Guns in Virginia state parks (Million Brain-Dead Moms Alert)

Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore is considering whether to allow Virginians who are lawfully entitled to carry concealed weapons

So, let's see now...if I was a lunatic looking for a little action, and I wanted to avoid the possibility of getting hurt or whacked during my attempted chicanery, would I go to the nearest police station and try to rob/rape a cop, or would I go to a place where the rotten politicians have assured me there will be nothing but unarmed potential victims???? Decisions, decisions.....

If 1% of the population carries concealed, how many potential crimes would that thwart? The "Why can't we all just get along?" crowd has absolutely no sense at all.

"The backwoods trails and dense cover of parks provide a perfect setting for an attack or abduction. Women are especially vulnerable. There are no 911 call boxes in most parks, and park rangers are often miles away." (Washington Times)

Heat up every local talk show (where you don't waste time preaching to the choir, and usually aren't censored) in Virginia with calls from women whose "protective orders" have been worthless against stalker ex-husbands - with emphasis on how long police response time in that locality really is on a weekend night.

GUN REVIEWS free from ad-money bias - emphasizing woman-friendliness of tested guns!

Your uncommon common sense will get nowhere with the victim disarmament crowd. I have long since given up in the effort to bring reason to the liberal mind. It is innoculated against discernment by an utterly emotional mindset.

The best response is to be quite politically active, contribute to certified RKBA candidates and learn to gently undermine the guns-are-evil lunacy with ridicule when a conversational gambit presents itself.

"Oh, I see now...the crime is really low in those cities where gun control is really tough. Like the old Sullivan act in the Big Apple. Washington DC. Baltimore MD." "It sure is skyrocketing here in rural Virginia where a lot of us are known to be loaded-fer-Bear. Yeah, that's right."

"Yep, the first thing I will think of when I catch a rapist on my daughter is 'Where is my cell phone - The 911 Dial-a-Prayer' service?"

The best thing this country could do would be to see that every sane non-criminal citizen had access to a nicely clocked & timed .357 revolver, was trained in its use and could freely carry. Thugs & terrorists would decline; politeness would skyrocket. (Yeah, I know, a 1911, or Glock or Sig would do as well...)

BLOAT.

Kilgore: Department lacks authority to ban guns from parks

LARRY O'DELL
Associated Press Writer Sep 11, 2002

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ The state Department of Conservation has no authority to ban people with concealed weapon permits from carrying guns into Virginia state parks, Attorney General Jerry Kilgore said.

Del. Richard H. Black, R-Loudoun County, had asked Kilgore for an opinion on the validity of state regulations that prohibit guns in Virginia's 34 state parks, except in a few areas where hunting is allowed.

"A person's privilege to carry a concealed handgun is considered universal within the Commonwealth subject to limited circumstances," Kilgore said in a letter to Black dated Monday.

He noted that the General Assembly has prohibited concealed handguns in churches, courthouses, schools and bars _ but not state parks. Also, state law does not authorize the conservation department to prohibit the carrying of a concealed handgun by a valid permit holder, Kilgore wrote.

"It is solely within the discretion of the General Assembly to add parks to the list of places where the carrying of concealed handguns is prohibited, or to grant explicit statutory authorization to the Department for that purpose," he wrote.

The National Rifle Association praised Kilgore's opinion.

"Many permit holders carry guns to protect themselves and their loved ones," NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox said. "No one is less immune to criminal attack just because they're on state property, whether it is a state park or a rest stop."

Jim Meisner, spokesman for the conservation department, said Kilgore's opinion is merely advisory and the regulation remains on the books. He said the regulation has existed for at least 20 years.

"As of today, nothing has changed," Meisner said Wednesday. "The director of the department, the secretary of natural resources and the governor's office are all reviewing the opinion."

Gov. Mark R. Warner's chief lawyer is examining the opinion and has not yet discussed it with the governor, Warner spokeswoman Ellen Qualls said.

Black said he is prepared to introduce legislation overriding the regulation if necessary.

"However, I would hope Governor Warner would want his departments to act in a lawful fashion," Black said. "They should rescind the regulation without legislative action."

The department also could propose legislation adding state parks to the list of facilities where concealed handguns are banned. Such a bill would be "one of the most absurd violations of the Second Amendment I've heard of," Black said.

"The idea that permit holders can't go out into a remote parklands and defend themselves is beyond the pale," he said.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/vaapwire/MGBF5QUNZ5D.html

, I am aghast at not previously having heard of this epidemic of state park gun killings...

I missed hearing about that epidemic myself. But, I do remember when a few years ago some homocidal maniac was killing unarmed hikers on the gun-free Appalachian Trail. I don't think he was ever caught, maybe he's hiding out in a VA state park?

Wasn't it out in Oregon where a serial killer was recently killing women joggers in some kind of park? I guess it would have been too risky to the public safety to have allowed those ladies to carry a .38 in their jogging outfit. Yeah, much better to let a few women get sliced and diced than to risk them shooting somebody, LIKE THE SERIAL KILLER FOR INSTANCE. MMM'ers would say so.

Good news update:

Warner accepts Kilgore ruling allowing concealed weapons in parks

BOB LEWIS
Associated Press Writer Sep 25, 2002

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Gov. Mark R. Warner has signed off on a state attorney general's opinion that the Department of Conservation lacks the authority to bar people with concealed weapons permits from carrying firearms into state parks.

In a letter Monday to Conservation and Recreation Department Director Joseph H. Maroon, Warner deferred to Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore's opinion that holders of valid permits should be allowed to go armed in the parks.

Kilgore's opinion, issued earlier this month, held that Virginia's concealed weapons law permitted firearms to be banned only at schools, churches, courthouses, establishments that hold alcoholic beverage licenses and private property where owners object.

There's no statutory concealed weapons ban for parks, and a state agency can't put one in place through a regulation, the attorney general's office reasoned.

While Warner told Maroon he could no longer enforce the firearms ban, he said he expected aggressive enforcement of laws against pointing or brandishing a gun in a reckless or menacing way, or shooting a gun in a public gathering.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence promptly criticized the Democratic governor's order.

"If Mr. Warner thinks parks are bound by the attorney general's opinion, then we expect him to use the power of his office to change that through the Legislature, and we remind him that not doing so will alienate a lot of his base, especially here in northern Virginia," said Nancy Hwa, a spokeswoman for the Brady Campaign in Washington.

Kilgore, a Republican, issued his opinion after Del. Richard H. Black, R-Loudoun, asked him in May to reconsider an opinion interim Attorney General Randolph A. Beales issued in July 2001 upholding the department's ban on guns in state parks.

"I felt it was so obviously incorrect that I asked for reconsideration," Black said.

Should Warner or anyone else try to amend the law to ban guns in parks, Black said he would have plenty of help killing it in a strongly pro-gun House of Delegates next winter.

The National Rifle Association praised Kilgore's ruling and Warner's decision to not contest it.

"Just because an individual or a family may be in a state park, it doesn't mean they're more immune to an attack. It's important for any law-abiding individual to defend himself and his loved ones whenever or wherever the need may arise," said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/vaapwire/MGBPM56VJ6D.html

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