How a Gun in a Purse Became a Permanent Ball and Chain

[The Legion]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/how-a-gun-in-a-purse-became-a-permanent-ball-and-chain/ar-BBmaXUg

 

 

 

At 27, Adele Langkil, mother of a 4-year-old son in Virginia, got her first extended break from her jobs as a single parent and waitress when her parents took the boy for a weekend. She spent a few days in New York.

Refreshed, returning home to Virginia Beach, she checked her bag at La Guardia Airport. It was 1985 and airline screening was not as rigorous as it is today, but the authorities noted that there was a handgun in the luggage.

“I was working as a waitress at night,” Ms. Langkil recalled Thursday. “A couple of people followed the girls home. I got a little gun. You didn’t have to have a permit in Virginia if it wasn’t concealed.”

 

For carriage of the gun, she was delivered to Rikers Island and charged with attempted criminal possession of a weapon and eventually posted a bail bond of $10,000. Appearing in court in Queens, she was told by a judge, she said, “‘This ain’t Texas; we don’t carry guns here.’”

A lawyer advised her that she faced one to five years in prison if she went to trial, but that the Queens district attorney’s office would allow her to plead guilty and get a year on probation. For a mother with a small child, it was hardly a choice.

Now 57 and a grandmother of two, Ms. Langkil to this day has been unable to outrun that arrest three decades ago.

She attended community college, was a member of the honors society and has worked her entire life. She is a notary public who is able to certify legal documents in the commonwealth of Virginia, and is permitted to carry firearms.

What she cannot do is fail to disclose her felony conviction. “I do clerical work and can’t advance, even when I’m qualified because of it,” she said.

Hired by one shipping firm for its accounting department, she was told a few days later that the job offer had been rescinded after a background check uncovered her conviction. The Norfolk, Va., school system was recently prepared to hire her for its collections department, she said. At a final-round interview, she explained to the superintendent that she had been convicted but had successfully petitioned for the restoration of her civil rights under Virginia law.

“He asked, ‘Did that mean you got a pardon?’ ” Ms. Langkil said. “I told him, ‘No sir, it did not.’ He said, ‘We can’t hire you.’ ”

A granddaughter was going on a field trip with her class and the school was looking for chaperones.

“The form asked if I was a convicted felon,” Ms. Langkil said. To keep from embarrassing her granddaughter, she pulled out.

Virginia has a program of “simple pardons” that grants official forgiveness for past crimes to people who have finished their terms and proven themselves in various ways to be worthy citizens. Two Virginia governors were sympathetic to her, but said they could not help: They were unable to pardon her for a crime committed in another state.

New York State offered her a “certificate of relief of disabilities,” which essentially restored her civil rights in New York State but says in bold type at the top, “This certificate shall NOT be deemed nor construed to be a pardon.”

She has applied to three governors of New York for a pardon. Mercy is a risky proposition for politicians at every level.

“Pardons are extraordinarily rare in New York State,” Donald D. Fries, director of the New York executive clemency bureau, wrote to Ms. Langkil in May, adding that they were considered “only when there is overwhelming and convincing proof of innocence.”

That’s not law; that is policy, and it conveniently shields governors from having to consider exercising their absolute authority to grant pardons, which erase a conviction, or clemency, which can lessen punishment.

For decades, prison and criminal convictions were national drugs that, it is now widely accepted, have been grotesquely overused. A number of federal judges are trying to untangle the knots that bind people for years after they got in trouble.

In 1985, when Ms. Langkil was convicted, 32,000 other people were arrested in Queens. Over the next 30 years, at least 1.1 million people were arrested just in that one borough of the city.

For a governor to fix one person’s needless problem by granting Ms. Langkil a pardon might, of course, mean that millions of others in the state could raise equally worthy claims. To ignore her and the others, though, is to let the dead hand of history continue to warp the daily lives of decent people.

[m16ty]

Just another good reason not to go to NY. 

 

Not that it's right what happened to her but she should have known better than trying to board a plane in NY with a gun (even in 1985).

[Mike.357]

ignorance of the law and all.

 

Feel for her though.

[LagerHead]

This is why I believe a person's rights should be restored when they are released from prison. If you have served your time, you have served your time. If you haven't, why are they releasing you from prison in the first place?

[SupaRice]

I only go to NY when business demands it, and that means I can't send someone else on my team. Big apple, no thanks. Every time I think about the hank song, Dixie on my mind.

[K191145]

Just another good reason not to go to NY. 

 

Not that it's right what happened to her but she should have known better than trying to board a plane in NY with a gun (even in 1985).

 

There's nothing in New York I have any desire to see, there's plenty of more scenic states out west to visit and people actually care about the Constitution, but not too far west in the land of transgender unicorns and organic lollipops.  

[bersaguy]

I have a former Son In Law that I am still very good friends with that grew up in the Bronx of New York City and he does go back and forth to visit family. He has invited me several times to go with him all expenses paid and I decline each time. Last time he ask and I said as much as I value our friendship I would not even ever consider going to New York for any reason so now he has quite asking and we are still friends and he still lives in Nashville. He has a TN HCP and leaves his gun at home when he goes to visit family.

[FortKnox]

This is the funniest part

“‘This ain’t Texas; we don’t carry guns here.’"

The crime rate of NYC in the 80s says otherwise pal. :p Edited September 9, 2015 by FortKnox

[10-Ring]

That's unfortunate and all but the situation could have been completely avoided by 1) educating yourself of the laws where you are traveling to.  I'm sure this was a lot harder in the 80's before wide spread use of the internet.  and 2) Not going to states that have ridiculous laws.  I love to travel but there are some states that I guess I'll just never get to see. 

[crossfire]

Everyone has to remember we are talking about 1985. Not many states allowed any type of carry. So knowing the laws from state to state, must of been a nightmare. Al Gore didn't invent the internet yet. Holding something like this over some ones head for 30 years is just not right.

 

Scroll down and check out the graphic on this page. Worth the read. Imho 

https://gunculture2point0.wordpress.com/2014/06/19/the-history-of-concealed-weapons-laws-in-the-united-states-part-3-the-rise-of-the-shall-issue-right-to-carry-era-of-concealed-carry/

Edited September 10, 2015 by crossfire

[Preacher357]

This is why I believe a person's rights should be restored when they are released from prison. If you have served your time, you have served your time. If you haven't, why are they releasing you from prison in the first place?

 

I couldn't agree more.  How can we justify denying 2nd amendment rights to free men in this country?  I thought the whole premise behind the rights granted in the constitution was that they were God-given and inalienable.  If someone is too much of a threat to society to legally own a gun, then they are too much of a threat to be allowed to roam free in society anyway, regardless of whether they pose a threat because they are a violent criminal or because they are someone with mental health issues.  Maybe if we stopped wasting all our time and money incarcerating thousands upon thousands of citizen for minor offenses we would have the resources to actually deal with real criminals and offer metal health assistance to those that are in need of help.

Edited September 15, 2015 by jascott

[vontar]

I needed this reminder.   Had an idea of going to NYC next year, just go see it once. 

Message received loud and clear.  I will spend my money where I feel welcome.