Public safety loses in gun right protests

It's ironic, but in many states where we pushed to make the government issue concealed carry permits to ordinary citizens, opponents argued that concealing weapons was suspicious and that someone with nothing to hide should carry openly -- letting others stay away from them.

Here we have some individuals choosing to do just that, and they're being called irresponsible. Well, they cannot be any more irresponsible than the opponents of concealed carry who made this argument!

With respect, this isn't about the federal Second Amendment, but Virginia state law as it is written. State law allows Virginia citizens to open carry in public and in public places. The law specifies where an individual can and cannot carry and the circumstances thereof. The only thing Mr. Moore was guilty of was doing what the law allows him to do. It's like getting a sppeding ticket for doing 35 MPH in a 40MPH zone. The only abuse that this writer sees is the Norfolk Police Department abusing its police powers over a law asserted by a citizen that it disagrees with.

First,of course,elementary school study of the government should have informed you that the 2nd amendment(or the 1st,or any other)grants no rights,it restricts government power over those natural rights.But if you look at rights as subject to restriction over 'maybes' and 'mights'consider this;you have a means of creating'free speech'(a word processor).You might abuse it,so we should restrict it by the application of prior restraint.Of course the courts say prior restraint is illegal.So the responsibility to do what's right based on your natural rights is the controlling legal theory.Constitutionally,you can't remove the natural rights of someone for what some idiot might do.My apologies to idiots who might think I've compared them to the Pilot's editorial writer and feel slighted.

Submitted by Mark Twine on Tue, 10/14/2008 at 6:26 am.
"Only a coward Needs a gun - concealed no less - at a festival, a school, a library or a city council meeting.

We have no absolute rights and, like it or not, this madness will end."

Only a coward would allow government to hassle, arrest, and trample of the legal rights of its citizens.

Only a person with the IQ of a tennis ball would believe that a LEO will appear like magic to stop an innocent law abiding citizen from being maimed or killed in a public place such as going to or from a festival, library, or a city council meeting.

Needs a gun - concealed no less - at a festival, a school, a library or a city council meeting.

We have no absolute rights and, like it or not, this madness will end.

If we apply your firearms theory to free speech, one would have to restrain or disable their mouth when entering a crowded theatre. After all, anybody with a mouth could shout "FIRE!" Perhaps, only those with good reason to speak could get a license from the government to speak. With this license the government could ensure that people don't speak in sensitive places like schools, courthouses, and bars. Hey, does the pilot have a license to run a newspaper?

This is the same biased editorial that was written about MLK and the Selma march back in 1965.
This is just total plagiarism.
The congregating of black men and Northern Yankees in Selma was very dangerous and meant to provoke.
As this plagiarized editorial from that 1965 protest pointed out the recent open carry was the same thing.
Just as we should have called out the National Guard and rounded up and stuck all those Selma marchers in a gulag to protect the ordinary American Citizen that demands a safe white America we should have rounded up and stuck these open carry protesters and stuck them in a Gulag to protect the rich Nobles and Lords from the great unwashed masses of peasants becoming armed. Good Lord those peasants might realize the Nobles and Lords are not sharing the wealth in a fair way and realize that if they were armed and protested that they could force the nobility to compromise or

I'm always amused when the Virginian-Pilot steps up to trample on the rights that Virginians have struggled so hard to achieve and show in print that they do not understand what they are talking about. Such is the case in the Editorial "Public safety loses in gun right protests."
Somehow the Pilot seems to think that only the VCDL members have the right to carry handguns (not "firearms") in public and that we can tell these people by the fact that the "strut our streets". That must be one of those things that happens in Hampton Roads, because here in Northern Virginia, nobody is "strutting" the streets of Leesburg with a handgun. If fact, we rarely notice when someone here enters an establishment with when exercising their right to carry. I'm presuming that people in Hampton Roads have some sort of unnatural fear of citizens exercising their rights and we might hear about their fear of citizen

This is THE most shameful editorial I have ever seen in the Virginian Pilot. As a long term member of the VCDL, I am highly offended by its stench. Never again can the Virginian Pilot deny its liberal bias. Barack Obama and the New York Times would be proud of you. Your assault on our God-given (and State and Federally protected) rights is inexcusable.

Your editorial proves that our rights are under assault, and should drive people to visit vcdl.org to see what they can do to preserve our right to defend our families. The VCDL could ask for no better recruiting tool than your editorial.

