No amount of "banning" firearms in public buildings will make anyone safer.  In fact, evidence suggests that these "gun free zones" actually attract violent crime, putting government employees and the public at greater risk.  There is no evidence to suggest that lawfully carried firearms in Virginia's public buildings pose any danger at all, and a considerable body of evidence that this will increase the risk of harm.

This proposed regulation will have the opposite of the intended affect by playing into the hands of terrorists, violent criminals, and the criminally insane. We have had no shootings in state agencies and this prohibition on those with a concealed handgun permit, some of whom have active and ongoing threats to their lives, is entirely without any justification and needlessly and recklessly endangers innocent lives. 

Disarming good citizens (who are the only ones likely to obey the prohibition) does not make them safer. 

The Governor has no legal authority for this regulation. If the General Assembly wanted the Governor to have such power, they would have granted it to him explicitly, as is required constitutionally, and they have chosen not to do so.  This is a matter that should be taken up with them, subjected to open debate, and recorded with a vote of those two bodies.

This proposed regulation is a solution for which there is no problem. It endangers state employees, law abiding citizens, and the innocent by making state buildings a safe zone for terrorists, criminals, and the criminally insane to conduct their evil and savage actions. 

This regulations should not be approved and the emergency regulation withdrawn. 

Please extended the comment period for another 30 days.