U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- When Virginia lawmakers gather July 9 in Richmond for a special legislative session to talk gun control, called by anti-gun Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam, one item not on the governor’s gun-regulating wish list is guns allowed in the workplace, and a story in the Virginian-Pilot might call that into question.
According to the newspaper, a Virginia Beach city employee identified as Kate Nixon had been concerned about the behavior of co-worker DeWayne Craddock “as well as one other person,” and talked to her husband about tucking a pistol into her purse. That was the night before Nixon became one of Craddock’s dozen victims in the mass shooting that was the catalyst for Northam’s renewed push for tighter gun regulations.
But the city, according to the newspaper, has a policy against employees having guns in the workplace. Translation: It’s a gun-free zone, one of those places where, according to John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, the vast majority of mass shootings occur.
Now Northam is calling Old Dominion lawmakers back to work in hopes of capitalizing on the tragedy to push gun control measures that have no connection to, nor would have prevented, the May 31 shooting.
Here are the facts:
The killer, who was fatally wounded in a shootout with police, used two handguns, legally purchased about two years apart. Neither handgun was lost or stolen.
He apparently acted alone.
There were no children involved.
He passed background checks to purchase both .45-caliber pistols, and an even more extensive check to legally purchase the suppressor that was attached to one of the handguns.
Now, Northam has resurrected his gun control package that got no traction last year, and is proposing the following, according to WJHL News:
- Adopt so-called “universal background checks.”
- Ban so-called “assault weapons,” suppressors and bump stocks
- Restore the state’s long-abandoned one-gun-per-month restriction
- Require the reporting of lost or stolen firearms to police
- Restrict child access to firearms
- Expand local authority to regulate firearms within their jurisdictions.
This is “Gun Control 101” as revealed in what amounts to a “gun control playbook” discovered accidentally online by Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation and chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. The 80-page document was titled Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging, apparently accidentally linked to the website of a religious organization. It was actually produced a couple of months prior to the December 2012 Sandy Hook tragedy in Newtown, CT.
Gottlieb subsequently co-authored a book about this titled Dancing In Blood: Exposing the Gun Ban Lobby’s Playbook to Destroy Your Rights.
Long story short: Capitalize on tragedy to move the gun control agenda forward.
However, newspaper revelations about Mrs. Nixon’s misgivings and her reported consideration of taking a gun to work underscore a longtime concern among self-defense and Second Amendment activists. Gun-free regulations disarm the wrong people and make them even more vulnerable to someone intent on mayhem. It has happened before in schools, shopping malls, municipal buildings, restaurants and movie theaters; anyplace where signs are prominently posted that tell people guns are not allowed.
According to The Pilot story, an attorney for the Nixon family, discussed this Monday on WHRV’s “Hearsay” program with host Cathy Lewis. The attorney, Kevin Martingayle, has requested that the city of Virginia Beach “release all records about the gunman and launch an external investigation into what happened,” the newspaper reported.
Would a gun in Nixon’s purse have made a difference that day? It’s a question that can never be answered. It is certain that the guns Craddock brought to the workplace, where he was employed for nine years as a public utilities engineer, were in violation of the policy.
There are already strong hints from Republican House of Delegates Speaker Kirk Cox that Northam’s agenda will face resistance next month. Gun control may play well in communities along the south banks of the Potomac, but the farther south and west one gets, the less popular it seems to become.
Perhaps instead of acquiescing to Northam’s gun ban agenda, state lawmakers might consider a reform measure that would allow licensed citizens to have their guns when they might need them the most; when some disturbed person ignores “gun-free zone” restrictions and brings murder through the door.
RELATED:
Scathing Response from Citizens Committee to VA Guv’s Gun Control Scheme
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
Sue ’em, they created a hazardous environment! By obstructing that woman’s right to bear arms they caused her death by taking away her means of self-defense and providing nothing themselves! Funny how these mass shootings always seem to occur where morons have provided the shooter with a bountiful supply of helpless victims.
We can parse out all the individual aspects of this one “Mass Murder” all day long, but at the end of the day, Governments have performed the largest mass murders against their own (generally unarmed) populations…Give that some thought when you consider the “Gun Free” Protectionist Zones.
Find whatever pinheaded bureaucrat ordered this and string him up on OSHA violations.
Northam has shown his true colors, and that ain’t good. How did he ever get elected by the people of Virginia. He is a complete nutcase, racist, baby killer and power hungry. He should be thrown out of office and his medical licence suspended for life. There is nothing good about this idiot.
quote:
The 80-page document was titled Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging, apparently accidentally linked to the website of a religious organization.
A link or source for this important piece of propaganda would be most helpful. I’m pretty certain I’m not the only one who would like to read it.
@ Huapakech, you’re right A “GUN FREE ZONE” is Nothing But A Killing ZONE Because the Response Time For 911 Call is Usually Minutes. Response Time for a 9mm = 1100 feet per second. My Family Was invited to A Wedding Reception and on arrival to the Entrance is a “No Guns Allowed” {Improper Signage} I’ve already walked 100 yards, Am I going back to the car, No I went right in. There were No Metal Detectors, nobody at the doors {several}. This Establishment had Security Guards {several} and they carried No Firearm just a Taser, Can of Mace, Handcuffs… Read more »
Dave Workman’s article and commentary are spot on. Opportunistic politicians appear to use these events, fostered primarily by laws preventing legal use of self defense with a gun, to call for more such restrictions. Any wonder we see more and more of these horrible events? Enough is enough!
Gun-free workplace rules anyplace have consequences that most corporate administrators never consider. They think that a rule, sign, or law will prevent a bad actor from doing the bad thing, which of course, it won’t. But it gets even worse. I worked in an office where there was a rule that employees could not bring firearms into the office, even if they had a legal carry permit. But since they didn’t own the entire property, and the parking lot was shared among other companies in that location, they couldn’t extend their rule to the parking lot. So I had a… Read more »
I continue to be amazed that people actually believe the communists want “gun control” to prevent mass murder. On the other hand, the mass murder of communists makes me think they might have a point.
Of course they want us disarmed. And they will do it inch by inch until we say “Hold, enough”!
Whenever there’s a mass shooting they want to take the guns away from everyone who didn’t do it!!!