Carrying in/around Harrisonburg, VA and MS-13

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I saw an old posting about carrying around Harrisonburg that raised some questions
about MS-13 gangs in this area. Yes, they are there along with some other gangs.

Here are a couple links to articles about them. The Post article is short. The other is Congressional testimony by the prosecutor from Harrisonburg. I doubt anything has gotten better since these articles/testimony were first published.

I'm in that area every month and yes, I carry, either open or concealed.

- Striker

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1399-2004May29.html

http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/garst041305.pdf#search=%22ms%2013%20in%20shenandoah%20valley%22

imported post

I grew up in Harrisonburg, and was back there for a month this summer. The first thing I did when my parents picked me up a Dulles was get my pistol case and holster out of my bag so I could rearm in the car on the way to H'burg.

My parents objected, saying that Harrisonburg is much safer than Hoston and that I don't need to carry all the time there (I only started carrying since I moved to Texas a bit over a year ago). I told them that my carrying was not negotiable, and proceeded to strap on my gun. They decided to drop their arguments.

That night, I was hanging out with some friends from a local EMS agency at Rockingham Memorial Hospital. I got in a conversation with a state trooper who was at the hospital working an accident. He was saying that there are 12 or 13 different gangs currently active in Rockingham County--including the Crips and Bloods, as well as MS-13--and that he certainly understood why I would want to carry, even in a "safe" area like Harrisonburg.

To make a long story short, I carried all the time while I was in Virginia. I carried even more than I do in Texas, since I did not have to disarm when I went on university property (against the law in TX, and I'm a full-time student). I open carried the few times I went to restaurants with an alcohol license--not easy for someone used to carrying in a state where OC is a misdemeanor that would get their permit revoked.

The only time I was disarmed was when I had to go into an elementary school. Well, that's not completely true--I also went on vacation with my parents to Canada for a week. Three guesses what the first thing was that I did once we got home.