The
latte grande at the
Starbucks in Tysons
Corner, Va., must have
seemed extra steamy last
month when two college
students bellied up to
the bar packing pistols
on their hips, as
casually as if they wore
cellphones. Someone
called the police, who
confiscated the handguns
and charged the
students. But wait: the
Catch-22 in Virginia's
enfeebled gun control
laws has kicked in.
Sure
there's a state law
against carrying loaded
firearms in public. But
the lethal fine print
defines
"firearm" as a
20-round-plus assault
rifle. So smaller
weapons, like the
.22-caliber and
9-millimeter pistols the
students flaunted in
their holsters, are
legal and no permit is
required. The pistols
were returned, thereby
contributing to a
celebratory mood among
the state's gun
enthusiasts. Now they're
strutting their Second
Amendment stuff among
Main Street shoppers and
restaurant diners in
Washington's booming
Virginia suburbs.
There
was what seemed a
self-fantasized posse of
six this month at a
table in a Champps
restaurant, their
weapons prominent as
pepper mills. The same
false alarm ensued, with
a police patrol backing
off in the face of
citizens' exercising
their rights, according
to The Washington Post.
And how about the couple
walking their dogs on
busy Market Street in
Reston? They carried
pistols on their hips,
plus extra ammunition
clips, as if the area
were a set from
"The Wild
Bunch" and not one
of the most crime-free
places in Virginia.
The
flaunting ritual is a
tribute to "open
carry" gun laws on
the books in a score of
states. Outcries from
the unarmed public
usually go unheeded. In
Utah, university
administrators worried
over students' wearing
guns in dormitories were
overruled by the
legislature, which
defended gun rights —
even to the point of
packing in class.
You'd
think Virginia citizens
concerned about weapons
in public would be able
to seek comfort in the
primacy of local
controls. Alexandria,
for instance, has barred
open carrying. But that
was before the very
latest Catch-22 in
Virginia law: effective
this month, state law
bars any locality from
enacting gun
regulations. Gotcha.