City Council Gun Policy Backfires

[Kennedy 0]

http://www.fcnp.com/430/firearms.htm

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About three dozen members and supporters of Virginia pro-gun rights organizations appeared, most wearing handguns, at Monday's meeting of the Falls Church City Council. Many came to the microphone during the public petition period to protest a draft administrative policy developed by City Manager Dan McKeever earlier this month that calls on City employees to contact police whenever they discover person to be bearing a weapon.

Why waste city employees' time? Any handguns carried in plain view (ones they would see) are legal under state law.

McKeever developed the policy in the wake of 15 new pro-gun laws passed by the Virginia State Legislature in the spring that went into effect July 1. He said that his measures violate no existing state or federal law but simply employs "reasonable means" for assessing whether someone is carrying a weapon legally or not.

Is it reasonable to waste limitted resources on a question that can be answered permanently by reading the statutes?

Citizens spoke strongly on both sides of the issue Monday, including a number of local Falls Church residents who stood strongly behind McKeever's policy.

But no one spoke more stridently than City Councilman David Snyder, defending McKeever's policy. "There may be places where you need your guns, but let me assure you Falls Church isn't one of them," Snyder told the pro-gun protesters. "I am proud of our community and deeply troubled that our community's ability to provide for our own safety, as we see fit, is curtailed by remote politicians and special interests who do not pay taxes here and will not bear the consequences of their own peculiar views of what is good for us."

How does state law allowing law abiding citizens to defend themselves do anything but promote community safety?

"I support the direction of the city manager and wish we could do more, consistent with applicable law" Snyder said, and concluded his remarks with a demonstration of his own, rising to his feet to say, "Here I stand and can do no other."

Speaking as president of the 2,300-member Virginia Citizens Defense League, Philip Van Cleve of Alexandria accused McKeever of "butting heads with the General Assembly's intent" with a policy "devised to circumvent state law" to the effect of "harassing law abiding citizens."

Mike Stollenwerk of Fairfax, chairman of the Fairfax Country Privacy Council, called McKeever's policy "a mean-spirited campaign against the constitutional right to carry a gun."

F.C. resident Jason Pence called it "an ill-disguised ploy to deny the natural rights to law abiding citizens."

Among the Falls Church citizens who spoke in support of McKeever, sixth grader Julia Farbstein said that people carrying weapons "can't object to being asked why."

So a sixth grader who hasn't learned what rights mean should now be the deciding force of constitutionality?

Elizabeth Wright noted that since it is illegal for some persons to carry weapons, "it is appropriate for the City police to ascertain the facts." She equated it to a bartender asking to see identification to prove that someone is 21. "You wouldn't exactly call that harassment, would you?" she asked.

Would Ms. Wright appreciate it if she were pulled over by police everytime she drove through town? According to her logic, since it is illegal for some people to drive, it would be appropriate for poplice to stop her. She wouldn't call that harassment, would she?

Council member Lindy Hockenberry commented to the protesters, "While I respect your right to speak, and to use guns to hunt or for sport, I must say that I felt very uncomfortable walking into this room" (referring to the large number of protesters openly armed with guns). "It is an excruciating uncomfortableness. No one should have to feel that way in a public meeting."

Does she fear her fellow citizen that much? Perhaps a mental help professional could help with her aparent inability to accept life.
It scares me how some people drive in Falls Church. Should everyone not be allowed to drive just because it makes me uncomfortable?

Witnesses also reported that some gun-toting demonstrators were taunting citizens before the meeting, asking them if they were liberals or if they knew Jane Fonda.

And I'm sure some of the less tactful anti-gun people were out there calling people gun-nuts, gun-fetishists, and psychopaths. Both would be wrong

In a related development yesterday, despite the police confiscation of 1,982 firearms from criminal suspects last year, the U.S. House passed a bill stripping the District of Columbia of virtually all locally-enacted gun control laws. The bill passed by a 250-171 margin over the loud objection of Rep. Jim Moran from Northern Virginia.

