Students were robbed at gunpoint last night on the campus of Ferrum College in two separate incidents. Police say they are looking for two men, at least one of which was armed.
The Virginia Citizens Defense League is organizing a protest in support of former AutoZone employee Devin McClean who was fired last month after he used his own handgun to confront a robbery suspect. Investigators have said after McClean confronted the suspect, the man fled without taking any money.
Virginia Senator Creigh Deeds, longtime ally of gun owners, has expressed pessimism over the needs for a state agency preemption bill in Virginia, at least as far as colleges and universities are concerned. Senator Deeds told NBC News that he “doesn’t see the big hand of the General Assembly being necessary to override the Board of Visitors in that situation.”
In making such a statement, Senator Deeds appears to be taking the side of college and university administrators who are almost completely exempted from Virginia’s Administrative Process Act under current Virginia law.
Virginia’s public colleges and universities have been taking advantage of this ‘loophole’ to pass numerous regulations against campus carry by faculty, staff, adult students, and visitors with carry permits.
As I have noted repeatedly in my articles, state agency preemption remains one of the most desperately needed reforms to Virginia’s firearms laws. Thankfully, we have the Virginia Citizens Defense League to fight for our rights in the General Assembly and to gently remind Senator Deeds, who most assuredly is a friend to gun owners, just how important it is that our students not be rendered helpless again.
Read more at NBC News.
As Minority Leader, Virginia Senator Dick Saslaw (D-35th) may be the most powerful Democrat in the Virginia General Assembly but, try as he might, he cannot seem to strip those pesky citizens of their gun rights.
When the elections are in full swing and your phone is ringing off the hook with fundraising calls, those on the other end of the line are quick to point out the strong support for gun rights that is one of the hallmark issues in the GOP platform.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch commissioned Virginia Commonwealth University professor Thomas R. Baker to review trends in guns sales and crime over the last 6 years.
