Minn. Lawmaker Wears Gun Outside Abortion Clinic

[Joanne98]

(AP) Police temporarily confiscated the loaded handgun of a Republican state legislator who raised alarm when he was spotted with it holstered to his hip in the parking lot of a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul.

State Rep. Tom Hackbarth of Cedar, who recently won an eighth term, wasn't arrested or charged with a crime in the incident last week. He has a permit to carry a weapon in public.

But House Speaker-designate Kurt Zellers decided Wednesday to suspend Hackbarth from a leadership position. Hackbarth was slated to be the chairman of the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee beginning in January.

Hackbarth, 58, told police that he was in the area looking for a woman he had been dating and he wasn't aware of he was parked outside a clinic where abortions are performed, according to a police report. The clinic has a sign on its outer wall banning guns even by conceal-and-carry permit holders. A knowing violation of such a posting can lead to a petty misdemeanor citation and a $25 fine, but there are exceptions for parking lots.

Responding to a call from a clinic security guard, police officers pulled Hackbarth's truck over soon after he left the parking lot and approached his car with their guns drawn. An officer handcuffed the lawmaker as they sought answers in the Nov. 16 incident.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/25/national/main7088525.shtml

[valerief]

1. The irony makes me cry. nt

[rfranklin]

2. He was framed!

Damn those gun grabbers!

[Ezlivin]

3. "...[H]e was in the area looking for a woman he had been dating"

Once she realized she was carrying Rep. Hackbarth's evil spawn she immediately headed to the abortion clinic.

[TheWraith]

4. There almost certainly was no girlfriend.

He claimed that he had met her through an online dating site, but he couldn't tell them WHICH online dating site, or tell them where she lived.

[ladywnch]

6. that was my first thought too.... also sounds like a stalking incident to me

'a woman he was dating...'.......and what he doesn't know where she lives, her phone number, any means of contacting her????? he had to go 'looking for her'???? uh huh....

[Judi Lynn]

5. What an astonishingly stupid lie! Mind numbing crap.

So hard to accept the cops didn't file charges, and returned his gun to him. What are the chances ordinary people could tell such flagrant lies to officers and walk away from it?

http://blogs.citypages.com.nyud.net:8090/blotter/tomhackbarth.jpg

Rep. Tom Hackbarth

http://politicsinminnesota.com.nyud.net:8090/files/2010/11/hackbarth.jpg

http://blogs.citypages.com.nyud.net:8090/blotter/hackbarthvideo.JPG

"Tom Hackbarth goes looking for a girlfriend."
Rep. Tom Hackbarth's loaded gun costs him leadership post
By Hart Van Denburg, Wed., Nov. 24 2010 @ 1:15PM

~snip~
In case you missed it, a security camera caught Hackbarth parking his pickup truck next to Planned Parenthood in St. Paul. A clinic guard called the cops when he saw the pistol on the stranger's waist.

Police arrived, found him angry and confrontational, and took away his gun. No charges were filed, and Hackbarth, who has a license for concealed carry, got the weapon back yesterday.

He says he was trying to track down a woman he met online.

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2010/11/rep_tom_hackbar.php#more