to suspend or revoke a handgun permit.
Recent incidents that have been well documented and published by Leonard Stanni Embody clearly show that his actions clearly are for his own benefit and do not represent the actions of a responsible citizen wishing to safely carry a handgun for legitimate purposes. [emphasis mine]
This whole situation begs a very sticky ethical question. Is it right that, in the absence of any criminal wrongdoing, Mr. Embody’s permit is being revoked?
That’s a hard one. There are those who will point out that Mr. Embody’s actions, while incredibly stupid and self-serving, were statutorily legal. The plain fact is, he took great care to act within the exact letter of the law. He did not commit any criminal acts, and although his judgment was questionable, I don’t know of his actions posing a clear and present danger to anyone.
So, is it right that they’re revoking his permit? I happen to consider the carry of firearms to be a core part of the 2nd Amendment, even if it currently only enjoys the status of a regulated privilege. So yes, I see this as an infringement of Mr. Embody’s rights. It makes me cringe to say it in his case, but it’s true.
In practical terms, he’ll have a hard time fighting it. First off, he’s representing himself. That rarely goes well. His attempted lawsuit against the Belle Meade police met with yawns, and further challenges are also likely to do so.
Second, his method of carrying in Belle Meade could easily be construed as brandishing. In the eyes of many, this would qualify as posing “a material likelihood of risk or harm to the public.”
Lastly, there’s the issue of constitutionality and precedent. It’s one thing to argue that the 2nd Amendment grants the right to own and carry a firearm for self defense (as has been established in Heller and Skoien), but does it apply to childish pranks? Notice the concluding sentence of the Belle Meade letter. He’ll have a hard time arguing that walking around a state park with an AK-47 slung over the neck, or down the streets of Al Gore’s hometown with a gun in the hand, constitutes “safely carry[ing] a handgun for legitimate purposes.”
He’s left far too much of a trail on the internet stating that the purpose of his behavior was to generate frivolous lawsuits. He’s said several times that he’s not interested in activism, so a jury would be posed a very dangerous question: does the 2nd Amendment, by any interpretation, protect Mr. Embody’s behavior?
If they say no, then what else doesn’t the 2nd Amendment protect? That could be a slippery slope.
I’d really wished that Mr. Embody had chosen to act more responsibly, or that he’d simply taken up a different hobby. His actions risk casting all of us in a dim light, and I don’t think he’s got any place carrying a gun.
But that’s not for the government to decide.
2 thoughts on “Reaping the Whirlwind”
Actually, it is for the government to decide. Leonard Embody has been using his gun to bully and intimidate others for years. When he posts online, he leaves out a lot of important details and blatantly lies & misrepresents situations.
He does, indeed, pose a material likelihood of risk to the public, law enforcement, and himself.
With a handgun carry permit, Embody will end up killing someone and claiming self defense or he will end up getting killed. Also, an innocent bystander may get injured or a law enforcement officer. He’s a very dangerous man.
Don’t you just love it when people put you in the position where you have to either defend something that is all but indefensible or compromise your principles?
What’s sad is that this guy knew what was going to happen. He had to know it wasn’t going to end well. But there he was, making a fool out of all of us, thinking that we had to back him because he wasn’t breaking the law.
Well, sir, I think we should cut this guy loose and not have any qualms about it. It’s like speech: we should all defend someone’s right to say something, but we should also recognize that when someone pushes too far they deserve what they get.
I see the two as distinctly separate situations, and when it happens I shake my head, say to myself that it’s just too bad that they did it to themselves, and go on with my life secure in the knowledge that testing the boundaries of appropriateness just isn’t worth it sometimes.