Letter to FCPS School Board regarding gun control activism
I sent the following email to the FCPS school board, after I learned from the VCDL that the FCPS draft legislative agenda included lobbying for school-board and locality control over firearms possession on school grounds, in direct contravention of the preemtion legislation recently passed by the General Assembly:
TO: SchoolBoardMembers@fcps.edu, Jack.Dale@fcps.edu
CC: chairman@fairfaxcounty.gov, dranesville@fairfaxcounty.gov, braddock@fairfaxcounty.gov, hntrmill@fairfaxcounty.gov, mason@fairfaxcounty.gov, mtvernon@fairfaxcounty.gov, provdist@fairfaxcounty.gov, springfield@fairfaxcounty.gov, sully@co.fairfax.va.us, Leedist@FairfaxCounty.gov
SUBJECT: Drop Firearms Restrictions from 2006 Legislative Program
Dear FCPS School Board and Superintendent Dale:
I have just learned of the draft FCPS 2006 Legislative Program at http://www.fcps.edu/legupdate/05lpfinal.pdf. In particular, I’m displeased to see the following items on page 30 of that draft, which suggest you request the General Assembly grant:
- School board authority to ban firearm possession by law abiding citizens on K-12 school grounds.
- Locality authority to ban firearm possession by law abiding citizens at locality recreation centers.
- Locality authority to ban sale of toy guns, BB guns, and pellet guns to minors.
I presume these initiatives are the result of a reflexive aversion to all things weapon-like in the presence of children. While this is an understandable sentiment, it is unfortunately quite naive, and serves only to further constrain the constitutional rights of Virginians enumerated in the federal and Commonwealth constitutions, and is in contradiction to the preemtion legislation already passed by the General Assembly.
The threat posed to children by weapons comes not from law-abiding citizens (that is to say, the people who would obey the laws you are suggesting), but from criminals whose disregard for the law is the defining characteristic of their criminality.
Thus, your proposed laws will further infringe upon the rights of law-abiding citizens, without any corresponding increase in the actual safety of the school children you seek to protect. In fact, it can be argued that the disarmament zones which already exist on school grounds and which you seek to expand reduces the safety of students in the unlikely event of a criminal school shooting or other criminal violence.
I therefore urge you to delete the aforementioned agenda items and focus your energies on initiatives which might actually increase student safety, without undue infringment upon the rights of Virginians.
Sincerely,
Adam J Nelson
[My address redacted]
Of course, nothing will come of it, as the FCPS school board is staffed with gun control advocates or ambivalents, but it’s nonetheless important that they be reminded of the dissent among the citizens of the county.