To the Editor:
Once more, H. Jay Spiegel [Letter, “Wrong Side of the Issues,” Feb. 25] has made it clear that he doesn’t agree with state Sen. Scott Surovell, notwithstanding the voters of his district repeatedly re-electing him as delegate and electing him as senator.
More to the point of Mr. Spiegel’s letter, Senator Surovell has done exactly what he was elected to do, stand up for his constituency. In this case, for reasonable gun control, even if other Democrats did not vote the same way. Considering Governor McAuliffe’s betrayal of his own attorney general’s public stance against more concealed weapons in the Commonwealth, we can be clear that at least some Democrats don’t have a clue how to serve their constituency.
Virginia is notoriously a free-for-all of guns, so it is not surprising that the majority of delegates and senators voted to allow judges and former judges to be able to carry concealed weapons without a permit. I assume that means without any safety training also. How big is this problem that judges should be singled out for no-control access to guns?
Why wouldn’t judges just apply for a gun permit if they believe themselves at risk? Could they not pass a background check? How long before a judge, former or otherwise, gets jittery about the end-of-sentence release of someone he/she sentenced and shoots at the first startling movement around his house? What innocent or family member will die or be wounded as a result of this law?
Instead of authorizing more guns on the street, the legislature should have looked in the other direction, closing up the wide open access to guns allowed by current Commonwealth laws. Judges surely have a front row seat to the results of these wide-open gun laws and the crimes that have been committed with guns. Why would any judge want to expand this danger to the Commonwealth’s citizenry?
With the Commonwealth issuing anti-government “don’t tread on me” license plates — aside from the irony of anti-government people paying the government for the plates — and the hate speech that is so prevalent in
the presidential competition, maybe all federal, commonwealth, and local current and former government workers should have the same access to guns as judges … that is, for their safety. Maybe guns should be issued to newborns with social security numbers in maternity wards so everyone is “protected” from everyone else. Yes, two absurd ideas. But no more than opening yet another loophole for guns in Virginia.
William Zaccagnino
Alexandria