I choose to carry concealed, and do not particularly want to walk around with a gun openly. But rights are rights, and just because the sight makes you uneasy doesn't mean it should be prohibited. Get over it, these people are not causing crime, much to your consternation

"For a group that professes a proud allegiance to the principles of law and order, it is a discordant result that calls into question their tactics, their intentions, and quite possibly their motives."

Would that group be the members of journalism that write biased, slanted, unresearched opines, and then expect the community to accept their spew without response?

Oh, no, I'm sorry. You were referring to the group of law abiding citizens who are tired of their rights being trampled and being harassed by the police when they aren't doing anything illegal.

I personally think this whole issue is more about the abuse of power and ignorance of the law demonstrated by the Norfolk Police department and the City of Norfolk. Open carry of a handgun is legal in Virginia and they can't change that. You also have to wonder why the black guy was handcuffed and his white friend was not.

I'm also a member of VCDL, live in Va Beach. My wife and I have a small business in Norfolk and I carry a gun, openly and concealed, whichever is appropriate at the time. I do not flaunt my gun to intimidate anyone, I simply wear it for self-protection and the protection of my family. I hope that in the future you do your research; "The VCDL, with a mailing address in Northern Virginia"; If you take a look at the comments you're getting, you'll change your mind about where members of VCDL live and receive their mail. Thank you for bringing this discussion to the front page.

It’s the same arguments used by the neo-Nazi’s with their National Socialist Movement rally at Yorktown. Members of each group strap on their costumes for shock value, be they guns or swastikas, ride into town to jump around yelling, "I have my right to do what I want to", 'this country is no longer safe because of people who aren't like me".

At the end of the day, they drive home to someplace else so they don't have to hear annoyances like themselves. Sadly, its locals who are left holding the purse strings for their buffoonery as these extremists have figured out how to turn their protests into a shakedown racket to line their own pockets. Maybe that's why they keep holding these sham protests every 6 months, it pays the bills?

I am white and live in virginia and have a concealed carry permit. However, I often open carry and have never been arrested, detained, questioned, or even challenged about openly wearing a weapon.
Perhaps the "Pilot" should look into the racial component of this story rather than lashing out at law abiding citizens.
By the way - I have never once heard of or seen a criminal openly carrying a firearm on their hip. Just doesn't make sense does it?!?
Criminals openly wearing weapons on their hips... Wouldn't that make the law enforcements job so very easy.
Instead of inciting and trying to scare local citizens, Maybe the Va. Pilot could look into how many actual criminals were stopped and subsequently arrested after and for openly carrying a weapon on their hip. Just a guess here - but I bet its none... If it's not none then we have canidates for stupid criminal of the month.

That is exactly right, there are rights and responsibilities it is the right of every law abiding American to keep and bear arms and it is the responsibility of law enforcement to protect that right as well as others. under the circumstances the bus driver and the responding officer should have been detained at least. The reason VCDL show up is because law enforcement failed to perform in appropriate manner when MR, Moore's rights were violated "Again".

Great job of unbiased, non-slanted, accurate and factual op/ed. (NOT)

This piece is a pure hatchet job of propaganda.

It is so egregious that I shall save it and frame it as a classic example of yellow journalism.

"Public safety loses in gun right protests." is absurd to say the least. If the Police are every 15 ft throughout a city, responsible and accoutable for the protection of individual citizens, then we would not have as many criminals as we do today. As this is not so, it is each individuals duty as a responsible citizen to protect themselves, their families and society. Public safety loses when gun control succedes. I am not currently a member of VCDL but I also consider it my mission to transform government and police departments of any city that violates people's rights in this country. You should be ashamed to do less. Your welcome for others and my military service that allows you the freedom to choose which rights a person in the land of the free gets to exercise.

The VP would have us believe that "gun violence" is caused by citizens who can legally own a firearm, have made legal purchases of a firearm and choose to openly carry that firearm in a manner prescribed by law. One wonders why the VP is not concerned about "gun violence" from people who purchase, carry (hidden) and use those firearms illegally. I also question the NPD's response to legal action.

I am not a member of VCDL. I have not been a member of this organization. But frankly, I'd rather be around a group of open-carry folks like VCDL, than walk some streets in Norfolk unarmed. Whether I elect to carry openly, concealed or not at all is my choice and should never be the government's choice. The VP has convinced me to join VCDL. My application will in the mail Tuesday.

I am a member and was at the meeting. I live in Chesapeake and operate my business in Norfolk.

Norfolk is not a safe place and unlike the Pilot's offices, not all of us have security guards at our door to protect us, we must protect ourselves.

I have a right to defend myself, and a right to carry a firearm, and I will not be intimidated into not exercising that right just to cater to your irrational fears.