Category: 2nd amendment/guns/weapons

Washingtonpost.com:

RICHMOND — Gov. Terry McAuliffe plans to announce Friday that Virginia will restore handgun reciprocity agreements with nearly all states, in a stunning reversal of a firearms policy that had angered Republicans and gun rights advocates across the nation.

The about-face is part of a deal that McAuliffe (D) struck with Republican leaders one month after Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) ended the right of gun owners in 25 states to have their concealed carry permits recognized in Virginia.

In exchange, Republicans will agree to a major concession: Anyone subject to a permanent protective order for a domestic violence offense will be prohibited from carrying a firearm for the two-year life of the order. The issue had been a nonstarter in the Republican-controlled General Assembly.

“This is a bipartisan deal that will make Virginians safer,” McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said. “It also demonstrates that Democrats and Republicans can work together on key issues like keeping guns out of dangerous hands.”

 The agreement marks the first break in a logjam in the state over gun rights and gun control marked by heated rhetoric on both sides.

Bristowbeat.com:

Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman At-large Corey Stewart (R) announced a controversial proposal to eliminate all county concealed handgun permitting fees.

If passed, Prince William County will be the first locality in Virginia to eliminate permit fees, and Stewart expects other jurisdictions may do the same.

According to Stewart’s media release, he believes the proposed policy would benefit all of the law-abiding citizens who pass existing state background checks and meet state statutory requirements for the issuance of the permit.

Stewart insinuates the proposal is a response to Attorney General Mark Herring’s (D) announcement that Virginia would no longer recognize out of state concealed handgun permits.

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Somehow this speech and executive order will be contrived to mean that Obama will come round up everyone’s gun.  No.  That isn’t going to happen.  No Obama in combat boots knocking on anyone’s door.

One of the breakdowns I have heard that I think will be fixed is people being allowed to buy Tommy guns and similar type machine guns under the guise of a corporate trust.  Apparently the number of people filing this kind of paper work has increased exponentially.  I am one of those people who just don’t think civilians need this kind of fire power.

My own Congressman has already bellowed and moaned about the President’s actions.  My own Congressman represents me on almost nothing, however.   He plays to the ideologues on nearly every issue.

Then I have to remind myself that I had the only Obama sign in my yard in 2012.  My street is a long one.  It goes from Splashdown to Vint Hill Road.   The sign was my husband’s sign.  He worked the Obama campaign.   That’s a long road for only one little ole sign.

The polls seem to support this latest initiative.  Furthermore, Obama has the lowest number of executive orders of any president since Grover Cleveland.  Go figure.

Washingtonpost.com:

RICHMOND — Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring announced Tuesday that the commonwealth will no longer recognize out-of-state concealed handgun permits, part of a national push to circumvent legislatures opposed to tightening gun laws.

Herring (D) said 25 states have lax laws compared with Virginia, where a history of stalking, drug dealing or inpatient mental health treatment can disqualify someone from carrying a concealed handgun. The move is in step with actions governors and attorneys general are taking to address gun violence without going through Republican-controlled legislatures.

“While you are here, you are subject to the commonwealth’s gun laws,” Herring said during a news conference.

But Herring’s office could not say how many people are suspected of crossing into Virginia with concealed weapons to commit crimes, and Republican lawmakers sharply criticized the move, which enforces laws already on the books.

Nevertheless, more than 6.3 million people who could legally carry concealed handguns into Virginia today will lose the privilege when the change takes effect next year. An additional 420,000 Virginians with concealed-carry permits will no longer enjoy reciprocity when they travel to six states.

Help me out here folks.  I have no idea what part of this means.    I understand that people with permits from lax states will not have their permits honored in Virginia.

Who are the 6.3 million people who are going to lose the privilege  of concealed-carry?

Why will 420,000 Virginians be cut off from reciprocity?   Is that automatic?

The 420,000 number is just about the same number of uninsured Virginians because the General Assembly won’t approve Medicaid funds.  Perhaps a deal could be struck.  I suppose that is an argument for another post.

The following New York Times opinion piece by the editorial board  appeared on the front page of the newspaper on Saturday, December 5.  It is the first time an opinion has appeared on page 1 since 1920.

End the Gun Epidemic in America

It is a moral outrage and national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency.

All decent people feel sorrow and righteous fury about the latest slaughter of innocents, in California. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies are searching for motivations, including the vital question of how the murderers might have been connected to international terrorism. That is right and proper.

But motives do not matter to the dead in California, nor did they in Colorado, Oregon, South Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut and far too many other places. The attention and anger of Americans should also be directed at the elected leaders whose job is to keep us safe but who place a higher premium on the money and political power of an industry dedicated to profiting from the unfettered spread of ever more powerful firearms.

It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency. These are weapons of war, barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection. America’s elected leaders offer prayers for gun victims and then, callously and without fear of consequence, reject the most basic restrictions on weapons of mass killing, as they did on Thursday. They distract us with arguments about the word terrorism. Let’s be clear: These spree killings are all, in their own ways, acts of terrorism.

