Oh! Lord!! [rolleyes]
[thinking] I wonder if the other guy could have escaped arrest if he had a concealed sword license?

[url]http://www.stpetersburgtimes.com/2002/03/14/Hernando/Spat_over_parking_spa.shtml [/url]

Spat over parking space turns ugly
Two men want the same spot at Oak Hill Hospital. A menacing cane and a gun later, one is charged with assault.

SPRING HILL -- There were no courteous words or gallant waves when two disabled men decided they wanted the same handicapped parking space outside Oak Hill Hospital on Wednesday.

One honked. The other shouted a profanity.

One unsheathed a sword. The other raised a 9mm handgun.

Bystanders in the crowded parking lot watched. They saw the man with the sword turn around and race inside the hospital.

A nurse dialed 911.

By day's end, Lee Damron, 48, of Rim Drive in Masaryktown, was charged with aggravated assault and booked at the Hernando County Jail, without his sword.

Richard Cavalier, 59, of Bayshore Drive in Spring Hill, went inside the hospital for his appointment. He was allowed to keep his gun because he had a concealed-weapons permit.

Authorities said the duel began after Cavalier pulled near a parking spot outside the emergency room around 3 p.m. Cavalier said he had partly blocked the space so he and his wife could get his wheelchair out of their van.

About that time, Damron pulled near the spot and honked. Cavalier said he indicated to Damron that he planned to park there.

Damron pulled in anyway, Cavalier said.

"We exchanged a couple of F-yous," Cavalier said.

Then Damron walked toward him.

He held a black cane topped with a golden snake head. From inside the cane, Damron produced a sword, authorities said. He walked "in a rather menacing manner" toward Cavalier, authorities said.

Cavalier fingered his handgun and lifted it slowly.

Damron stopped, turned and ran through the hospital's sliding doors, authorities said.

When deputies found Damron, he said he had gotten into an altercation in the parking lot but with a buck knife. Deputies said they later found the cane/sword hidden in his brother's hospital room.

Hospital spokeswoman Nancy Kaminski said the incident took mere minutes and that no patients appeared to have been disrupted.

"We're a little shaken up," Cavalier said as he entered the hospital for treatment. "We were shocked."

Both men have criminal records.

Damron has various drug convictions, including possession of marijuana and narcotic equipment.

Cavalier was charged in 1983 with aggravated abuse and cruelty toward children and received one year of probation, state records show.

What?  He had a carry permit?  People in South Carolina can't even get a permit if they've written a bad check or committed any one of a number of unspecified "moral turpitude" crimes.  I've never even gotten a parking ticket or speeding ticket, and I still can't get a concealed carry permit.  This guy was granted one in FL.  What the...z

He most certainly is not a poster child for CCW laws!!

Just think of how polite this situation would have been if the one guy with the gun wasn't armed?