"I'm too sexy for my sleeves, too sexy..."
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.
My friend from Barbados is studying to be a citizen and was very insistent that an American has a right to carry a shotgun on his person at all times. I said go ahead and please do it one day and watch what happens *LOL*
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The liberal weenies at the NY Times are wetting their depends at the very thought of free citizens exercising their basic rights. NY State needs this law too. Then citizens would not live in fear of subway muggers, as they do now. A concealed carry law would be even better, though, for NY.
Yes, you might think that.
But it would be wrong, that's for sure!
I just discovered that to get *any* gun license in NJ, you have to wait nearly 3 months. THREE MONTHS! Even if you just want a hunting rifle!
Could you imagine if you moved to a state and they said, "You have the right to free speech here, but you'll have to wait three months before you are allowed to actually say anything."
It's BS.
Good thing I'm planning on moving soon. Just trying to figure out where I can find the friendliest territory. Criteria: predominately republican, growing economy, low cost of living, good values, low taxes, and sensible laws. Any suggestions?
I didn't know the right to bare arms was in danger? Even in Britain they can bare their arms.
RKBA ping.
(must be nice)
The Moon.
Mars.
.... The other side of the Milky Way.
"I'm too sexy for my sleeves, too sexy..."
NYT knows that - but pretends not to for reasons of advancing its anti-American agenda.
Alaska and Vermont don't require any paperwork for handguns, rifles or shotguns except the Federal NICS check, but politically Vermont is trending the wrong way with pols like Howard Dean and the self proclaimed socialist Congressman Bernie Sanders.
What's next? The right to bare legs, bare midriffs, bare bottoms?
The Puritans would be incensed!
I guess we had it coming, when they started allowing bare wrists and ankles.
Heaven help us!
The "lethal fine print" happens to be the statutory language. But when has what the law says been important to the Slimes?
If the Slimes cared as much about the Second Amendment as they claim they care about the First, we wouldn't have these lame editorials. If the people of Virginia want their citizens to be able to carry guns wherever they want, it's none of the Slimes' business. It's more of a travesty that the people of New York City have to run through every conceivable hoop even to own a handgun in their house, let alone carry it on the street.
Chile
Didn't Dean get an good rating from the NRA?
I never carried to class, but I did have a .270, a Winchester .44Mag rifle, a Ruger .44 pistol, and a 12 guage shotgun in my dorm room while I was in college back in the late 70's/early 80's. Lots of us had guns of one sort or another from .22 rifles up to .300 WinMags ... oddly enough, none of these evil weapons (or their owners) decided to go on a killin' spree ...
Catch-22? I do not think that word means what you think it means...
Arizona is an open carry state. About three weeks ago one of my coworkers stopped by the local gun store on his way home from work and purchased an AR-15. He then continued on his five mile ride home -- on his bicycle, with the AR slung over his shoulder. None of the local cops accosted him, but maybe that's because he's 6'8" tall.
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