MountainMornings

So, one of the first things to pique my interest after I moved South was a sign outside of a restaurant on the Historic Pedestrian Mall that pictured a handgun with a red slash going through it. It read something like, “No concealed weapons in this establishment,” just in case you didn’t get the picture.

I had never seen such a sign before. No dogs allowed, no bare feet, but never no guns. It was a moment when I had to admit, this move is a BIG change, a cultural shift. Like learning to pump my own gas.

Our Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, is currently in a standoff with the University about gun policy. You see the administrators of Mr. Jefferson’s Academical Village have outlawed weapons on the campus for many years. To quote the UVA policy on Firearms, Weapons and Destructive Devices, the “…possession, storage or use of any firearm, weapon, ammunition or explosives” in any facility, including the medical complex, by staff, students, community or visitors is  prohibited, period. With only two exceptions: one being a police officer; or the written permission of the Chief of Police .

And now Mr Cuccinelli has stated that anyone with a permit to carry a concealed weapon trumps the school policy! In other words, it’s OK to walk into the hospital with a handgun on your belt. Now if you were an ER physician, or nurse or patient, would you like to see that sticking out of a shirt?

Should a state law always override a public institution’s policy? Right after we moved here in 2007, a horrific massacre occurred at VA Tech killing 32 people and wounding 25 others. I heard people say ‘if only’ a student or professor had had a gun that day they may have stopped the carnage. Or ‘if only’ the perpetrator had been diagnosed mentally ill. Not much was said about the assault weapon ban that was left to silently expire, or the ease of obtaining a gun in this country. Or the fact that more than 100,000 Americans are victims of gun violence every year, claiming over 30,000 lives according to the CDC.

Being an old school policy wonk, I’d like to advise our schools to change their destructive device policy pronto. Perhaps a change to “Rules and Regulations” where certain politicians must keep hands-off. Also keeping those concealed weapons out of restaurants and bars? Good idea!