paramedic70002
Regular Member
Got "gunbuster" blocked at the Franklin-Southampton County Fair yesterday, email sent
Here's my email to VCDL and the Fair's "Contact Us" page:
This is a request for the Franklin-Southampton County Foundation to rescind it's prohibition of lawfully carried firearms at the Fairgrounds. The Isle of Wight County Fair has no such prohibition, nor to my knowledge do any other local fairs, for a particular reason that I will address below.
Yesterday, August 16 2014, I and my family attended the Franklin-Southampton County Fair. In advance, I checked your website and found the "Fair Rules and Regulations" at http://www.franklinsouthamptoncountyfair.org/fair/rules-and-regulations. Nowhere in this document is there any mention of a "No Firearms" policy. Yet as I approached the entrance, there was a very large sign stating, "No Firearms Allowed." As I was legally carrying a firearm, I had to then return to my vehicle and store the firearm, in full view of passersby.
This made my vehicle a target for a break-in, and potentially endangered the public with the theft of a firearm. Further, your posted policy rendered me unarmed and unable to exercise my Constitutional right to carry a firearm for self defense. I am not physically able to fight off a group of attackers nor am I bulletproof, also my wife is confined to a wheelchair and as such an attractive target for criminals. Your sign surely has little value to any criminals that might choose to ignore the prohibition.
I am aware that, just like all public access venues, your fair is not immune from violence. Just last year a man assaulted EMS volunteers who were rescuing an injured child from his beating.
Also note that per your lease agreement with Southampton County, http://www.southamptoncounty.org/pdf/JuneAgenda/Franklin-Southampton_Fair_Foundation.pdf, 1. The property is owned by a local political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia; 2. Southampton County partially funds the Fair in the form of insurance coverage; and, 3. Southampton Count also partially funds the Fair in the form of responsibility of the water system.
Even partial government funding of your organization arguably establishes the Fair as an affiliated arm of local government, as you are dependent on tax revenues for your operation.
Because the fairgrounds are owned by, and partially funded by, Southampton County, the operation and rules of the Fair and Fairgrounds seem to be covered by the Code of Virginia, 15.2-915, https://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+15.2-915, which prohibits any locality from establishing firearms restrictions greater than the Commonwealth's law.
Thus, in my opinion, your prohibition of lawfully carried firearms is not only an affront to the freedom that all Virginians enjoy, but is in violation of state law.
Please remove the signs as soon as possible. Until then neither I nor my family will be returning to the Fairgrounds, and I will be advising all of my friends, family, compatriots in the firearm rights community of this issue.
Thank you,
XXXXXXXXXXX
Here's my email to VCDL and the Fair's "Contact Us" page:
This is a request for the Franklin-Southampton County Foundation to rescind it's prohibition of lawfully carried firearms at the Fairgrounds. The Isle of Wight County Fair has no such prohibition, nor to my knowledge do any other local fairs, for a particular reason that I will address below.
Yesterday, August 16 2014, I and my family attended the Franklin-Southampton County Fair. In advance, I checked your website and found the "Fair Rules and Regulations" at http://www.franklinsouthamptoncountyfair.org/fair/rules-and-regulations. Nowhere in this document is there any mention of a "No Firearms" policy. Yet as I approached the entrance, there was a very large sign stating, "No Firearms Allowed." As I was legally carrying a firearm, I had to then return to my vehicle and store the firearm, in full view of passersby.
This made my vehicle a target for a break-in, and potentially endangered the public with the theft of a firearm. Further, your posted policy rendered me unarmed and unable to exercise my Constitutional right to carry a firearm for self defense. I am not physically able to fight off a group of attackers nor am I bulletproof, also my wife is confined to a wheelchair and as such an attractive target for criminals. Your sign surely has little value to any criminals that might choose to ignore the prohibition.
I am aware that, just like all public access venues, your fair is not immune from violence. Just last year a man assaulted EMS volunteers who were rescuing an injured child from his beating.
Also note that per your lease agreement with Southampton County, http://www.southamptoncounty.org/pdf/JuneAgenda/Franklin-Southampton_Fair_Foundation.pdf, 1. The property is owned by a local political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia; 2. Southampton County partially funds the Fair in the form of insurance coverage; and, 3. Southampton Count also partially funds the Fair in the form of responsibility of the water system.
Even partial government funding of your organization arguably establishes the Fair as an affiliated arm of local government, as you are dependent on tax revenues for your operation.
Because the fairgrounds are owned by, and partially funded by, Southampton County, the operation and rules of the Fair and Fairgrounds seem to be covered by the Code of Virginia, 15.2-915, https://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+15.2-915, which prohibits any locality from establishing firearms restrictions greater than the Commonwealth's law.
Thus, in my opinion, your prohibition of lawfully carried firearms is not only an affront to the freedom that all Virginians enjoy, but is in violation of state law.
Please remove the signs as soon as possible. Until then neither I nor my family will be returning to the Fairgrounds, and I will be advising all of my friends, family, compatriots in the firearm rights community of this issue.
Thank you,
XXXXXXXXXXX