FAIRFAX VIRGINIA GUN BANS

[Ric in Richmond]

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149191813857&path=%21news&s=1063629688048

Associated Press

Nov 21, 2006

FAIRFAX, Va. - The shooting deaths of two officers outside a police station in May has prompted Fairfax County to seek a ban on the carrying of guns into law enforcement buildings by anyone other than authorized personnel.

While Virginia bans weapons in courthouses, there is no prohibition on weapons inside police stations or jails.

At the request of Fairfax County Police Chief David M. Rohrer, the Board of Supervisors has included the proposed ban in a draft of its legislative program for the 2007 Virginia General Assembly. Similar efforts have failed in the past, but the issue has gained new urgency since the May 8 shootings at the Sully District station in Chantilly.

Michael W. Kennedy, a mentally ill 18-year-old, drove to the rear parking lot of the station and fired more than 70 shots with an assault rifle and other weapons. Detective Vicky O. Armel, 40, was killed, along with Kennedy. Officer Michael E. Garbarino, 53, died of his wounds nine days later.

The proposed measure already has stirred opposition.

Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, said such a ban would not have prevented Kennedy's assault on the Sully station, which occurred outside the building. Police stations, he added, have secure areas where only authorized personnel are allowed.

"This whole thing is a non-issue," Van Cleave told The Washington Post. "They're just trying to poke gun owners in the eye."

The gun ban is one of several initiatives county officials are considering taking to Richmond next year. They include a so-called living wage bill that would let the county require contractors to pay employees more than the state's minimum wage, which has been $5.15 an hour since 1997.

Advocates of the measure, led by Supervisor Catherine M. Hudgins, say it is necessary to help low-wage workers cope with high living costs in northern Virginia.


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Why not just ban killing cops? Oh wait...that is already illegal and the CRIMINAL didn't follow the law! Why do lawmaker expect CRIMINALS to follow new laws????

Ric

 

[Helmetcase]

Uhmmm...how exactly would this law have prevented what that kid did? Or any other idiot determined to commit suicide-by-cop?

 

[carterbeauford]

Simple, ban mental illness.

 

[El Tejon]

In second grade at Westlake Elementary School in Indianapolis (Go Wildcats!) when we were covering prepositions, Mrs. Kellog had a magnetic little bird which she would place to demonstrate prepositions, wherever the bird could fly, e.g. "inside" his birdhouse and "outside" his birdhouse, was a preposition.

I think someone at VCDL would replicate Mrs. Kellog's bird and use it to show legislators the distinction between different prepositions such as inside and outside a police station. As well, I'd want VCDL to stick on an amendment that the legislation applies to police. If we cannot carry in muni buildings, the police may not either.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

My logical fallacy detector just started buzzing. It wants to know precisely HOW banning private carry of firearms INSIDE a building -- any building -- is going to prevent shootings from taking place OUTSIDE of said building.

Seems to me all this would accomplish is to make people entering and leaving the building safer targets ...

 

[XLMiguel]

Then, of course, there's the silly notion that a criminal would obey such a law, eh?

 

[RealGun]

I don't think AP has it right. This proposed law does not at all match the scenario of the incident cited. Any such proposal comes from another agenda.

 

[Leatherneck]

True what Real Gun said. This is the typical NoVA liberal attitude about guns rearing its head again.

I am acquainted with Chief Rohrer; we've corresponded and talked, although not about this silly proposal. I'm surprised that he bought into this notion.

Antbody who would carry a gun to a cop shop with evil intent is deranged and unlikely to comply with any rules.

TC

 

[countertop]

Your title is a bit disengenuous.

The board of supervisors didn't ban guns. Anywhere.

What they did was put together their list of legisltive priorities for the upcoming session of the Virginia House of Delegates and included as an issue they will be working, amongst all the highway transportation and educational funding requests, that the state allow them to ban guns in police stations.

Considering they've been trying to ban guns in county buildings for a long time - and keep failing - I'm not too worried.

 

[MatthewVanitas]

It does say great things for VA that this is the most threatening anti-gun bill on their horizon.

Still, I'll send a fiver to the VCDL, just as an "attaboy" contribution. If a handfull of folks reading this thread do likewise, it might add up.

-MV