Open Carry In Virginia

The Washington Post has an interesting article on open carry in Virginia. Of course, it revolves around the 3 or 4 incidents that have happened over the last couple of weeks, especially the Starbucks episode that the folks over at The High Road (myself included, not that I want to pat my own back) and VCDL dealt with so effectively. Would have been nice to see The High Road mentioned.

Not surprisingly, it's chock full of quotes and alarmist statements from the gun banners.

"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," he said. "But when you're talking about Fairfax County, you have to look at what is reasonable."

. . . .

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."

Of course, as I asked in my letter to the editor today, isn't it hypocritical that the same individuals who fight so hard against lifting the restaurant CCW ban criticize open carrying in restaurants? Does this mean they might not be serious in only seeking "reasonable" firearm safety measures?