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Gun-toting protesters shake up city council meeting
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It seemed simple enough. Falls Church (Virginia) officials recently drafted a policy that would require city workers to call 911 immediately if anyone stepped onto city property carrying a gun. Police who responded would check to see if the gun was properly licensed and report their findings to city officials. With all seven council members and many residents of this little city inside the Capital Beltway firmly in the anti-gun camp, only a few officials expected any problems with the procedures.
Falls Church... Fall Church? What's Falls Church noted for? Oh, yeah. Why would anybody there want to pack a rod?
About 30 people, pistols strapped to their hips, strode into the council's meeting this week protesting the policy and warning that it violates their constitutional right to bear arms -- and possibly state laws, as well.
"We're here fer the meetin', pardner!"
The group was largely organized by Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun owners group, who drove up from his home near Richmond. He had hardly set foot in Falls Church before, but now, he vowed, the city "is going to be under a microscope."
I'm liking this guy, already.
"We weren't paying any attention to them until they did this," he said.
That's why they get away with that crap, year in and year out...
"If they try to set some standard like this and we ignore them, then it's going to send the wrong message. . . . But if they violate state law, we are prepared to sue them." The presence of so many pistol-packing citizens at Monday's meeting unnerved council members and, in particular, infuriated council member David Snyder, who denounced their brazen display of firearms as "intimidation" and attacked Virginia's recently enacted laws that limit local control over guns.
Heh. The whole point of a well-armed citizenry is to keep the power of the State in check. Legislate at your peril, Councilman.
"It's particularly ironic that everyone on the state, federal and local levels are concerned about gang violence, and yet Virginia prevents local communities from acting against that very violence when guns are potentially involved," he said in an interview.
Um, a lawful citizen (or even a group of them) carrying licensed weapons is not nearly the same thing as a bunch of thugs with a cache of stolen rods. Well, unless you're a Falls Church councilman, that is.
The sight of 30 people bearing arms at a council meeting was intimidating, several council members said.
Snicker. Kim DuToit would be proud.
Posted by: Seafarious 2004-10-02
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=44872