Less than three years after the Virginia Tech massacre, and just a few months after a man in southwest Virginia gunned down several relatives and caused a massive police manhunt (at large cost to local and state taxpayers), Virginia legislators are busily dismantling the woefully few restrictions on guns in the state.You can bet that relatives of the Va. Tech victims, and survivors, are furious over this. But the gun nut lobby could give a damn. Those victims are just collateral damage of the "freedom" to own guns and take them wherever you damn well please (including, now, bars).
Today, the Virginia senate holds a crucial vote on whether to repeal one of the remaining restrictions, the so-called "one gun a month" rule. That law was enacted a number of years ago--with support from then legislator Bob McDonnell--to stem Virginia's reputation as the supplier of choice for guns used in the murderous drug wars going on in cities up and down the east coast.
McDonnell nows supports repeal of the law, arguing it is "ineffectual." Bullshit. Cite some data. Guns used in murders in various large cities are no longer being routinely traced back to Virginia gun shops as they were in the past. The murder rate in big cities is way down.
What, exactly, is the need for repealing the law? The gun nuts don't have enough toys to play with already?
Let's hope Democrats in the Senate chamber have the balls to stand up to the gun lobby on this one.
What's next? The gun lobby will be taking aim at restrictions on automatic weapons, triggering a new nationwide arms race. Heck, why not let everyone carry around rocket-propelled grenade launchers while we're at it. Just what we want to see at our local Starbucks.
2 comments:
I bet that the Tech parents wish that I had been on campus when Cho first brandished his pistol.
Had I been there, I would have used my training and my .45 semi-automatic to drop that gook piece of shit with one round right through that sloped front end of his.
End of story.
Guns save lives.
Before the unconstitutional "one gun a month" law there was NO significant number of weapons traced back to Virginia gun shops or gun shows. That was started as political hype by New York politicians, and none of the research since those days has ever backed-up the outlandish claims that thugs need to travel to Virginia to arm themselves.
Why travel when they can break into stores and homes and just steal guns locally; which it turns out, is what most of them do.
Try to curb your emotional rage and deal with the facts:
Virginia is not a significant source of guns used in out of state or in state crime. Most legally purchased guns are, in fact, NEVER used in anger, and those who hold Concealed Carry Permits are statistically, the least likely to commit a violent crime with a gun.
Gun Shows and private sales (wherever they may occur) are not a significant source of weapons used by criminals, either. Both New York and Virginia data confirms this to be the fact.
Democrats that continue to parrot fears about a fantasy about some sort of loophole at gun shows are not stupid, just poorly informed on this issue. We need more open and honest discussions and EVERY Democratic Committee needs to schedule a briefing by the VCDL to learn the facts concerning gun sales (both private and from licensed dealers) and the data regarding the absence of any correlation between sales of firearms here in Virginia and crime, either locally or in other states.
So nice to hear from a racist.
Too bad you weren't out front of the Pentagon yesterday.
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