I've written about the MWAA several times, but in case you missed those posts, I'll recap. The MWAA is the governing body of Reagan National Airport and Dulles Internation Airport in Virginia. They also manage the Dulles access road and parts of Route 28. They have taken an anti-gun stance prohibiting firearms in the non-sterile areas of the airport, the parking lots, rental car facilities, and certain public roads around the airports, including heavily traveled commuter routes. There are no signs, so it would be quite easy for an innocent gun owner to get themselves into trouble under MWAA law. However, since Virginia law dictates the MWAA, their anti-gun regulations were recently invalidated when Virginia passed a pre-emption bill making state gun laws uniform for concealed carry permit holders.

The VCDL has been fighting the good fight to try to get MWAA to recognize and abide by Virginia law, while the MWAA has claimed they are above the law. The NRA has stood by and done nothing. During this year's legislative session, the MWAA has been pushing for Virginia to reaffirm it's anti-gun stance. With the NRA taking a "neutral" position and essentially giving the legislature their blessing to pass more gun control, both Republicans and Democrats have been working to outlaw guns at all of the state's airports, including Ronald Reagan and Dulles airports. VCDL, more than a little shocked by the NRA's complacency, challenged them on their non-position. The NRA has answered the challenge, by coming down on the side of increased gun control. Here is part of their reply to VCDL:

Since 1994, MWAA regulations have prohibited the possession of firearms by non-ticketed passengers on all airport property, including the terminal, parking lots, rental car areas, and in the case of Washington Dulles, certain areas of Route 28. This little known regulation had gone unenforced until the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) began harassing the airport authority about MWAA's policy. Given VCDL's questions, MWAA determined that if it did not enforce the regulations it might lose its authority to implement and enforce other regulations.

The NRA has no position on SB 660, and NRA does not support a prohibition on concealed carry. NRA is, however, in favor of
protecting law-abiding gun owners from a patchwork of local laws and regulations. NRA believes that uniform laws for all airports in the Commonwealth of Virginia will prevent gun owners from violating the law by committing an act which is legal at other airports in the Commonwealth.

So the NRA viewed the law as "unenforced" (wink, wink) and blames the VCDL for unnecessarily stirring the pot. On top of that, the Phantom Menace is praising expanding gun control state-wide because Virginian's could benefit from uniform anti-gun laws. Any second thoughts I had about having quit the NRA last year have since vanished.