I'm no NRA member (never owned a gun and do support reasonable restrictions like registration and background checks) but the simple fact is that blanket gun bans have been tried and they don't work. Even if fewer guns would lead to less crime (a questionable assertion at best) laws which can't be uniformly enforced and, in practice, result in limiting gun ownership to those who are willing to break the law have been repeatedly shown not to lower violent crime rates.

When the Heller decision came down we heard the same dire blood in the streets, wild west style shootouts predictions we are hearing here yet now, over a year latter, there has not been a single incident of someone being shot with a handgun legally registered to a DC resident.

This is why the anti-gun movement has failed. You cry "blood in the streets" at everything and undermine your cause.

What if you're having a bad day and someone harrasses you? Maybe you just broke up with your girlfriend and you're really upset, get into an argument which leads to a fight. Gun comes out and someone is hurt. We as humans need to protect eachother from ourselves. A normal good person can turn into a murderer just because they're having a bad day.

Just say YES to gun control.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/crime/article/SHOT121_20090711-230802/279571/

Yes, the gunman was clearly stopped by the fact that guns were illegal on the LIRR.

People who ask for the VRE to make it legal to carry their weapons (for which they have permits) are not the ones we need to worry about.

I'm guessing there will be about 2 people who actually carry a concealed weapon on the VRE. I'd be curious as to why, exactly, carrying a concealed weapon on a train is a bad idea. Why is it any worse of an idea than carrying it in a crowded movie theatre or just in a crowd on the sidewalk.

I don't get all the hubub.

Were VRE to go totally private, and source its own funding, they would be welcome to enact any and all regulations regarding firearms that they pleased. Perhaps they should up ticket prices and quit taking so much $$$ out of the pockets of VA tax payers?

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§ 15.2-915. Control of firearms; applicability to authorities and local governmental agencies.

A. No locality shall adopt or enforce any ordinance, resolution or motion, as permitted by § 15.2-1425, and no agent of such locality shall take any administrative action, governing the purchase, possession, transfer, ownership, carrying, storage or transporting of firearms, ammunition, or components or combination thereof other than those expressly authorized by statute. For purposes of this section, a statute that does not refer to firearms, ammunition, or components or combination thereof, shall not be construed to provide express authorization.

Nothing in this section shall prohibit a locality from adopting workplace rules relating to terms and conditions of employment of the workforce. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a law-enforcement officer, as defined in § 9.1-101 from acting within the scope of his duties.

The provisions of this section applicable to a locality shall also apply to any authority or to a local governmental entity, including a department or agency, but not including any local or regional jail or juvenile detention facility.

B. Any local ordinance, resolution or motion adopted prior to the effective date of this act governing the purchase, possession, transfer, ownership, carrying or transporting of firearms, ammunition, or components or combination thereof, other than those expressly authorized by statute, is invalid.

(1987, c. 629, § 15.1-29.15; 1988, c. 392; 1997, cc. 550, 587; 2002, c. 484; 2003, c. 943; 2004, cc. 837, 923.)