Rendell and LaPierre Square Off

Watch as NRA Executive Vice-President demolishes PA Governor Ed Rendell as the Governor trots out all the old anti-gun tropes, including such chestnuts as “They’re ASSAULT weapons!!!” and “Nobody needs an assault rifle.”

Folks, I actually agree with Governor Rendell that assault weapons are primarily good for killing–which is why the people have a fundamental right to posess them to defend themselves. You will hardly ever get a politician to say it, but firearms are the building block upon which our rights are founded. When the government controls all the firearms, they control all. Gun violence is tragic, but it is the cost for a free and open society.

Victory for Concealed Carry in Override Session

Both the NRA and VCDL are touting a big victory for concealed carry holders–or, more correctly, making it easier for Virginia citizens to carry a concealed firearm. The Senate and House both overrode Governor Kaine’s veto of Senator Ken Cuccinelli’s SB 1528. The bill clarifies that online training is acceptable for use to qualify for a CHP in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As it currently stands the law is open to interpretation, as some circuit courts accept online training while others do not. 

It’s no Vermont Style regime, where citizens are allowed to exercise their right without any government strings attached, but it complements Virginia’s status as a “shall issue” state (meaning that the Circuit Court must issue a permit if the applicant meets all the state mandated requirements) very well by making another training option available for working professionals or those who may live in areas without a certified trainer.

A Positive View on Concealed Carry

For once, we have a look at the thinking of those who choose to defend themselves with a concealed weapon. Too often they are lumped in with criminals or shown as cowboys or radicals with little regard for the law. Instead, the large majority of them are law-abiding citizens who hope to never use the weapon. From Garren Shipley at NVDaily.com:

More than 160,000 Virginians held active permits to carry a concealed handgun in October, according to state police, up some 30,000 from just a year earlier.

No one in the recent Saturday’s class said they’d been the victim of violence. But for most, that was entirely the point.

Student Pete Pomeroy said he decided to carry a handgun for personal protection.

“I have a small business, on the lower end of town, and I’ve noticed that there are a lot more unsavory characters around the area,” Pomeroy said.

Concern for his safety made him decide to start carrying a gun — to “learn the rules the right way, and have a permit so that in my mind there’s no question of what I can and can’t do with a gun.”

….

Johnson also spends time teaching students what to do if the worst-case scenario does happen, and they’re forced to wound or kill an assailant.

Shooting another human being is a traumatic experience.

“You may feel elation. ‘Yes, I’m alive!'” he said. “Is it morbid? Yeah. But it’s natural.”

“You may be revulsed by what you had to do,” he said.

Talking to a professional counselor is also a must, he said. The emotional aftermath of a life-or-death scenario is a trauma no one can handle alone.

“No matter how well you think you’re going to be able to cope with it, you’re wrong,” he said.

That’s one reason Johnson spends a significant amount of time teaching his students how to avoid using the firearms they’ve gone to so much trouble and expense to obtain.

Carrying a gun isn’t a license to be a hero or a cowboy, he said. Rather, it’s a fighting chance to come out of a deadly encounter alive.

The best way to come out of a deadly encounter isn’t to shoot — it’s to stay out of one in the first place.

See a suspicious looking crowd on the sidewalk? “Walk across the street and go around,” he said.

Johnson held up his custom handgun and showed it to the small class.

“I’m hoping it never comes out of the holster,” he said.

A Call to Arms

At the dawn of a new legislative session, the Virginia Crime Commission met to consider its recommendations on a large number of bills affecting public safety. Of course, as always, this included a large number of bills regarding guns. And of course, as always, there were a number of absolutely ludicrous ideas. Fortunately the Commission shot down a bill that would have required a background check for all private sales. 

However, the commission DID give its seal of approval to language that would assess a fee on gun show organizers for the cost of State Troopers to be at gun shows. This is the dream of anti-gun forces everywhere: to regulate private gun sales out of business, first by focusing on gun shows. I would wager that most of the people who come up with these ideas have never visited a gun show, and are not familiar with the fact that a) all federally licensed firearms dealers are required to run a background check for EVERY sale, even at gun shows and b) gun show organizers are extremely careful and aware of the risks that such an event carries.  And trust me: the ATF is VERY good at finding people who are unlawfully involved in bulk firearm sales. 

The goal here is to regulate private gun ownership our of existence in bits and pieces. By using scare tactics surrounding violent incidents (and don’t think for a second that this has nothing to do with the Tech tragedies), anti-gun activists know that they can get the public support to implement their piece-mill strategy to take guns out of private citizens hands, regardless of their needs for personal security and with no respect for the fundamental balance of power that underpins our American democracy. 

So just who recommended this atrocious language? Why, Ken Stolle…..a REPUBLICAN state senator from Virginia Beach. 

Thanks, Senator. Guess where we know your allegiances lie.