P4P / Gun RIGHTS Rift
1. Because the moderators, who are the owners of this web site, wanted to.
2. Because PVC is the president of VCDL, a well-respected organization that fights for the rights of all legal gun carriers and owners. "All" is the super set of Open Carriers.
TFred
TFred,
If only what you stated were really true.
VCDL was founded to get more gun priveledges for permit carriers. VCDL still prioritizes Perks for Permittees above Gun Rights (Open Carry Rights). While some on the VCDL board work hard for Gun Rights, others do not.
I make these distinctions, not to be devisive, but to point out the differences between the philosophies. There are also some real questions as to whether P4P really helps or hurts gun rights in the long term. For example, is it really O.K. for Virginia to use the CHP to regulate behavior other than the concealed carry of a handgun? What is the nexus between the permit and the ability to openly carry certain long guns in certain cities of the Commonwealth. In other words, P4P allows the Commonwealth to convert some rights into priveledges. Good for P4P, but not for gun rights. Get it?
If you think I am wrong about VCDL please explain:
VCDL is currently AWOL on the State parks open carry issue. Seems they are very quiet since permittees added carry there to their perks. Issue would be completely dead, except for a few gun rights activists like Peter.
Why were the permittee perks strongly endorsed by VCDL, while the Gun Rights legislation was only endorsed.
The Libertarians, not VCDL carried the water for the Virginia Firearms Freedom Act, which would deliver real gun rights restoration to Virginia.
I do not dislike VCDL. I used to be a member. I thought that their overemphasis on P4P was a fluke, over time I realized it wasn't a fluke, it was a pattern of behavior. I moved on and started working on open carry issues, as I believe open carry is the right.
You have invested a great deal of time and energy into VCDL TFred. If you want to help them, then you should work to convince them that there is a rift between open carriers and the P4P crowd. It is a fault line that the Brady Bunch sees as a major weakness. They are working to fight Open Carry wherever they can. The way to heal the rift, and make gun owners "bulletproof" is to pass constitutional carry. Now that they have their concealed carry in restaurants perk, VCDL could make constitutional carry their top issue. If VCDL makes constitutional carry their top priority next year, I will again become a member and give them my full support. If they again go down the road of P4P then Gun Rights Activists need to evaluate whether a P4P focused organization is an appropriate place to expend time, money and energy.