Embarrassing Virginia Challenges New York To A Duel

Will Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell challenge New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to a duel? Seems like the right way to work this one out.

It seems that McDonnell has written a letter to Bloomberg threatening legal action if New York City does not cease and desist from conducting "sting" operations at Virginia gun dealers. (See Washington Post story here.)

How embarassing for us progressive Virginians!

All this stems from a series of stings New York conducted awhile back, in which some Virginia gun dealers (picked because firearms from their shops were used repeatedly in NYC murders) illegally sold guns to buyers posing as straw purchasers.

After New York brought legal proceedings against some of the dealers, what did Virginia do? Did it say, "oh my, we ought to be the ones enforcing these guns laws, and shame on you dealers"? Of course not.

Instead, the dealers went to the NRA and other gun groups and got the ever cowardly Virginia legislature to pass a law saying that another state cannot conduct a sting operation in Va. without a Virginia or federal law enforcement official present.

Of course, that's about as useful as requiring that Shi'ite police officers in Iraq accompany US forces on any operation against the Mahdi Army. Somehow, the Mahdi Army just happens to always be tipped off.

To its credit, New York gave Virginia the figurative finger and said "fugheddaboutit". New York shouldn't be intimidated. The law--which sadly a number of Democrats in Va. also voted for, and even more sadly, Gov. Kaine signed--is probably unconstitutional. We'd like to see NY press the issue and force a court confrontation, in which we think McDonnell will be smacked down.

One thing the law does show, however, is that the NRA is not at all serious when it says we don't need more gun control laws, we just need better enforcement of existing laws. BS. The NRA, whose Board of Directors includes at least one gun dealer cited numerous times for unlawful sales, has gone out of its way to protect and immunize gun dealers, rather than work on enforcement. They don't give a darn about safety--all they care about is arming the citizenry to the teeth.

And by the way, to add insult to injury, the Virginia Citizens Defense League (which sounds like a place OK City bomber Timothy McVeigh would have been welcome) is, according to the Post, holding a "Bloomberg Gun Giveaway" in Fairfax County next week--barely a year past the tragedy at the Sully police station that took two police officers' lives--to give away "a handgun, a long gun, lots of ammunition, and other prizes.

Wouldn't it be nice if Fairfax police officers turned out in force at this event to protest the obvious insult to their comrades' deaths? (It's next Thursday, 7:30 pm, at the Mason Government Center in Annandale.)