Wasn’t that the title of a song by the late Warren Zevon?
Well, guns and money are two topics that are perennially on the agenda of the General Assembly. And there are a lot of attorneys who will have to decide what to do about these issues.
Legislation proposed on guns and 2nd Amendment issues always seems to highlight the differences in opinion that exist inVirginia about the direction we should move on these matters. This year is no exception, though two of the biggest pieces of legislation have been proposed by members who are not attorneys.
Garren Shipley of NVDaily.com has written a piece today that serves to illustrate the point.
On one side, Senator Mamie Locke of Hampton is proposing legislation that would allow local governments to ban firearms at public meetings. Shipley describes how a number of folks became upset when Second Amendment advocates arrived armed at a Norfolk Council Meeting in October to protest their treatment at the hands of the City Police.
On the other hand, Delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas is proposing legislation that would enable faculty at public universities with concealed carry permits to bring their guns onto campus.
Marshall is not trained as an attorney, but anyone who knows him is aware that he sure can think like one. He was a leader in the move to have the 2007 transportation compromise declared unconstitutional because it rested taxing authority in bodies that were directly accountable to the public.
And, on the gun issue, he is a probing an apparent inconsistency between Virginia law and common practice.
At the moment, there is no law that prohibits individuals with permits from carrying guns on campus. But colleges and universities commonly enact such prohibitions in their own regulations based on their own sense of what is best for the safety of students, faculty and staff.
At times, the apparent inconsistency between state law and university regulations can become difficult to explain. At an urban university such as VCU, individuals can walk down the middle of campus on a Richmond city street with every Second Amendment right the law provides. But if they duck into a campus building to use the facilities they are in direct violation of university regulations.
I don’t know if the Assembly will decide to try to resolve the inconsistency this year. It is an extraordinarily emotional issue, especially in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy.
But Bob Marshall is a persistent guy. And, eventually, a judgment will have to be reached: should universities have the same powers as k-12 schools to prohibit guns or should individuals with permits to carry concealed weapons be allowed to have them?
“should universities have the same powers as k-12 schools to prohibit guns or should individuals with permits to carry concealed weapons be allowed to have them?”
Individuals who have a ccw permit have already been vetted by the government so why shouldn’t they be able to carry their weapons onto a campus?
It is the criminals we should be worried about not the law abiding.
The origin of this bill actually came from a social gathering and a call from a college police officer.
A prof at GMU suggested to me that profs who have a concealed carry permit, should be allowed to carry their weapons on campus. It had not occur to me that they were under such a liability.
About three weeks later I received a call from a college professional guard who was asking me for additional funding for more weapons on campus for the police for what he said was the inevitable breakout of random violence. (My sons both attended that college.)
Given budget considerations, I put 2 and 2 together and though that making it clear that VA University BOVs should not be able to override the prevailing policy of the Commonwealth for CC established by the General Assembly.
However, Republican Speaker Bill Howell and his leadership associates clearly did NOT want this to come to a vote, even pulling a bill from the House floor which I could have amended. (I never even received a notice for a secret subcommittee vote!)
Most profs are very devoted to their students, some to the point of risking their lives for their students. I though of that VA Tech prof originally from Europe who died trying to protect his class.
A CC permit holder has to demonstrate proficiency with a gun and have a clean background before a permit is granted by a Virginia judge.
It is a fair assumption that at least half or more of the readers of this site have been in a Virginia movie theater, gas station, downtown city street or a shopping center where someone had a CC on them.
I think it would make the campus a little safer.
Delegate Bob Marshall