Quote:
Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
Virginia allows folks to carry concealed in bars!?! Not good.
I'd imagine the individual private business can ban it on premises.
I was going to construct an argument about the dangers of allowing young folks with (almost by definition) not fully mature judgment to carry weapons when surrounded by thousands like them in an atmosphere fraught with alcohol and sexual tension -- but hell, if you can carry in bars why not anywhere else?
Might as well let guns into the bleachers in Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park -- people would be much politer to each other and the players. (Isn't that the argument?)
S_A_M
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ETA this first: "In 2002, Governor Warner supported permitting concealed handguns in public parks and buildings. In 2003, a bill to permit concealed handguns in bars passed the House of Delegates and was only stopped in the Senate by a tie vote in committee." This is from a google search, but the page had an honest face, so it appears that Virginia doesn't allow guns in bars (unless it allows unpermitted openly-carried guns in bars). I take it back.
There were articles in the Washington Post about some of the gun-rights people exercising their rights to "openly" carry (I think it was even without permit), and I don't recall exactly where they were banned at all.
I know from reading the Post that the issue has arisen in the context of Fairfax Co. (or some Co.'s) parks (ban overruled), and the Dulles Access road (overruled). It arose with respect to libraries in Falls Church?, and the gun people showed what they thought of the city instructing its employees to call the police at the sight of an openly-carried gun... by openly carrying guns into the next city council meeting.
I think I see where you are going though, and I'm not taking a position one way or another on it. If anything, I would take a position in favor of banning anyone who has taken alchohol in the last 24 hours from carrying a weapon.
Anyhoo, its all academic to me. Seems like these people really are pushing the issue into the fringes though.
Oh yeah, and I think you are right about individual private businesses.
In other news, Illinois just turned back all kinds of anti-gun measures, and passed a few that would curtail local jurisdiction on guns.
A few years ago, a guy up on the North Shore shot and wounded or killed a home-invader from Chicago. His town promptly charged him with violating guns laws. If government officials on both sides would just use a little better discretion on these issues, entire states wouldn't get up in arms like this. But where in the world can we trust government officials to use good discretion?
