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No place for guns at Harborfest

Renegade

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Jan 17, 2007
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Yorktown, VA, ,
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There are many comments at the bottom of the page:

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=129012&ran=208722



No place for guns at Harborfest

You know what Harborfest really needs, aside from tall ships and nutrition-free foods and copious amounts of beer? It needs more guns.

Specifically, Harborfest needs a guy with a chip on his shoulder and a gun on his hip to use the festival to dare law enforcement to tell him that a weapon in a large crowd of revelers might not be a good idea.

So thank goodness Chester Szymecki Jr. came all the way from Yorktown to Town Point Park, carrying a holstered .45, along with his wife and several children, to make a case for the inviolability of his Second Amendment rights.

When officers pointed out to Mr. Szymecki that his decision to pack heat violated a local ordinance banning weapons at Harborfest - well, you can guess. He protested, was carted away in handcuffs, he says, and almost instantly became the kind of cause célèbre the state's gun-rights lobby needs to rally the faithful.

The local ordinance turns out to run afoul of a state law preventing municipalities from limiting where Virginians can carry a weapon. Since the Dillon Rule bars those same localities from doing anything unless Richmond gives them permission, cities are stuck.

The General Assembly has in recent years decided that the rights of gun owners overwhelm every other right there is, including the right of communities to enact common sense rules to protect public safety, or the rights of people not to be stuck with gun activists trying to make a point.

As always follows one of these stories, Virginia's firearm activists will fall in line to take aim at anyone with the temerity to suggest that their rights have limits. These same groups have so completely cowed anyone who disagrees that Virginians might well wonder whether they live in the Old Dominion or the Wild West.

Suffolk's School Board, for example, was so creeped out that it moved its meetings to Kings Fork High School; a school is one of the very few places where guns can actually be prohibited.

Maybe Norfolk should follow suit and consider moving Harborfest to one of its schools - say, Granby High. After all, even children know that carrying a gun to a party is a bad idea.
 

rabbit994

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No place for guns at harborfest. No place for guns at colleges. No place for guns at school. No place for guns on city streets. Why don't you just drop the charade and just say what you really want to say "No place for guns" in your mind Virginian-Pilot
 

ParaWarthog

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This particular article had me steaming. This paragraph is a good exapmle of the tone of this vitriolic letter:

"The General Assembly has in recent years decided that the rights of gun owners overwhelm every other right there is, including the right of communities to enact common sense rules to protect public safety, or the rights of people not to be stuck with gun activists trying to make a point."


The anti's sure wish they could severly limit freedom. I wish they could implement some "common sense rules" to keep murders from happening by unlawful gun wielding felons.

:cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:
 

Lew

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Renegade wrote:
There are many comments at the bottom of the page:

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=129012&ran=208722



The local ordinance turns out to run afoul of a state law preventing municipalities from limiting where Virginians can carry a weapon. Since the Dillon Rule bars those same localities from doing anything unless Richmond gives them permission, cities are stuck.

Well, what do you know...

The General Assembly has in recent years decided that the rights of gun owners overwhelm every other right there is, including...the rights of people not to be stuck with gun activists trying to make a point.

Luckily, that's not a right. Unlike bearing arms.

Virginians might well wonder whether they live in the Old Dominion or the Wild West.

There's that term again. One of "their" favorites.

...a school is one of the very few places where guns can actually be prohibited.

Because that works out so well...
 

nickerj1

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, , USA
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I will never understand it. I don't think anyone on this forum will.

When I see someone carrying a gun responsibly, I feel safer. I think, 'Hey, this community will be safer because he's carrying a gun. That guy would likely step in, intervene, even put his life on the line for someone he doesn't know, if such a situation arose. And he doesn't even get paid for it, like LEOs.'
 

psmartin

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Oct 2, 2006
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205
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Richmond, Virginia, USA
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ParaWarthog wrote:
This particular article had me steaming. This paragraph is a good exapmle of the tone of this vitriolic letter:

"The General Assembly has in recent years decided that the rights of gun owners overwhelm every other right there is, including the right of communities to enact common sense rules to protect public safety, or the rights of people not to be stuck with gun activists trying to make a point."


The anti's sure wish they could severly limit freedom. I wish they could implement some "common sense rules" to keep murders from happening by unlawful gun wielding felons.

:cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

I've got an idea for "common sense gun control"

Prisons built to Chinese standards.. complete with torture areas, starkly furnished cells, no TV and no visitation.

Once enough of the people are in prison that "gun control" was targeting, the problem will fix itself!

(oh course the Dem's want to give prisoners free medical care, family visits, posh living conditions, etc!!!)

I HATE STUPID PEOPLE!
 

Tomahawk

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psmartin wrote:
I've got an idea for "common sense gun control"

Prisons built to Chinese standards.. complete with torture areas, starkly furnished cells, no TV and no visitation.

Once enough of the people are in prison that "gun control" was targeting, the problem will fix itself!

(oh course the Dem's want to give prisoners free medical care, family visits, posh living conditions, etc!!!)

I HATE STUPID PEOPLE!
If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom. Dwight D. Eisenhower
 

Renegade

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Yorktown, VA, ,
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My reply the the editor:

Contrary to your assertion in a recent editorial, I did not attend Harborfest in order to make a point concerning the Second Amendment or any other subject. I carried a gun that day for the same reason I usually do: to ensure the protection of my family and our property. That is the best deterrent to crime I know of.

Why does your editorial board find it odd that a family that chooses to live in Yorktown would be interested inseeing 18th Century ships flowing into a Virginia harbor?

Respectfully,

Chet Szymecki

Yorktown, VA
 

automan

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Joined
Jul 2, 2007
Messages
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Location
Alexandria (FFXC), Virginia, USA
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Lew wrote:
Renegade wrote:
There are many comments at the bottom of the page:

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=129012&ran=208722



The local ordinance turns out to run afoul of a state law preventing municipalities from limiting where Virginians can carry a weapon. Since the Dillon Rule bars those same localities from doing anything unless Richmond gives them permission, cities are stuck.

Well, what do you know...

The General Assembly has in recent years decided that the rights of gun owners overwhelm every other right there is, including...the rights of people not to be stuck with gun activists trying to make a point.

Luckily, that's not a right. Unlike bearing arms.

Virginians might well wonder whether they live in the Old Dominion or the Wild West.

There's that term again. One of "their" favorites.

...a school is one of the very few places where guns can actually be prohibited.

Because that works out so well...
"Virginians might well wonder whether they live in the Old Dominion or the Wild West. There's that term again. One of "their" favorites."

According toWestern historians, the Wild West wasn't as wild as society is today. Far less crime such as murders, robberies and rapesoccured due toa vast majority of armed people whoknew how to use firearms, had easy access to them and knew how to use them.
 

HankT

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Feb 20, 2007
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I could never understand the old "Wild West" allusion.

It's either hackneyed or, um, just wrong. But they almost always use it...



Another interesting point in the Op-Ed is the tactic of moving events to lawful gun-prohibiting zones. I see more of that happening. It's easy to do for some events/meetings. Not a Harborfest, of course.

At some point, the ability of a hosting site to be legally gun-prohibiting for a prospectiveevent may actually be a desirable feature for event planners who are anti-gun for some reason. That would be bad, I think. But if it start happening, say, with more than just MMM meetings, it will be highly useful feedback to the pro-gun/rights movement.
 
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