I Love My State

This past weekend I nearly got trapped in the Northern Neck of Virginia due to the snowstorm that slammed the entire state.  Fortunately, I was staying in a cozy “summer” home owned by a certain state delegate, who shall remain nameless for now.  Being on the leadership board at my church, we were having a retreat.  The delegate wasn’t a part of the leadership, just a member of our congregation, but he generously offered his little retreat as a place for us.

During breakfast on Sunday morning, he was discussing some of his more recent activities in the House of Delegates.  He is behind a bill that would remove the restriction in Virginia that would prevent citizens from buying more than one a gun a month.  He is working to free up our second amendment rights here in this state.

Naturally, he’s had this Washington Post reporter follow him around, because guns is always a wonderful hot-button issue.  Especially following the Virginia Tech massacre where a deranged killer decided that instead of graduating with a worthless degree, he’d shoot a bunch of people and then blow his brains out (frankly, I’m shocked English majors don’t do that more often).  He’s been having to deal not only with a reporter watching his every move, but a ton of gun control activists, many of whom are trotting out the families of the victims of that terrible tragedy.

He brought up some wonderful points, though, that highlight the whole farce of gun control:

• There is no such thing as a “gun show loophole” to the background checks.  A licensed dealer in Virginia is required to do a background check on everyone he or she sells a gun to, even at a gun show.  The so-called loophole really occurs when a private seller sells his or her gun to another private individual.
• Despite the above “loophole”, the VA Tech shooter did not purchase his guns through a private seller.  He bought his from a licensed dealer.
• The VA Tech shooter bought both of his guns a month apart.
• The sellers did the proper background checks on the shooter.  Any mental instability that was supposed to have been reported was not recorded in the correct database.
• Most of the gun violence that occurs in this state is, by the best estimates, done by legally owned firearms.  A top law enforcement official begrudgingly claimed that it was 50%, but a state trooper corrected him and said it was at most 3% during a hearing with this state delegate.

I am quite proud of this delegate and his efforts to secure citizens like myself from being harassed by government at every turn.  While I believe that we should be allowed to purchase any number of guns from any source without any background checks, this certainly is a step in the right direction.

Now if only I can get him to push a bill that allows me to buy Claritin-D without having to show my driver’s license, we might have something.  I am not a freakin’ meth dealer, I just have nasty allergies and I really need that stuff to clear my head out damnit!!