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Last night, Dennis O'Connor and I, along with six other VCDL members and gun owners, attended the Sussex Planning Commission meeting to see what they were going to do with a proposed ordinance that would do severe damage to gun ranges in Sussex.
This was NOT a hearing, so all we could do is listen and listen we did.
Ever the tyrant, Commission member Ms. Terry Massenburg was angry that a lot of the gun control originally proposed for ranges had been removed earlier this year by the Sussex Board of Supervisors (things like no one can bring a loaded gun to or from ranges, the Sheriff can enter range property anytime he wants to check that County range rules are being followed, that a range cannot be within 1,000 feet of a school, church, or a home, that range owners need to have a background check run on them, that ranges cannot be open on Sunday, etc.) She was pushing to have all those dubious restrictions, nuisances, and infringements put back in the ordinance.
How does somebody who is black, like Ms. Massenburg, not understand that gun control in America has been used from its earliest days to disarm minorities? All I can do is shake my head. You can lead a horse to water...
Another Commission member (I couldn't read his name tag from the back of the room) said that he thought the entire ordinance should be thrown in the trash as it would not make ranges any safer (what a breath of fresh air he was!) He and Ms. Massenburg went back and forth for a while, kind of like a tennis match. But instead of a tennis ball, it was freedom and liberty vs government tyranny that was being batted back and forth.
In the end the majority of the members voted to send the ordinance back to the Board of Supervisors unchanged. Only two voted against doing so: Ms. Massenburg and the pro-liberty Commission member. They voted against the proposed ordinance for totally opposite reasons. Not enough government tyranny for one and too much government tyranny for the other.
Unfortunately, how it turned out is a bad scenario for gun owners, as the Board of Supervisors is getting back the ordinance exactly the way that the Board modified it earlier this year.
TO STOP THIS ORDINANCE WE ARE GOING TO NEED TO PUSH HARD. And if this passes, this could spread to other counties by anti-liberty Boards of Supervisors. If that happens our only recourse will be to get the law changed by General Assembly.
I will advise when the Board of Supervisors is going to hear this ordinance again and I will be pushing for a BIG turnout. If you live in Sussex or surrounding counties, please find time to make this when the call goes out.
BTW, after the meeting was over the County Attorney was walking out of the building. Dennis offered him half-jokingly a "Guns Save Lives" sticker. To our surprise, he took one. When he shook my hand and I introduced myself he said (paraphrasing), "Oh, you're the President of that gun organization that said in an email to your members that the Sussex Board of Supervisors is stupid, stupid, stupid."
I smiled and said, "Yes, I call them as I see them."
One VCDL member who lives in Sussex drove 3 hours to get there that night (he was returning from Northern Virginia) and he was totally aghast at the anti-freedom thinking shown by many on the Planning Commission.
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Here are some of the more egregious requirements on ranges that are still in the proposed ordinance. As I've said before, it would be easier to open nuclear power plant in Sussex:
* Anytime the range is being used there shall be a CPR specialist present (!!!!!!!) This is enough to give a range owner a heart attack! Uh-oh - is there a CPR specialist in the House?
* A fully stocked industrial grade first aid kit shall be maintained on site (unfunded mandate)
* A minimum liability insurance policy of $100,000 per individual and $500,000 for each occurrence (another unfunded mandate)
* A zoning permit will be required before operating a range and a bunch of stuff required to apply for that permit (bureaucratic red tape to run up expenses and time)
* The range must be designed and constructed by a licensed civil engineer (sounds like someone on the Planning Commission has a relative who is a civil engineer) and various plans and documentation to be filed with the Planning Department (another unfunded mandate and lots of bureaucratic red tape)
* Signs every 100 feet of the range's boundary with the words "Firing Range" and "Do Not Enter" on each sign. I like the wording "Another stupid idea brought to you by the Sussex Board of Supervisors" much better
* The range must be at least 500 feet from the highway AND any property line (unnecessary limits on where a range can be placed)
* Any buildings on that range must be at least 300 feet from any highway right-of-way and any property line
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VA-ALERT is a project of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc.
(VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization
dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to
Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.
VCDL web page: http://www.vcdl.org [http://www.vcdl.org/]