Massachusetts Hypocrisy: Toll Collectors Toted Guns For Years

Allegedly with no training, toll collectors at booths along the "Mass Pike" (that's I-90, folks running east and west across the state of Massachusetts) have had sidearms on them or at hand. Now, Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Executive Director Alan LeBovidge, citing a concern about a potential "Wild West Show," has stripped toll collectors of their protection devices.

Union reps say they are going to war over this one.

This revelation begs a very serious question . . . why were the toll collectors armed? To protect the state's treasure? I thought you can't shoot someone to protect property? At least in my state you can't. I'm sure that in "Mass-choosetts" with firearms being even more restricted there is NO WAY someone can use a gun to protect property. The story says the guns were to protect their own lives if they were robbed.

So is the Mass Pike director seeing something else coming down the road? Was a news story coming about the double-standard and he wanted to fix things before his agency's policy was revealed? Perhaps he doesn't want these facts known if there were to be a push for liberalizing the state's draconian gun regulations? Not that it's going to happen any time soon . . . this is the state of Ted Kennedy for God's sake.

But its interesting . . . and smacks of hypocrisy.