Ravenwood - 08/20/04 06:30 AM
This is getting tiring. Open carry in Virginia is NOT NEW, as the Philadelphia Inquirer would have you believe.
One night recently, 30 people walked into a Fuddruckers restaurant in northern Virginia, most of them openly wearing handguns.The Commonwealth of Virginia has never regulated open carry. It has been a right of every Virginian for almost 400 years. On July 1st, a state law went into effect that nullfied any local restrictions on firearms. The goal was to have uniform laws throughout the state, so that gunowners wouldn't inadvertently commit a felony by crossing to the other side of the street and entering a different town. There were one or two localities (like Falls Church) that banned open carry.They weren't law-enforcement officers, and they weren't desperadoes. They were law-abiding Virginians, celebrating the state's newly strengthened pro-gun laws.
Virginia - like 36 other states, including Pennsylvania - has a law that requires local courts to issue permits to all nonfelons who want to carry concealed handguns. But the state requires no permit to visibly carry a handgun.
A statute that went into effect July 1 further bolstered the state's gun laws by prohibiting any Virginia locality from enacting any regulations at all on gun ownership, carrying, storage or purchase.
But these are not demonstrations. In fact, the 30 people in question were members of VCDL going out to dinner after a monthly meeting. As far as I know (I've never attended one), they've been doing these for years.
If you've heard about any of these news stories, you'll notice that they all have one thing in common. People are open carrying in restaurants. The reason they are open carring in restaurants, is because they are obeying state law. When Virginia passed shall issue legistion back in the 1990s, they took away concealed carry in restaurants that also serve alcohol. It had previously been legal, but now is illegal. Thus the only way to carry in a restaurant is openly.
Something many folks don't realize is that gun control laws were initially targeted at Blacks and immigrants. Both slaves and free blacks were debarred the use of arms. In the North, similar gun control laws were passed in response to large waves in immigrants flooding into America.
Gun control in both the North and the South is inherently racist, and was intended to be that way from the start. Even today you'll notice that the most stringent gun control laws are in inner-city urban areas; places where lots of immigrants and black people live. The term "Saturday Night Special" also has a racist connotation.
(And in case you didn't realize, local and federal anti-drug laws followed a very similar path; initially being targeted at Blacks.)
Category: Cold Dead Hands
Comments (4) top link me
I'm surprised that Fuddruckers doesn't have a "no firearms" policy.
That said, as long as the law doesn't force property owners to allow firearms on their premises, this is a big win for the good guys.
Posted by: roger at August 20, 2004 10:56 AMRoger,
Most businesses and restaurants don't have a "no firearms" policy. They are and should remain free to do so if they wish. The government should not force them to host armed law-abiding citizens, just like the government should not force them to NOT do so. Basically, the government shouldn't have a dog in the fight at all.
That said, you need to consider the usefullness of such a policy. Lets be honest, hanging a "no firearms" sign on your front door is NOT going to keep you from getting robbed. In fact, it sends a clear message to criminals and robbers that your place is a completely unarmed victim zone. This is best evidenced by the rash of bank robberies at banks with no firearms signs. In Southeast Virginia bank robbers hit 3 such banks in a 10 day span. In DC, robbers hit 25 places in 8 hours, in spite of the cities complete and total gun ban.
Another aspect to consider is that when you prevent your patrons from providing for their defense, you may open yourself up to legal liability. If I go to a restaurant and they tell me to leave my gun outside, they have just taken over responsibility for my safety. If something happens, you can damn sure bet I'm going to sue their ass for failing to protect me.
Given the ineffectiveness of such a policy along with the serious legal burden it can heap on you, I'm quite amazed when I DO see restaurants with a "no firearms" policy.
Posted by: Ravenwood at August 20, 2004 11:20 AMThe restaurant should just post this.
Posted by: Nick Bourbaki at August 20, 2004 11:53 AMCoda: The original Harrison Narcotics Control Act appears to have had Chinese and Japanese immigrants to these shores -- their entry and their ancestors' entry here originally solicited for manual labor -- as their principal target. The oriental use of opium as a recreational drug was a favorite bugaboo of the xenophobes and Yellow Peril types of that time. It was widely believed that by outlawing that pastime, "we" could get "them" to "go home."
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