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Letter to NOVEC

H

hgreen

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2010
Messages
470
Location
Centreville, VA
A local energy co-op in the NOVA area is holding its annual meeting in a local high school. My wife and I would like them to be aware of the impacts of their decision on people who value being able to feel safe and protected.

Not sure how many other folks here are NOVEC members, here's a letter I sent off to them. If you are a NOVEC member you might want to do something similar.


To Whom It May Concern,

As safety-minded citizens we value the ability that law-abiding Virginians have to be able to defend themselves in their everyday lives through the defensive carry of firearms. This is why it saddens my wife and me that NOVEC has chosen to hold its Annual Meeting in a location which creates helpless victims out of law-abiding citizens. This is a result of current law which prohibits law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms on school property, something they would otherwise be legally allowed to do outside the school.

As we all know, criminals have no regard for laws. In holding the meeting in a zone that prohibits law-abiding Virginians from being able to defend themselves against violent criminals, NOVEC creates an environment that is ripe for crime and victimization.

I urge NOVEC to reconsider the location for its annual meeting going forward so that it can be held someplace where law-abiding citizens can feel safe and welcome rather than disarmed and vulnerable.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Harley & Adrienne Green
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Felix

Felix

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Jan 30, 2011
Messages
186
Location
VA
Is this the first letter you've sent them? And if not, any responses to past letters?

The last couple years we were at the C. D. Hylton Senior High School and before that at the Battlefield High School so there's plenty of precedence for choosing local schools for the annual meetings.

I haven't felt the least bit unsafe at the past meeting locations but would certainly welcome the opportunity to lawfully carry at future meetings. BTW, if you don't like NOVEC's choice of locations, you can vote by mail-in proxy and still be eligible for the great membership attendee giveaways. Attendance is voluntary.

Please post any response you receive.
 
H

hgreen

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2010
Messages
470
Location
Centreville, VA
Felix said:
Is this the first letter you've sent them? And if not, any responses to past letters?

The last couple years we were at the C. D. Hylton Senior High School and before that at the Battlefield High School so there's plenty of precedence for choosing local schools for the annual meetings.

I haven't felt the least bit unsafe at the past meeting locations but would certainly welcome the opportunity to lawfully carry at future meetings. BTW, if you don't like NOVEC's choice of locations, you can vote by mail-in proxy and still be eligible for the great membership attendee giveaways. Attendance is voluntary.

Please post any response you receive.
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We just moved to the area this summer so this is the first time I've been aware of the meeting/location, so yes is the first letter. Will post response if/when I receive one.

People usually don't feel unsafe in GFSZs until its too late...

I'm aware attendance is voluntary, does not mean we should not voice our concern about their venue as voting members of the co-op, there's always advantages to being someplace in person so that your voice can be heard.
 
TFred

TFred

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Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
7,750
Location
Most historic town in, Virginia, USA
My only comment is that the phrase "feel safe" (or "feel unsafe" for that matter) is meaningless.

The whole point of the RKBA movement is that we want to actually be safe, not just feel safe, which seems to be the goal of establishing mythical "no gun" zones.

It would only take slight changes to make the content of your protest much more meaningful, and to the actual point.

Just a thought.

TFred

ETA: What I just bumbled through there is... if this organization is anti-RKBA, they will answer your letter with the typical point that "no guns make us all feel safer..." But in actuality, make us the exact opposite, by putting us in more actual danger.
 
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zoom6zoom

zoom6zoom

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2006
Messages
1,694
Location
Dale City, VA, Virginia, USA
They've held the meeting at schools for as long as I can remember.
The answer will probably be more along the lines that the size of venue needed limits choices, especially when another venue would cost the coop members a lot more money.
 
Old Virginia Joe

Old Virginia Joe

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Joined
Apr 25, 2010
Messages
365
Location
SE Va., , Occupied CSA
I belong to Community Electric Coop in Windsor, Va., which serves Western Tidewater. They have used the Windsor high school for these mass meetings for decades now. As much as I agree with you, it is probably impossible to find another venue of that large size as a high school auditorium. I think the law should be changed, to say that when public (tax paid) buildings are used for NON SCHOOL functions, the no-gun rule should not apply! A public utility meeting is not SCHOOL ! How complicated is that? Cannot the lawyers figure out how to write such a law? It is not right that they can deny use of the general tax paying public from their basic 2A rights, because the local school is the only public venue that large in most non-urban communities. Can "user" comment on that legislative possibility? I cannot imagine this could not be accomplished in the General Assembly. . . . . .
 
TFred

TFred

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
7,750
Location
Most historic town in, Virginia, USA
Old Virginia Joe said:
I belong to Community Electric Coop in Windsor, Va., which serves Western Tidewater. They have used the Windsor high school for these mass meetings for decades now. As much as I agree with you, it is probably impossible to find another venue of that large size as a high school auditorium. I think the law should be changed, to say that when public (tax paid) buildings are used for NON SCHOOL functions, the no-gun rule should not apply! A public utility meeting is not SCHOOL ! How complicated is that? Cannot the lawyers figure out how to write such a law? It is not right that they can deny use of the general tax paying public from their basic 2A rights, because the local school is the only public venue that large in most non-urban communities. Can "user" comment on that legislative possibility? I cannot imagine this could not be accomplished in the General Assembly. . . . . .
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It should be fairly obvious that none of these anti-gun laws are based on anything resembling "common sense". It's all about a battle of world-views that is divided at the line of the Nanny State government vs. a Self-sufficient citizenry. The ammunition for these battles are sound bites, and so far, we, the good-guys, have not yet been able to overcome the anti's use of "think of the children..." Such phrases seem to turn the brains of the middle-of-the-line folks to mush, powerless to resist the will of the Nanny Staters, and giving them the needed majority to keep such nonsensical laws in force.

There is zero chance of this being fixed as long as the current Senate leadership is in place.

TFred
 
Old Virginia Joe

Old Virginia Joe

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2010
Messages
365
Location
SE Va., , Occupied CSA
Old Virginia Joe said:
I belong to Community Electric Coop in Windsor, Va., which serves Western Tidewater. They have used the Windsor high school for these mass meetings for decades now. As much as I agree with you, it is probably impossible to find another venue of that large size as a high school auditorium. I think the law should be changed, to say that when public (tax paid) buildings are used for NON SCHOOL functions, the no-gun rule should not apply! A public utility meeting is not SCHOOL ! How complicated is that? Cannot the lawyers figure out how to write such a law? It is not right that they can deny use of the general tax paying public from their basic 2A rights, because the local school is the only public venue that large in most non-urban communities. Can "user" comment on that legislative possibility? I cannot imagine this could not be accomplished in the General Assembly. . . . . .
Click to expand...

I got to speak with "User" about this today at the post trial celebration lunch in Surry. He said in fact, the Va Supreme Court ruled in the last couple of years that there IS the general principle that could allow that at a school property during non-school hours, there is the possibility of legal gun presence on the school property. That "school" is a concept, not a location, much like a "church" is a body of believers, not a building. Hope I am explaining this right. Apparently, there has not yet been a case where this concept can be applied, but I guess it is just a matter of time . . . . . . any volunteers?! Sounds like to me there IS hope on this issue, for one day in the future. Think positive!
 
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