C'mon Virginia, we can do better than this
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (formerly Handgun Control, Inc back when such terms actually focus grouped well) released their 2007 state-by-state scorecard reporting on the degree of each state’s commitment to disarm law-abiding citizens. Though this list is put out by a rabidly anti-gun organization, those of us who oppose gun control efforts also use it as a measure of each state’s support or disdain for second amendment rights.
As much as I hate to boost the Brady’s pagerank, you can research their assessment of various states here. Virginia’s gun control report card has it tied for 14th place, where 1st place is a peaceful and quiet land of disarmed citizens frolicking in endless fields of pansies (California), and last place is a hellhole where armed gangs shoot children and police at will (Kentucky and Oklahoma). The Commonwealth scored 18 out of 100 gun control points on what appears to be a fairly arbitrary point schedule.
While 14th place sounds shitty, 18 points out of 100 sounds pretty good. Why weren’t we 0 out of 100? Good question. Brady says:
- Child Access Prevention: Yes
- Gun Dealer Regulations: Partial
- Record Keeping: Partial
- Limit Bulk Purchases: Yes
Yet if you read into these, the only one that represents any sort of gun control victory is the stupid one-handgun-a-month law, which does NOT apply to Virginia CHP holders, and does NOT apply to private transactions (that is, sales between two VA residents neither of whom are gun dealers). So, imho, Brady are cooking the books to make gun control policies look a bit more widespread than they really are.
Not that I’m complaining. Hell, they can give us all 100 points if they want, as long as that makes them leave us alone!