VA-ALERT: Hearing - Fairfax County Board of Supervisors

[OakRidgeStars]

From the VCDL VA-ALERT email:

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June 21st - mark your calendars, NoVA!

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Delegate Dave Marsden (D) are all pouting over the pneumatic gun bill that becomes law on July 1st!

The pneumatic gun bill, put in by Senator Roscoe Reynolds (D), passed easily earlier this year, and was signed into law by Governor Bob McDonnell (R). It takes away the power of localities, such as Fairfax, to ban shooting BB and pellet guns on a person's own property as long as they do so in a safe manner.

As you can imagine, lowly citizens having such power and responsibility is just too much for the poor Fairfax Board of Supervisors to bear! Tyrants simply do NOT give up power easily.

To top it off, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors are such hypocrites. When Reynolds's bill was being heard in the General Assembly in January, a Fairfax representative assured the committee that Fairfax had no interest in enforcing the ban on shooting air guns in residences. But now that the bill is becoming law, the sky will fall if people start shooting BB guns in their basements.

Sheeesh. Where are the adults when you need one?

Anyway, just to let the General Assembly know how much this new law is hated by the people of Fairfax, the Board of Supervisors is having a special public hearing and they will be forwarding the input to the General Assembly!

Sooooo, they want to hear from the public, do they?

I think VCDL can oblige them! Don't you agree, NoVA gun owners?

The nearing is going to be held on Tuesday, June 21st. More details on time and location will be provided as the event gets closer.

I know that I'm not about to miss this circus! See you there.

Here's a story on the event:

From the Washington Examiner: http://tinyurl.com/3bbj4jb

New state air-gun law worries Fairfax
By: Leah Fabel 06/05/11 8:05 PM
Examiner Staff Writer Follow Her @lfabel

The use of BB guns and other air-powered weapons will soon be legal on private property throughout Virginia, angering Northern Virginia officials whose constituents live in heavily populated areas. "For our area, it is insane," said state Sen. Dave Marsden, D-Fairfax. "It's one thing to do this in any rural area, but to allow it in a suburban or urban area like much of Northern Virginia?"
[PVC: What is Marsden saying - that Northern Virginia residents are less trustworthy than their rural counterparts?]

"Pneumatic weapons" - from paintball guns to pellet guns that shoot at 1,000 feet per second -- have long been treated as regular firearms under Fairfax County's code. Their use is generally prohibited in heavily populated areas and near schools and highways.

Under a new state law, however, the county must change its ordinances to allow air guns "on private property if the person shooting has permission of the owner or legal possessor of the property on which the pneumatic gun is being used." Permission is also needed from the owner of the land on which the ammunition is expected to land.

The state law does not allow counties to make special exceptions if the private property is next to a school or near a busy road. [PVC: Yes, and that's a good thing!]

The law was sponsored by Sen. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Martinsville, who represents a rural, southwestern portion of the state. It easily passed the General Assembly earlier this year.

Fairfax officials had opposed Reynolds' bill, but since it passed the county had no choice but to change its own code. [PVC: the Board of Supervisors love ordering everyone else around, but hate it when they have to follow state law.]

The county's Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing on the new law on June 21. Comments from the public will be forwarded to the state, said a county spokesman. The change will go into effect July 1.

"I don't think this will be well received," said Supervisor John Foust, D-Dranesville. "Our houses are much closer together, and our communities are much more dense than in much of the state. Neighbors would be justifiably concerned if someone is shooting weapons next door to them." [PVC: The gauntlet has been thrown down, VCDL members...]


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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/]