Harassment in Virginia

There is a story I saw today on hamptonroads.com concerning a protest by citizens of Norfolk, Virginia about a problem they have been experiencing with their local police department.

Titled "Gun-rights advocates stage protest at Norfolk council meeting", the author of the article summarizes the problem very quickly.

"More than 100 gun-rights advocates, most carrying handguns on their hips and wearing buttons saying "Guns Save Lives," came to the City Council on Tuesday night to protest what they called harassment of law-abiding gun owners by city officials. The protest was called by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun-rights group, after Chet Szymecki of Yorktown was arrested in June at Harborfest for carrying a gun."

The article continues...

"Szymecki was arrested for violating a city ordinance banning guns at Harborfest - an ordinance that officials now acknowledge violates state law. Carrying a weapon openly is legal in Virginia, even at a large gathering such as Harborfest. Once city officials realized their error, the charges against Szymecki were dropped."

It sounds very straightforward to me.

The article continues on about what happened in the meeting, with several citizens airing their grievances and some city council members expressing theirs. All in all, a fine working city government.

The police in Virginia have been known to do this kind of thing before, but as more and more citizens in Virginia remind their local municipalities that city laws are secondary to state laws, these harassment problems should start to fall by the wayside.

You know, maybe a class-action lawsuit would help speed things along. But that's another topic.

What I really want to point out is what did not happen.

More than 100 people showed up at a government meeting. Virtually everyone in this meeting was legally armed. Everyone was there to protest. Children were present.

… and nobody got shot?

Nobody put holes in the ceiling? Nobody shot someone they disagreed with? The town didn’t burn? Riots didn’t destroy the county? Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria?

OK, that last one was from Ghostbusters.

In all seriousness, all the second amendment assailants love to conjure up outlandish scenarios on firearm ownership. Kristen Rand of the Violence Policy Center in Washington, stated in an article in the Washington Post a few years ago about Virginia open carry that "Openly carrying weapons... is not a good idea. Everybody's packing heat and ready to engage in a shootout at the slightest provocation."

Of course they never have any evidence of this. Or any examples of previous occurrences. They never have any data to back up their claims that shootouts will be provoked down at the IHOP or Starbucks. But they insist the sky will fall.... any second now! Watch for it!

Second amendment assailants always fail to mention meetings like this. When everyday things do not go wrong. When a number of people gather in a public space and everyone gets along. While armed. Instances like what happened in Virginia never appear in their arguments.

When given a choice in their state to carry, people do so. And their government is still intact. Their buildings are still standing. Nobody has "engage(d) in a shootout at the slightest provocation"

Personal. Responsibility.

On a quick side note, somebody needs to tell California about these other states over to their right so stuff like this quits snaking through their government.

And on another side note, the author, Harry Minium, did a great job with the story. I did not pick up any pro or anti gun sentiments throughout the article. Just a great presentation of the facts. Now that’s a great writer!

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