In memory of a Freeper who wasn't a gunslinger, but defended his right to bare arms... (and tattoos thereon...) TrappedInLiberalHell
Posted on 07/18/2004 9:37:46 PM PDT by neverdem
The latte grande at the Starbucks in Tysons Corner, Va., must have seemed extra steamy last month when two college students bellied up to the bar packing pistols on their hips, as casually as if they wore cellphones. Someone called the police, who confiscated the handguns and charged the students. But wait: the Catch-22 in Virginia's enfeebled gun control laws has kicked in.
Sure there's a state law against carrying loaded firearms in public. But the lethal fine print defines "firearm" as a 20-round-plus assault rifle. So smaller weapons, like the .22-caliber and 9-millimeter pistols the students flaunted in their holsters, are legal and no permit is required. The pistols were returned, thereby contributing to a celebratory mood among the state's gun enthusiasts. Now they're strutting their Second Amendment stuff among Main Street shoppers and restaurant diners in Washington's booming Virginia suburbs.
There was what seemed a self-fantasized posse of six this month at a table in a Champps restaurant, their weapons prominent as pepper mills. The same false alarm ensued, with a police patrol backing off in the face of citizens' exercising their rights, according to The Washington Post. And how about the couple walking their dogs on busy Market Street in Reston? They carried pistols on their hips, plus extra ammunition clips, as if the area were a set from "The Wild Bunch" and not one of the most crime-free places in Virginia.
The flaunting ritual is a tribute to "open carry" gun laws on the books in a score of states. Outcries from the unarmed public usually go unheeded. In Utah, university administrators worried over students' wearing guns in dormitories were overruled by the legislature, which defended gun rights — even to the point of packing in class.
You'd think Virginia citizens concerned about weapons in public would be able to seek comfort in the primacy of local controls. Alexandria, for instance, has barred open carrying. But that was before the very latest Catch-22 in Virginia law: effective this month, state law bars any locality from enacting gun regulations. Gotcha.
The NYT should exercise its first amendment rights by not printing its paper.
bttt
I asked a cop I knew about it, and he said that he would probably have to arrest anyone who was carrying openly if there were complaints, as the person would be contributing to a breach of the peace, even if he was doing nothing else illegal. The charges would probably be dismissed, unless the complaintant really insisted, at which point the person arrested would be deemed innocent, and then could probably sue the complaintant for malicious prosecution.
Mark
I was sure this was gonna be about tattoos. It's spelled that way in the original, too. No hint of irony seems to be intended.
This simply can't be accurate. Can some Virginian check? If inaccurate, we need to demand a correction from the Slimes, or, better yet, demand they print a letter to the editor from someone in Reston or Tyson's Corner who packs.
I had a choice like that once. Sometimes I do miss her.
IF Catch-22 was to be relevant to this article it would have to go something like this:
Virgina Weapons Laws, Catch-22 Every resident of Virginia who is mentally competent (not crazy) has the RIGHT to carry a firearm in public at will. However, if one desired to carry a weapon in public he must be crazy, therefore he is prohibited from carrying a firearm.
"That's some Catch, that Catch-22" (Yossarian)
Texas.
This simply can't be accurate. Can some Virginian check? If inaccurate, we need to demand a correction from the Slimes, or, better yet, demand they print a letter to the editor from someone in Reston or Tyson's Corner who packs.
It is correct. Since it went into effect, several stories have been posted on the VCDL website (http://www.vcdl.org) about law abiding folks getting arrested and then released after they showed the police the full wording.
We camped at Mammoth Cave Natl. park a few weeks ago. Their signs said that weapons are to be kept out of sight. I thought that was an interesting way to put it and seemingly allowed RKBA.
Do you think that the citizens of Virginia (and other states) should be "flaunting" open carry?
They carried pistols on their hips, plus extra ammunition clips, as if the area were a set from "The Wild Bunch" and not one of the most crime-free places in Virginia.
Note that the idiot liberal author never stops to think that BECAUSE of the carry laws in Virginia, and elsewhere, that this may be that much more of a deterrent to crime.
Would you really want to rob a store that had lots of armed civilians in it?
IIRC, I read the same thing, and that they 4 to 5 times likely to hit the bad guy. I believe it was in numbers stated in the DOJ's annual Uniform Crime Reports or the National Crime Victims Survey. I believe John Lott may have written about it. As far as LEOs being more trigger happy, it makes sense because as gov't employees they are indemnified, unless they do something outrageously stupid violating gov't guidelines which exposes them to civil liability.
Not too mention the logical point that if someone is ATTACKING you, it is kinda hard to not correctly identify the perp. A cop is almost always working off of second hand descriptions.
I think it is still legal to OPENLY carry a SWORD in N.Y.C.
Let's hear it for Traditional Fashion Statements.
The flaunting ritual is a tribute to "open carry" gun laws on the books in a score of states. Outcries from the unarmed public usually go unheeded. In Utah, university administrators worried over students' wearing guns in dormitories were overruled by the legislature, which defended gun rights — even to the point of packing in class.
You'd think Virginia citizens concerned about weapons in public would be able to seek comfort in the primacy of local controls. Alexandria, for instance, has barred open carrying. But that was before the very latest Catch-22 in Virginia law: effective this month, state law bars any locality from enacting gun regulations. Gotcha.
If this had to do with burning the flag, protesting a Republican president, "marrying" someone of the same sex, etc., etc., the Slimes would be celebrating the actions in question, advocating that more people did the same and decrying opponents as Neanderthals, etc.
In a phrase, the editors of the Slimes (many of whom have NYC concealed carry permits, which are all but unattainable for the "unwashed masses") are hypocritical b@stards. In another phrase, phuk them.
Bravo for the citizens of VA who are doing this - every time they do it without incident, they are reinforcing in the public mind the idea that ordinary citizens can carry safely and responsibly. They are also putting doubts into the minds of the pond scum of that area regarding whether ordinary folks are an easy mark, and are thus helping to decrease crime.
The Times, of course (they're the ones who used it, not you). I phrased it like that because "I do not think that word means what you think it means" is a quote from a movie.
The Times probably understand "Catch-22" to mean "something illogical and bad," which is what Heller's book "Catch-22" was full of. But you are right, the correct definition is a lose-lose situation.
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