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I just got a copy of a directive from Governor Kaine to Joe Elton, the State Parks Director, that open carry is to remain banned in State Parks, regardless of a recent
Attorney General's opinion that said such a ban was not enforceable.
In the directive, which we will post to the VCDL site soon, the Governor basically said that since there has been no legislation put forward stating that State Parks cannot have such a ban, the General Assembly must be OK with it.
That is backwards. The government is only supposed to have the power to do things specifically authorized by law, with everything else prohibited. If State Parks have not been authorized specifically by the General Assembly to have a gun ban, then they shouldn't be able to have one.
With elections coming up in November, this policy could be reversed at the Gubernatorial level in 2010.
Elections or not, the best way to fix this is to get a state agency preemption bill passed next year that prohibits state agencies from having gun bans unless they have permission from the General Assembly.
Here is the Governor's directive:
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Some of you heard that the federal government was now shredding once-fired brass, which would cause .223 and .308 ammo costs to skyrocket. Apparently that order has now been rescinded.