Anyone it Va to verify this info sent to me by a friend?
Guns Worn In Open Legal, But Alarm Va.
>'Exercising Right' Called 'Unreasonable' by Some
>By Tom Jackman
>Washington Post Staff Writer
>Thursday, July 15, 2004; Page A01
>On July 2, Fairfax County police received a 911 call from a Champps
>restaurant in Reston. Six men are seated at a table, the caller said.
>They're all armed.
>Dispatchers quickly sent four officers to the scene. The officers were
>"extremely polite" and were hoping that some of the men were in law
>enforcement, said Sgt. Richard Perez, a spokesman for the police
>department.
>None was.
>The men told the officers "they were just exercising their rights as
>citizens of the commonwealth," Perez said.
>Turns out, packing a pistol in public is perfectly legal in Virginia. And
>three times in the last month, including at Champps on Sunset Hills Road,
>residents have been spotted out and about in the county, with guns strapped
>to their hips, exercising that right.
>In the first episode, at a Starbucks, Fairfax police wrongly confiscated
>weapons from two college students and charged them with a misdemeanor.
>Police realized their mistake, returned the guns and tore up the charges
>the
>next day. Police commanders have since issued a reminder to officers that
>"open carry" is the law of the land in the Old Dominion.
>Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, an
>organization of thousands of Virginia gun owners, said members were
>involved
>in all three police encounters. But he said there was no coordinated
>campaign to start packing heat publicly.
>"It was probably more of a coincidence, but not completely," Van Cleave
>said, noting that word of the improper confiscation spread quickly among
>members through e-mail. "This is a good opportunity to educate people. We
>have this inherent right, and not many people exercised it."
>In Virginia, as in many states, carrying a concealed weapon requires a
>permit, issued by a local court. But no permit is required to simply wield
>a
>gun in the open, a right reinforced by a state law that took effect July 1.
>Not so in the District and Maryland, unless you're a police or federal
>officer.
>Fairfax police are baffled by the sudden display of weaponry but assume it
>was done to make some sort of statement.
>"Crime is at 20-year lows in the county," Lt. Col. Charles K. Peters
>pointed
>out, even though the population is soaring. The county's homicide rate was
>the lowest in the nation last year among the 30 largest jurisdictions.
>"Hopefully no one feels the need to carry a gun, lawfully or unlawfully,"
>Peters said. "But there's no question it is lawful to carry a gun on the
>street. So we've had to ensure that all of our officers are updated on the
>nuances of Virginia law that allow citizens to carry firearms in public
>places."
>Although legal, it is disconcerting to some people.
>"This just shows you the extreme nature of what they're trying to do," said
>Bob Ricker, head of Virginians for Public Safety. "You don't want to go to
>Starbucks or Reston Town Center and see somebody with a firearm strapped
>on," he added, referring to two locations where armed patrons were found.
>"It's just something that I think is completely unreasonable. We all
>understand the concept of self-defense. . . . But when you're talking about
>Fairfax County, you have to look at what is reasonable."
>The first incident, at a Starbucks on Leesburg Pike near Tysons Corner,
>might have inspired other gun owners to carry openly. It began shortly
>before 10 p.m. June 14, Perez said, with a complaint from a citizen. Police
>arrived to find a 19-year-old man carrying a .22-caliber pistol and a
>21-year-old man with a 9mm pistol.
>Perez said an officer spoke with the men, then took their guns and charged
>them with possession of a firearm in a public place. Virginia law
>18.2-287.4
>expressly prohibits "carrying loaded firearms in public areas."
>But the second paragraph of the law defines firearms only as any
>semiautomatic weapon that holds more than 20 rounds or a shotgun that holds
>more than seven rounds -- assault rifles, mostly, Van Cleave said. Regular
>six-shooters or pistols with nine- or 10-shot magazines are not "firearms"
>under this Virginia law.
>The day after the arrest, the officer consulted with a county prosecutor
>and
>determined that "he had erred," Perez said. He summoned the two men to the
>McLean District station, returned their weapons and dropped the charges.
>Van Cleave said word of the incident, along with news of a similar incident
>in Richmond, spread through the defense league's e-mail alert system. "I
>think people were saying, 'I think I do want to open carry,' " Van Cleave
>said, though he added the league neither encourages nor discourages the
>practice.
>Carrying weapons openly was not unprecedented locally, Van Cleave said. He
>said that the defense league has a monthly meeting in Northern Virginia
>with
>25 to 30 members and that most go out to dinner afterward with their
>sidearms openly visible. "We've had 40 people open carry, in a restaurant,
>with no problem," he said.
>Three days after the incident at Champps, a married couple were walking
>their dogs down Market Street, the busy thoroughfare in the heart of Reston
>Town Center, about 3 p.m. In addition to pistols on their hips, Perez said,
>both the man and woman were carrying an extra magazine of ammunition. An
>officer spoke with them and was informed that they were members of the
>defense league and were aware of the Starbucks incident. Perez said the
>officer took no further action, although Van Cleave said a lieutenant
>arrived and urged Town Center security to eject them.
>Managers at the Starbucks, Champps and Town Center all declined to comment.
>Van Cleave said the gun owners might have been out celebrating a law that
>took effect July 1. Virginia statute 15.2-915 now completely prohibits any
>locality from enacting any regulations on gun ownership, carrying, storage
>or purchase, except for rules related to the workforce. Alexandria, for
>example, had an ordinance prohibiting openly carrying guns. It is now
>invalid, Van Cleave said.
>"It's like the Fourth of July," Van Cleave said. "A whole new set of
>freedoms came in. . . . All local gun control is completely and totally
>gone."
>Legislators said they passed the bill to eliminate duplicative regulations,
>particularly in counties such as Fairfax, which imposed its own gun permit
>process in addition to the federally mandated background check.
>Openly carrying weapons is "not a good idea," said Kristen Rand of the
>Violence Policy Center in Washington. "This is the gun lobby's vision of
>how
>America should be. Everybody's packing heat and ready to engage in a
>shootout at the slightest provocation."
>Ricker said the gun owners "are probably doing their cause more harm than
>good by raising this issue. It raises an awareness and gives people who are
>more rational thinkers the opportunity to go to their legislators and make
>their views known."
>Van Cleave said most gun owners, particularly defense league members or
>concealed weapon permit owners, are law-abiding. Anti-gun forces "have come
>to think guns themselves are evil. You've got to worry about the person,
>not
>the gun."
