Renegade
Regular Member
imported post
After reading this trash...do us all a favor and visit the VP and share your comments - it only takes a few seconds of your time. I am responding right now.
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Public safety loses in gun right protests
The Virginian-Pilot
© October 11, 2008
There are rights, and there are responsibilities that accompany each right.
The classic and well-worn illustration is that it is irresponsible - not to mention illegal - to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater, though the right to free speech is one of America's most cherished. The reason for the prohibition is that people might be hurt in a stampede to escape.
So while members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League have the right to carry guns on their hips as they strut our streets, thanks to the Second Amendment to the Constitution and Virginia's legislature, their intentional provocation of Norfolk police officers does not make city streets any safer. That's irresponsible.
The VCDL, with a mailing address in Northern Virginia, lately seems to believe its mission is to transform the government and police department of the city of Norfolk, to make our community a friendlier place for its members and their campaign for displayed weapons.
Luckily for the VCDL, those same members get to go home when they're done making trouble in Norfolk. They don't have to rely on Norfolk officers who might understandably hesitate when dispatched by 911 to figure out why somebody is walking down the street with a weapon, or lingering in front of an ATM.
The VCDL wants to normalize displayed guns in a community that has paid far too high a price for gun violence.
The organization wants to make it commonplace for people - law abiding and not - to walk down the streets of Norfolk with a gun in a holster.
If the VCDL gets to raise its profile and fatten its coffers in the bargain, all the better. Most of Norfolk has no interest in what the VCDL is selling and frowns on guns in playgrounds and restaurants and City Hall and festivals, all places where VCDL advocates wearing weapons.
Members intentionally provoke a public reaction, then are outraged when law-abiding citizens call the police about an armed stranger, or when police aren't sufficiently deferential to their Second Amendment rights.
Norfolk's citizens want a strong police force to help prevent violence in the city. We want them to respect the rights of everyone, of course, but first we want them to make sure an armed man, in a public place, means us no harm.
And now, thanks to the hassling presence of VCDL members, thanks to a campaign to cow the police, thanks to pandering lawmakers in Richmond, Norfolk officers may hesitate the next time they're faced with an armed person who may or may not intend violence.
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.
Edit - add url: http://tinyurl.com/4bh4s5
After reading this trash...do us all a favor and visit the VP and share your comments - it only takes a few seconds of your time. I am responding right now.
--------------------------------------------------------
Public safety loses in gun right protests
The Virginian-Pilot
© October 11, 2008
There are rights, and there are responsibilities that accompany each right.
The classic and well-worn illustration is that it is irresponsible - not to mention illegal - to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater, though the right to free speech is one of America's most cherished. The reason for the prohibition is that people might be hurt in a stampede to escape.
So while members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League have the right to carry guns on their hips as they strut our streets, thanks to the Second Amendment to the Constitution and Virginia's legislature, their intentional provocation of Norfolk police officers does not make city streets any safer. That's irresponsible.
The VCDL, with a mailing address in Northern Virginia, lately seems to believe its mission is to transform the government and police department of the city of Norfolk, to make our community a friendlier place for its members and their campaign for displayed weapons.
Luckily for the VCDL, those same members get to go home when they're done making trouble in Norfolk. They don't have to rely on Norfolk officers who might understandably hesitate when dispatched by 911 to figure out why somebody is walking down the street with a weapon, or lingering in front of an ATM.
The VCDL wants to normalize displayed guns in a community that has paid far too high a price for gun violence.
The organization wants to make it commonplace for people - law abiding and not - to walk down the streets of Norfolk with a gun in a holster.
If the VCDL gets to raise its profile and fatten its coffers in the bargain, all the better. Most of Norfolk has no interest in what the VCDL is selling and frowns on guns in playgrounds and restaurants and City Hall and festivals, all places where VCDL advocates wearing weapons.
Members intentionally provoke a public reaction, then are outraged when law-abiding citizens call the police about an armed stranger, or when police aren't sufficiently deferential to their Second Amendment rights.
Norfolk's citizens want a strong police force to help prevent violence in the city. We want them to respect the rights of everyone, of course, but first we want them to make sure an armed man, in a public place, means us no harm.
And now, thanks to the hassling presence of VCDL members, thanks to a campaign to cow the police, thanks to pandering lawmakers in Richmond, Norfolk officers may hesitate the next time they're faced with an armed person who may or may not intend violence.
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.
Edit - add url: http://tinyurl.com/4bh4s5
