When I was discussing Skidmarks case with VDOT, they are adamant that guns are perfectly legal on the Ferry and the problem didn't involve his firearm.
Oddly, however, when I was "randomly selected" for screening I was also openly carrying a firearm, as was the entire group I was with. The firearms were not an issue.
Everyone carried aboard the ferry and openly displayed their sidearms for the duration of the transit.
This comes to me as being a matter of education on the part of the "security" firm handling the screenings. Much like all of the hullabaloo we have read regarding the "enhanced" pat downs by the TSA - I opted out and did not feel sexually violated - it is a result of their training regimen (or lack thereof) which determines their ability to properly do their jobs.
What happened at the ferry landing was likely a direct result of Mr. Macho Britches being stripped of his self-imposed authority by a lowly citizen who knew the law better than him. It exploded out of control there by going through progressive iterations of poorly-informed, poorly-educated rent-a-cop types who do not like to be told they are wrong.
These are probably guys who could not make the cut at the academy and have spent the past several years stewing about their own inadequacies, waiting for their chance to exercise dominion over someone else.
They picked the wrong guy that day.
