Mal Soon Jin, a Korean woman who has lived in the United States for 20 years and run a fruit store with her husband, was minutes away from a moment that looms large for many immigrants in their quest for the American Dream: the naturalization ceremony that would make her a United States citizen.
But when she walked into the marble lobby of United States District Court in Brooklyn about 8 a.m. yesterday to take the oath, and placed her handbag on the X-ray machine’s conveyor belt, she hit a snag. A court security officer operating the machine spotted an unloaded five-shot .22-caliber silver derringer in a zippered compartment in her handbag, according to the authorities.
As a result, Ms. Jin did not attend the morning naturalization ceremony on the second floor with hundreds of other soon-to-be citizens. Instead, she was arraigned on federal gun charges in a smaller courtroom, just steps away on the second floor.
Talk about someone I want to have as a fellow citizen. She has been a productive and contributing member of society for 20 years, she knows from experience that she must not only take care of herself economically but also in terms of personal security, she is exercising her right and obligation to do that as a free and sovereign individual, and she wishes to be one of us.
So instead, this "free" society she wishes to be one with will now attempt to destroy her life.