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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2014
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Colorado man wants to bring gun into post office
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tab Bonidy speaks with members of the media after exiting the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, within the CU Law School, in Boulder, Colo., Wednesday.
BOULDER, Colo. — Tab Bonidy carries a concealed pistol everywhere he goes. It offers him a sense of safety even in Avon, Colo., a mountain town so small its lone post office doesn't offer home delivery.
but when the 56-year-old architect drives into town to pick up his mail, he has to disarm, even if he's just running into the lobby. It's a hassle, he says, but U.S. Postal Service rules prohibit bringing guns inside.
A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday heard arguments in his case, which could impact security at the Postal Service's tens of thousands of facilities nationwide. The court met at the University of Colorado campus in Boulder, where the judges held the hearing so students could listen.
"It's just a lobby with a bunch of boxes, everyone in Avon goes there to get their mail." Bonidy said. "Even there, I'm disarmed and not able to protect myself."
Bonidy is challenging that rule in federal court, saying it violates his Second Amendment rights.
Though Bonidy was never specifically confronted about his handgun, he sued the Postal Service in 2010. U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch found the agency could not keep him from securing his weapon in his truck in the post office parking lot while he went inside unarmed.
But the judge also ruled that the post office could prohibit him from bringing his gun
into any part of the building.
Bonidy appealed, seeking access to the unsecured lobby. He said Matsch's ruling didn't go far enough.
The Postal Service also appealed, arguing the judge was wrong to let Bonidy take his weapon anywhere on postal property, even the parking lot.
Bonidy's attorney Steven Lechner of the Mountain States Legal Foundation told the judges the lobby is not such a place, as there are no security guards checking patrons, who come at all hours.
Bonidy, whose lawsuit is backed by the National Association for Gun Rights, and the postal service disagree over what constitutes a "sensitive place" where guns can be legally banned, such as a government building or school.
"Not every government building is sensitive. There has to be some criteria or the government gets a free pass," he said. "If the government prevents someone from defending themselves, there has to be some security. You can't
disarm a citizen if he wants to pick up his mail."
But Daniel Tenny, an attorney for the Department of Justice, told the judges that the Postal Service needs the blanket weapons ban for security purposes. Deciding which buildings — and which people — should be exempt from the rules would be a strain on resources, he said. One of the justices, Judge Gregory A. Phillips, noted that not all people who bring guns into buildings bring them to protect themselves. There have been several shootings at postal facilities and other government buildings in recent years. A former postal employee in 2006 shot five people to death at a huge mail-processing center in California before killing herself.
The judges will issue a written ruling, but it could take weeks or months.
Despite the argument over sensitive places, Bonidy agreed the courtroom was no place for a gun.
Dr. Edward Goodman, epidemiologist at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, speaks about the nature and treatment of the Ebola virus during a news conference at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas Wednesday, in Dallas. Health officials assured that the recent Ebola case in Dallas is being contained.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ebola patient in Dallas said he was from Liberia
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS — The first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. initially went to a Dallas emergency room last week but was sent home, despite telling a nurse that he had been in disease-ravaged West Africa, the hospital acknowledged Wednesday.
The decision by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to release him could have put many others at risk of exposure to the disease before he went back to the ER two days later, after his condition worsened.
Thomas Eric Duncan explained to a nurse Friday that he was visiting the U.S. from Liberia, but that information was not widely shared, said Dr. Mark Lester, who works for the hospital's parent company.
Duncan's answer "was not fully communicated" throughout the hospital's medical team, Lester said.
Instead, the patient was sent home with antibiotics, according to his sister, Mai Wureh, who identified her brother as the infected man in an interview with The Associated Press.
Antibiotics, which target bacteria, are generally ineffective against Ebola, which is caused by a virus.
A day after the man's diagnosis was confirmed, a nine-member team of federal health officials was tracking anyone who had close contact with him.
Ebola is believed to have sickened more than 7,100
"If anyone develops fever, we'll immediately isolate them to stop the chain of transmission." Dr. Tom Frieden, the CDC director, said in an interview.
Duncan has been kept in isolation at the hospital since Sunday. He was listed in serious but stable condition.
the team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was in Dallas to work with local and state health agencies to ensure that those people are watched every day for 21 days.
people in West Africa, and more than 3,300 deaths have been linked to the disease, according to the World Health Organization.
Officials are monitoring 12 to 18 people who may have been exposed to the man, including three members of the ambulance crew that transported him to the hospital and five schoolchildren.
Some of the people are members of his family, but not all, Dallas city spokeswoman Sana Syed said.
The ambulance crew tested negative for the virus and was restricted to home while their conditions are observed.
in anyone develops fever, we'll immediately isolate them to stop the chain of transmission."
TOM FRIEDEN CDC director
the children, who attend four separate schools, apparently had contact with the man over the weekend and then returned to classes this week. But school officials have said they showed no symptoms.
Ebola symptoms can include fever, muscle pain, vomiting and bleeding, and can appear as long as 21 days after exposure to the virus. The disease is not contagious until symptoms begin.
Officials said there are no other suspected cases in Texas, but the diagnosis sent anxiety through the area's West African community, whose leaders urged caution to prevent spreading the virus.
the man left Liberia on Sept. 19, arrived the next day to visit relatives and started feeling ill four or five days later. Frieden said.
Frieden said he did not believe anyone on the same flights as the patient was at risk.
The man traveled from his home in the Liberian capital of Monrovia to Brussels and then to Dallas, according to
a spokeswoman for the Belgium health ministry, Vinciane Charlier.
"Ebola doesn't spread before someone gets sick, and he didn't get sick until four days after he got off the airplane," Frieden said.
A woman at the Dallas apartment complex where Duncan was believed to be staying declined to answer questions Wednesday. The complex was cordoned off, and the management was turning away visitors. TV cameras lined the fence of the parking lot, and at least one helicopter hovered overhead.
Four American aid workers who became infected in West Africa have been flown back to the U.S. for treatment after they became sick. They were treated in special isolation facilities at hospitals in Atlanta and Nebraska. Three have recovered.
Passengers leaving Liberia pass through rigorous screening, the country's airport authority said Wednesday. But those checks are no guarantee that an infected person won't get through and airport officials would be unlikely to stop someone not showing symptoms, according to Binyah Kesselly, chairman of the Liberia Airport Authority's board of directors.
A U.S. doctor exposed to the virus in Sierra Leone is under observation in a similar facility at the National Institutes of Health.
CDC officials are helping staff at Monrovia's airport, where passengers are screened for signs of infection and asked about their travel history. Plastic buckets filled with chlorinated water for hand-washing are present throughout the airport.
Liberia is one of the three hardest-hit countries in the epidemic, along with Sierra Leone and Guinea.
The U.S. has only four such isolation units, but Frieden said there was no need to move the latest patient because virtually any hospital can provide the proper care and infection control.
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