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Je Suis Charlie

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¡Viva Chávez!
César Chávez Celebration XVI / Celebración de César Chávez XVI
Saturday 31 March 2018 / Sabado 31 de Marzo 2018
Highlights from the record-breaking 2017 event at Circus Circus Reno

2018 Nevada Press Association first-place award-winner (one of three)

Busted at the Legislature
Fear & Loathing @ the Ledge
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-18-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 4-20, 4-21, 4-22, 4-23, 4-25 and 4-28-2017 & 10-4-2018
Expansions in blue. Much more follows. Stay tuned.

Maybe the following can save some lives.

For the sin of wearing a hat at the Nevada Legislature, I was 86'd from the Assembly chamber last week. What should have been a comical occasion, worthy of United Airlines passenger jokes, instead served up serious warnings.

As Congressman Ruben Kihuen began addressing a joint session in the Assembly chamber, a uniformed officer behind me said "Sir, would you please remove your hat."

I told him I'd rather leave.

I always object to objectification.

The fabled Man on Fire added "...for man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels. Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God. Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God."

BETTER CALL SAUL. Saul of Tarsus, former passionate executioner of Christians, went on to become the world's first and most famous conversion therapy case and best-selling author. Alas, the procedure was still in beta-testing back then and he apparently came out hating girls. Side effects, always those pesky side effects.

REALITY CHECK. It's good to keep in mind that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, wears a hijab in all those paintings and statues all over the world. The hijab has been banned in France. Don't know about the paintings and statues at Cathedral Notre Dame or The Louvre. Don't know if Saul/Paul ever met Jesus' mom.

BACK TO THE FUTURE. After shaking it off with security, I meandered by the press room occupied two Gomorrah South reporters. I related my hat story and one guy opined that only people carrying guns should be allowed to wear hats at the ledge. He noted that some unidentified lawmakers and others were regularly packing heat.

"Are you carrying a gun?" he queried. I said no. "Then take of your hat!"

Only then did I turn to notice another security guard.

He responded only that there is video surveillance throughout the legislature and demanded to know my business.

I said I was a Nevada citizen in a public building. He then insisted to know if I was done with my business.

Zounds. I was being interrogated.

SKULKING WITH INTENT TO LURK. I tried to figure out why I had aroused such suspicion. After all, I was wearing the official legislative male uniform, an undertaker black suit. Perhaps it was all the lapel pins promoting my proclivities: NAACP, Nevada Press Association, Nevada State AFL-CIO and César Chávez's United Farm Workers Union. Maybe my signature Greek fisherman's hat marked me as a suspicious character, skulking with intent to lurk. Perhaps I fit a criminal profile, as I am of olive-skinned Mediterranean descent. Perhaps security had been briefed to look for anomalies.

DRAWING A CROWD. I was apparently becoming an attractive nuisance. Or maybe security didn't have enough to do on a Tuesday. Two more guards soon filled the doorway about five feet from me. Big Sarge demanded my press credential. I informed him that it was my first day there and the credential office was closed. He ordered me out of the press room.

I was chilled by the faces of the armed officers, buck fever arousal like hunters ready to pounce. I was glad I was not a Sikh wearing a turban.

Responding to my subsequent inquiry, Legislative Counsel Rick Combs e-mailed that any public building employee, elected or otherwise, who has a valid concealed gun permit can bring firearms inside.

"Paragraph (b) of subsection 3 of NRS 202.3673 applies to the Legislative Building because we have signs posted at the public entrances that indicate that firearms are prohibited in the building without the approval of the Director," Combs stated. "However, paragraph (c) of subsection 4 also indicates that a CCW permittee (someone with a concealed weapon permit) who is 'employed in the public building' is not prohibited from carrying a concealed firearm while he or she is on the premises of the building even when the signs prohibiting firearms are present. Legislators are considered to be employed in the building and are therefore authorized to concealed carry if they have a permit authorizing them to do so.

"NRS 218A.905 specifically prohibits a person from possessing a firearm in the Legislative Building 'without legal authority.' I have attached a copy of NRS 218A.905 to this response as well. Possession of a permit to carry a concealed firearm is one type of legal authority that allows a person to carry a concealed firearm in the Legislative Building. There is no specific legal authority for a Legislator to open carry a firearm or to possess an explosive, dangerous device or deadly weapon in the Legislative Building, so NRS 218A.905 would prohibit a Legislator from doing so," Mr. Combs concluded.

The building has no metal detectors. Combined with unspecified persons in the building carrying guns, I understand uptightness. Somebody's gonna get hurt in that toxic environment. Eventually defrocked Assemblymember Steven Brooks, D-Las Vegas, was free to carry a gun into the 2013 session despite having made blood-curdling threats against Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-Las Vegas.

NRA supporter Lt. John Weinstein of Virginia's NOVA college described the dangers of civilian concealed weapons carriers in a tense situation: "At around 150 to 175 heartbeats per minute, you start to lose your peripheral vision, lose your auditory acuity and your body goes into survival mode...My hands are shaking...I don't know who's on either side of me, I have audio exclusion and now I'm going to take a shot? That chances are greater that you're hitting another evacuee," he told Rolling Stone. (6 April 2017)

Whenever somebody like a congressman is in-house, the ledge blocks off the adjoining street as they had done that afternoon.

Under such glaringly insecure working conditions, legislative guards are understandably on a razor's edge. It's time for metal detectors, better training and safety standards before something horrendous happens. And remember, as future Nevada Chief Justice Charles Springer said when he ran for governor in 1970, better pay begets better police officers.

As I left the building, a Republican lawmaker complimented my hat. If this column results in fewer guns and more security in the capital complex, I'll happily doff my cap.

No hard feelings guys. For the record, the business for which I came to Carson City involved placing flowers on the graves of my wife and step-daughter.

Requiescant in pace.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and first vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his comments are his own. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Since 1988, Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune, where an edited version of this column first appeared.

ONLINE EXTRAS —>

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THE GOOD DON. Nominations are afoot for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame. Time to ramp up for world-famous Tribune photographer Don Dondero. Here's the compelling case for his induction.