VA Tech Panel meeting

[tinygnat219]

Anyone interested in meeting up? I am taking a day off work to go down and make my voice be heard and to assist in showing off how foolish the anti-gun attitude is.

The meeting is scheduled for 18 July 07 at UVA, I know that there are several THR members down that way in Charlottesville.

Meeting details and agenda haven't been released yet, but when they are, they will appear on this site: http://www.vtreviewpanel.org/meetings/

I am going to be speaking my piece during the public comments session (which you have to sign up for AT the meeting).

My spiel is going to go something like this:

Good morning/afternoon Mr. Chairman/person, my name is _______ and I am an alumnus of / current student attending ______ University. I speak to you today to urge you to recommend that the Commonwealth of Virginia remove barriers that force students and faculty who hold Concealed Handgun Permits from being able to carry handguns on college campuses. These same students and faculty, all over the age of 21 legally carry handguns every day across Virginia in shopping malls, parks, libraries, and city halls; even when dropping their own children off at elementary school, or at colleges at which the student is not enrolled, and the faculty member is not an employee. What amazes me is the fact that I can do this today as a visitor at most Public universities and colleges in the Commonwealth, yet students and faculty who attend on a daily basis are not permitted to do so. The Virginia Tech murders could have been prevented or minimized had students or faculty not faced penalties for otherwise legally carrying a firearm to class. To illustrate this point, I hold a concealed handgun permit and I am carrying a concealed handgun today as a visitor. College and University gun bans make no sense and need to be removed, thank you.

I am also going to be dressed business casual and NOT open carry. I suggest that others do the same as open carrying will not help our cause in this venue. We want to be seen as everyday citizens, and not perceived as "gun nuts".

Anyone interested? Send me a PM if you would like to attend.

 

[Mr. Designer]

Good luck.

 

[Robert Hairless]

Perhaps it would be helpful to say that violence is not diminished by making its potential victims unable to defend themselves.

If the university administration's thinking were correct, law enforcement officers and the military throughout the world would discard their weapons and opt, instead, for carrying signs that declare themselves to be in "Gun Free Zones." Physicians' offices and hospitals would give their patients immortality by declaring their premises to be "Disease Free Zones" and "Death Free Zones," and instead of contraceptives they might prescribe signs that read "Conception Free Zone." The public streets and highways in Virginia need have no traffic lights or speed limits if the state would declare itself an "Accident Free Zone."

Words have power but they cannot prevent a madman or criminal from destroying defenseless lives, or stave off natural forces no matter how ugly or unpleasant they are to contemplate. Until a state can guarantee the absolute safety of its citizens it simply has no right to deny them the chance to safeguard themselves. Virginians knew that in the 18th Century. Have their knowledge, intelligence, and commonsense declined so much since then?

As an alternative suggestion to the committee, if it is determined to allow universities to continue their senseless policy, at the very least it should require them to assume the same responsibility that prisons have for the safety of prisoners and the same liability for their failures to meet those responsibilities. Surely students, faculty, employees, and visitors to a state university campus should have at least the same consideration given inmates of a state prison, whom the state has good reason to deny the means of defending their lives.