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WUSA9.com:

RICHMOND, Va. (WUSA9) — Stymied in the state legislature, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe just took new gun restrictions into his own hands.

The governor signed an executive order Thursday banning firearms in most state government buildings and empowering the Attorney General to prosecute illegal gun sales.

Up until the governor’s order, almost everyone was legally entitled to carry a firearm into the DMV in Virginia.

Governor McAuliffe handed to pen he used to sign Executive Order 50 to the parents of murdered WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and argued the measures will help reduce gun violence.

“No more excuses. No more politics. No more senseless deaths while elected leaders play partisan petty games,” McAuliffe said.

The ban on openly carrying guns applies immediately to all state buildings the governor controls. He also hopes to ban people with concealed carry permits from bringing their guns in, but that process could take a month.

To date, there is no ban on concealed carry.   I am assuming those guns with a permit can still be carried anywhere.

Let’s have this discussion explain why anyone should have a gun in state buildings.    For the life of me, I can’t see carrying a long rifle into the governors mansion.   The Capitol and General Assembly have no gun bans as they are under the control of the General Assembly.

I can understand not wanting guns in the DMV.  Too tempting, just too tempting.

Washingtonpost.com:

GIVAT ZEEV, West Bank — The phones have been ringing nonstop at the Gun Hill shooting range, following a week of daily knife attacks by Palestinians and a clarion call by Israeli politicians requesting that permit holders should carry their pistols on their hips to help protect the citizenry against terrorists.

“It’s a madhouse,” said Yair Yifrach, general manger of the training center and gun shop here at a Jewish settlement north of Jerusalem.

Perhaps not the best choice of words for a shooting range. “But people are going a little crazy,” Yifrach said.

Israelis are frightened by violent demonstrations and daily attacks by Palestinians, not only in the West Bank but also in the heart of Israel. On Monday, Palestinians staged three stabbing attacks against Israeli civilians and police in Jerusalem; two of the attackers were shot dead, Israeli police said. One victim was a 13-year-old boy.

Yifrach, a gun instructor, does not think it is a good idea to have a bunch of undertrained, anxious Israelis rushing to own guns. But he does suppolrt the idea — as do most Israelis — that civilians who are veterans of military service trained in responsible use of firearms are a “force mutiplier” on the streets.

“In truth, getting a gun permit in Israel is not easy — that’s what I tell people,” Yifrach said.

 

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Washingtonpost:com:

The 21st century reincarnation of “Make Love, Not War” has arrived.

When ’60s protesters were opposing the Vietnam War, they emblazoned the demand for sexual freedom over violence on buttons they wore on their chests. Come next fall, students at the University of Texas Austin will protest concealed handguns on campus by strapping “gigantic swinging dildos” to their backpacks.

“The State of Texas has decided that it is not at all obnoxious to allow deadly concealed weapons in classrooms, however it DOES have strict rules about free sexual expression, to protect your innocence,” reads the Facebook event created by music student Jessica Jin.

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Washingtonpost.com:

At the Nation’s Gun Show in Chantilly, Va., on Saturday, in a cavernous warehouse filled with thousands of customers and tens of thousands of guns, the sharp sound snaps a few heads.

“We’re going to have to have a discussion about those balloon animals,” Annette Elliott, the show’s organizer, said wearily.

Forgive Elliott — and everyone — if nerves are frayed in this era of weekly mass shootings. She, too, has become familiar with the ritual of gun violence in America, but hers comes with a personal twist. Another week. Another massacre. Another round of calls from reporters asking what can be done and who is to blame for the country’s deadly gun culture. After the latest rampage, which ended with 10 dead, including the shooter, at Umpqua Community College on Thursday in Roseburg, Ore., she is hearing the questions again.

“We’re being put out there like it’s our fault,” Elliott says. “But what we’re selling is an inanimate object. And I don’t know what the response is except to arm yourself to protect yourself.” As gun opponents ratchet up the calls for more controls and more regulations, gun owners and sellers have no choice but to push back, she says. The fault, she says, lies with a mental health system that doesn’t have enough resources and with the media which, she says, gives mass killers all the attention they crave.

This response is insane.  The problem doesn’t just lie with the mental health system.  The problem is imbedded in our culture.  We love our guns, we love our violent video games, we love our rights, we love our media, and we love our polarized politics.

The solution to the problem of massacre by gun is not going to be solved by pointing one’s finger at the other guy.  The solution has to be found in a subset of all of these components of our culture.  You can’t leave anyone out.  The gun folks, the mental health folks, the media, and the entertainment industry all have to collude and seek common ground.  Each will have to give up a little.

When everyone decides we all own the problem then perhaps we can get to the solution to eradicate some of gun violence.  We will never get rid of it all but we have to stop the epidemic of mass shootings.