The Virginia Citizens Defense League is finally starting to get some press for a gun banning issue here in Northern Virginia. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) is a joint body set up by Congress, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the District of Columbia to manage and oversee both of Virginia's DC area airports. Since both airports are located entirely within the Commonwealth of Virginia, they are supposed to abide by Virginia law. However, the pencil pushers at the People's Republic of MWAA just don't see it that way.

At issue is the MWAA's ban of firearms on any property that it manages. That not only includes the airports, but also the Dulles Access Road, routes 28 and 606, and the Metrorail station at Ronald Reagan National Airport. The Dulles Access Road stretches 28 miles from Arlington to Leesburg, and the MWAA manages at least 6 miles of SR 28.

Both of those highways are major thoroughfares, and heavily traveled by non-airport traffic. And there are no signs indicating that you are subject to MWAA regulations, even though a violation several miles away from the airport could land you with 12 months in the pokey and a $2500 fine. When asked about the regulations, MWAA was notably defiant.

The authority, which operates Dulles International and Reagan National airports, says it is not bound by "the more general" state laws and that the ban is necessary to maintain airport security.

Apparently they are claiming sovereignty over not just their land, but all the roads surrounding it.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League claims MWAA is overstepping state and federal laws to purposely conceal the "obscure and unknown" ban, essentially "trapping" law-abiding gun owners who travel across authority property. [...]

"Can they have their own military? Will they print their own money?," [VCDL President Philip] Van Cleave asked. "The federal government, Virginia and D.C. laws all say the Virginia law is supreme at the airports."

Of course, this isn't the first time that the MWAA claimed they were above the law.

Van Cleave said another problem with trying determine the intent of the regulation is the lack of information MWAA has provided about arrests and prosecutions.

MWAA rejected a Virginia Freedom of Information Act in October, again claiming that they were not subject to state laws, Van Cleave said.

How dare you make such a request from the Soveriegn Nation of MWAA?

The VCDL requested a ruling by the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council, which determines who and what is subject to a Virginia FOIA request. The council said "it appears" that MWAA is subject to a state FOIA.

Oops. Maybe they are on the hook. Time to do some backpeddling.

[General counsel for MWAA, Edward Faggen] said while MWAA is not subject to the Virginia FOIA request, it does have its own FOIA policy, which is very similar to Virginia's.

How convenient. They went from "no" to "Okay, but not because you're making us."

However, to produce stop and arrest reports, court case names and related documents since 1987, MWAA estimated it would cost the VCDL $12,480, according to an Oct. 31 letter to the VCDL from an MWAA attorney obtained by the Journal.

Nice. They want citizens to cough up 12 G's for the privilege of viewing "public" information.

MWAA officials said their automated data bases only go back to 2001 and it would take at least 240 hours to manually recover the documents at $52 an hour for police time and $60 per hour to have a lawyer review the documents to determine to what can be disclosed.

Oh, so I have to keep my tax records for 7 years, but they only have to keep arrest records handy for two. And apparently cops only make $8 an hour less than lawyers.

Of course, all this wouldn't even be an issue if it weren't for Virginia's pre-emption law that says local yokels cannot supercede the laws of the Commonwealth. And bureaucratic fiats like this are exactly what pre-emption is all about.

VCDL will continue to fight the good fight, and the way the law reads, they will prevail. Until then, of course, many Northern Virginians will probably continue to inadvertently break the law when traveling anywhere near either of the metro airports. I have personally violated their law dozens of times, as most recently as this weekend.

UPDATE: Link has been corrected. Thanks to reader, Pete.