user
Accomplished Advocate
Mere opinion:
I'm convinced from what I've seen recently that the people who want to disarm the public in order to make everyone defenseless have shifted their tactics somewhat and have become a good bit more aggressive. A civilized society assumes that political action will be taken in a public forum giving free rein to argument and discussion, but that when a decision is reached, we all shut up and play by the rules. The problem is that law-abiding and socially responsible people tend to all be on the gun-ownership for personal defense side of the debate.
But activists, particularly in local governments, are engaging in indirect tactics. For example, all over Virginia, the number of gun-seizures in situations that would normally be simple traffic stops appears to have increased dramatically. People are being charged with bogus criminal offenses as a pretext for seizure of the guns, with the result that they have to pay a lawyer to get an acquittal ("punishment by attorney"). But even after the acquittal they won't give the guns back. I always ask for an order as part of the final disposition of the case, but most lawyers don't think of that. So getting the gun back requires further expensive legal proceedings. The cops know that it's cheaper just to buy a new gun (assuming the owner has money for either).
I'm also convinced that this is a passive-aggressive way of getting back at gun owners for having 15.2-915 passed. There's an element of "You're not going to tell me what to do; if I can't do it openly, I'll use the back-door approach." I'm sure they believe they're doing the right thing in "getting guns off the street". I've got one case right now that illustrates the point: a guy was charged with carrying a concealed weapon which was, at the time, functionally inaccessible to him, and secured within a closed container in his vehicle. The cop had to put the small pickup truck's front seat back down and move the seat forward in order to extract the gun. No question in my mind he knew at the time that this was not probable cause for the charge. It was, in fact, robbery - the taking of personal property from another by threats, force, or intimidation. A felony; but who's going to charge and prosecute the cop for that?
This course of conduct also constitutes a "policy", even if it's an informal policy and is illegal. Proving it is going to be hard, though.
I've noticed that when I've got the VCDL magnet on a car, someone will scratch the car with a key or coin, or let the air out of the tire just below the magnet. The people we are dealing with are not law-abiding, socially-responsible people. They're emotionally driven bigots who are reacting out of blind and stupid fear, being manipulated by people who want to run the country unlawfully and who need to disarm the population in order to do so. They are unprincipled and will do anything to get their own way. I think they're much more dangerous than gun owners.
I'm convinced from what I've seen recently that the people who want to disarm the public in order to make everyone defenseless have shifted their tactics somewhat and have become a good bit more aggressive. A civilized society assumes that political action will be taken in a public forum giving free rein to argument and discussion, but that when a decision is reached, we all shut up and play by the rules. The problem is that law-abiding and socially responsible people tend to all be on the gun-ownership for personal defense side of the debate.
But activists, particularly in local governments, are engaging in indirect tactics. For example, all over Virginia, the number of gun-seizures in situations that would normally be simple traffic stops appears to have increased dramatically. People are being charged with bogus criminal offenses as a pretext for seizure of the guns, with the result that they have to pay a lawyer to get an acquittal ("punishment by attorney"). But even after the acquittal they won't give the guns back. I always ask for an order as part of the final disposition of the case, but most lawyers don't think of that. So getting the gun back requires further expensive legal proceedings. The cops know that it's cheaper just to buy a new gun (assuming the owner has money for either).
I'm also convinced that this is a passive-aggressive way of getting back at gun owners for having 15.2-915 passed. There's an element of "You're not going to tell me what to do; if I can't do it openly, I'll use the back-door approach." I'm sure they believe they're doing the right thing in "getting guns off the street". I've got one case right now that illustrates the point: a guy was charged with carrying a concealed weapon which was, at the time, functionally inaccessible to him, and secured within a closed container in his vehicle. The cop had to put the small pickup truck's front seat back down and move the seat forward in order to extract the gun. No question in my mind he knew at the time that this was not probable cause for the charge. It was, in fact, robbery - the taking of personal property from another by threats, force, or intimidation. A felony; but who's going to charge and prosecute the cop for that?
This course of conduct also constitutes a "policy", even if it's an informal policy and is illegal. Proving it is going to be hard, though.
I've noticed that when I've got the VCDL magnet on a car, someone will scratch the car with a key or coin, or let the air out of the tire just below the magnet. The people we are dealing with are not law-abiding, socially-responsible people. They're emotionally driven bigots who are reacting out of blind and stupid fear, being manipulated by people who want to run the country unlawfully and who need to disarm the population in order to do so. They are unprincipled and will do anything to get their own way. I think they're much more dangerous than gun owners.