Check your facts. All the bill does is allow citizens the right to own firearms in their own homes. DC would still be a center or strict gun control, even if the DC Personal Protection Act were to pass the Senate.

Also, a "gang summit" drew over 400 people in Tysons Corner yesterday to mull responses to the growing threat of violent crime by organized gangs in Northern Virginia. Much of that discussion dealt with gang access to and use of guns.

OK, so we all know there are bad people out there, and they have guns that we can't stop them from aquiring. Some tell me why it would make sense to disarm all the potential victims (all law abiding people).

While Falls Church Vice Mayor Marty Meserve suggested Monday the Council here will be revisiting McKeever policy issue before its final implementation, McKeever told the News-Press yesterday that his policy will require no action from the Council. It is still in the final draft stages, and it will take time to post signs in the City identifying the boundaries of school zones, he said. It will be about a month before his policy will be in full effect.

We'll see what a rights violation lawsuit does about the full implementation of his policies.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
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[Kennedy 0]

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1002guns02.html

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Armed citizens shake up council
Protesters have gripe with panel's anti-gun procedure

David Cho
Washington Post
Oct. 2, 2004 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - It seemed simple enough. Suburban Falls Church, Va., officials recently drafted a policy that would require city workers to call 911 immediately if anyone stepped onto city property carrying a gun. Police who responded would check to see whether the gun was properly licensed and report their findings to city officials.

With all seven council members and many residents of this little city inside the Capital Beltway firmly in the anti-gun camp, only a few officials expected any problems with the procedures.

But if the intent was to discourage gun toting in the city, the effort has so far backfired.

About 30 people, pistols strapped to their hips, strode into the council's meeting this week protesting the policy and warning that it violates their right to bear arms - and possibly state laws, as well.

The group was largely organized by Philip Van Cleave, president of the gun owners group Virginia Citizens Defense League, who drove up from his home near Richmond. He had hardly set foot in the place before, but now, he vowed, "Falls Church is going to be under a microscope."

"We weren't paying any attention to them until they did this," he said. "If they try to set some standard like this, and we ignore them, then it's going to send the wrong message. . . . If they violate state law, we are prepared to sue them."

The presence of so many pistol-packing citizens unnerved council members and, in particular, infuriated Councilman David Snyder, who denounced their brazen display of firearms as "intimidation" and attacked Virginia's recently enacted laws that limit local control over guns.

"It's particularly ironic that everyone on the state, federal and local levels are concerned about gang violence, and yet Virginia prevents local communities from acting against that very violence when guns are potentially involved," he said in an interview.

"It was unnerving," said Vice Mayor Martha "Marty" Meserve. "Our staff is supposed to be on alert to look for suspicious activity, to look for terrorists, and now they're being told that if they question someone carrying a weapon, they are harassing people. You can't have it both ways."

The debate underscores the political divide between northern Virginia's urban communities and the conservative leanings of the General Assembly.

"It's an absolutely bizarre situation, where the citizens of Falls Church can't determine the levels of safety that they want on the facilities that they alone have paid for," Snyder said.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[Guest]

Sheesh.

Glad I don't live in the Old (DS9-variety) Dominion anymore.

Hard to live in a place where the flag shows a jackbooted heel on a fallen taxpayer.

mh

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[Kennedy 0]

Actually, Virginia has been doing all right in the area of gun rights. The state legislature has taken serious, active steps to recognize and respect gun uses, gun ownership, and gun owners.

It's the towns and villages that you have to watch out for.
(Wilmette, anyone?)
Falls Church is a nicer suburb of the DC greater metro area. Apparently gun hysteria is contageous, because the closer you are to DC gma, the more rediculous the ideas become.

It's just more of the "people don't cause crime, guns do" and the "we're from the government, we're here to help, and we know what's best" attitude that pervades so many cities.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*