Adrienne Washington writes about how scary Virginia is, because we don't prohibit the open carry of firearms; a practice that has been pretty much unrestricted now for almost 400 years.

Leave it to the Old Dominion lawmakers, or should we say to the East Coast gun-toters of the Wild West.

In them thar hillbilly hills and suburban highways, law-abiding Virginians can carry a six-shooter openly in a hip holster or conceal a weapon in a designer purse...

Isn't it nice how right off the bat she paints Virginians and gun owners as ignorant hicks and hillbilly rednecks. Nothing like a little Southern bigotry to get the ball rolling. If this elitist cunt wants to resort to name calling, how about Chicken Little. She seems to fit that profile.

... but they better not be caught toting a concealed machete.

Go figure. Which is worse while your family is dining on a "Grand Slam" breakfast at Denny's - sitting next to Quick Draw McGraw or Zorro?

I'll have to check to see if the open carry of machete's is legal. Personally, I've always wondered at people's fear of the machete. It's the most useful tool for clearing brush or hiking through thick trees. In South America they are still widely used.

"That's a Virginia law for you," said Suzie Robinson of Richmond, state counsel chairwoman of the "Million Moms March."

Mrs. Robinson, who has a 12-year-old boy, was reacting to a scary story in the Other Paper about a terrible summertime trend in the Old Dominion of folks "exercising their right" to carry guns openly.

Talk about editorializing. Robinson is a member of the Million Mommies so it is presumed that she has a child. Why mention her 12-year old son if for no other reason than to try to lend credibility to her inane views? She's also a Mrs, so why not say, 'who has a husband and a 12-year old boy'?

Also, I love the scare quotes around "exercising their right". And take note of how Ms. Washington gratuitously adds "scary story" and "terrible summertime trend" to drive up the fear factor. Open carry is always a summertime trend, mainly because people are wearing less clothing and are at times unable to conceal their sidearm. The gratuitous references continue:

In a strange show of support, a few Virginia folks have been strapping on their six-shooters and parading them in public after word went out last month that two gun-totting county students had been erroneously charged.

Just what is a "gun-totting county student"?

The Fairfax County officer who apparently was unaware of the open-carry laws that have been on the books for decades apologized and returned the weapons.

Then, others have deliberately followed suit. One was spotted at a Starbucks, of all places. I know those high-priced coffee lattes are highway robbery, but c'mon.

Notice how she assumes that the person carrying openly is in there to rob the place rather than keep from being mugged. And whats wrong with carrying in Starbucks? That's elitism for you: you might need your gun at an inner city chicken restaurant but not a yuppie place like Starbucks.

Can you imagine the additional problems and danger this craziness is presenting, especially for county officers but also for residents? [thats just bad grammar] Don't law enforcement officers already have enough trouble discerning the good guys from the bad guys in a quick-draw second?

This is just moronic. If someone is walking around with a gun holstered on their side, it should be assumed that they are doing nothing wrong. Just because someone owns a car, doesn't mean they're speeding.

However, Sgt. Richard Perez, a spokesman for the Fairfax County police, said, "You're not going to get me to tell you that [the open-carry law] presents a problem for our officers."

Sgt. Perez said the officers are trained to deal with stressful situations and they will investigate each complaint in the manner in which they were trained. After all, they are proud of the part that the department has played in ensuring that Fairfax County has one of the lowest crime rates for a county of its size in the country.

There you have it! The Fairfax County Police don't even have a problem with this, and they take pride in knowing that Fairfax has ONE OF THE LOWEST CRIME RATES IN THE COUNTRY. But that isn't good enough for Chicken Little.

Fine. I wonder how long that's going to last if folks have a mind to take the law in their own hands because they are carrying a gun on their hip? Doesn't the county have a growing gang problem? Are guns or machetes really their preferred weapon of choice?

Oh no! It'll be like Dodge City. They'll be shooting each other in the streets. The sky is falling, the sky is falling.

Chicken Little goes on to spew the typical anti-gun rhetoric which doesn't bear repeating here. She gets her jabs in at the expiration of the Clinton Gun Ban, and signs off sounding glum and depressed:

But they are not planning to lobby against the open-carry or concealed-weapons laws that allow Virginians to act like cowboys in the Wild West.

"Unfortunately, Virginia is a whole different bowl of marbles," [million mommy Robinson] said.

Deadly unfortunate, indeed.

Perhaps Chicken Little would feel safer in the killing fields of Washington D.C. or Maryland. Both ban open and concealed carry, yet for some inexplicable reason have much higher crime rates. Go figure.