It is imperative that the House and Senate take back their delegated power to legislate, so they can honor and represent the people who elected them to do so and prevent one or two individuals from taking unilateral action that does not reflect the will of the people.  As a constituent and a citizen of both the Common Wealth and the United States, I feel it is imperative that the voice of the people be heard.

After careful review of the Code of Virginia, I do realize that §18.2-308.014 does authorize Colonel Flaherty and AG Mark Herring to collaborate to determine whether states meet the requirements to qualify for reciprocity.  However, after review of the requirements for resident and non-resident qualifications for permitting in the Common Wealth of Virginia and comparing our statutes to multiple other states that are listed to have their reciprocity revoked, I have found that several state do in fact statutorily meet… and in some cases exceed… what is required by Virginia law to obtain a permit.  This fact in and of itself could completely nullify the legitimacy of the actions of the AG and the Superintendent, as the Code is very specific as to what the qualifiers are.  This begs the question, what is the motive of this action?

Though I am not calling in representation of anyone but myself, I am a member of several organizations which plan to document these concerns and bring these concerns to the General Assembly.  I will be working to petition the House and Senate to draft a Bill to repeal and replace §18.2-308.014 based on the current code violating the Virginia Constitution and the US Constitution with regard to “keep and bear arms” as well as the US Constitution and the “Privileges and Immunities Clause of the United States Constitution” which states, "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States." 

To make a more personal comment, I don’t understand why our government insists on taking action to disarm law abiding citizens, when it is a known fact that criminals, by nature, ignore the law.  Starting in 1933, the US had a murder rate of 4.6 per 100,000.  As gun laws at the state and federal level increased, the homicide rate increased until it peaked at over 10 per 100,000 in the late 80’s and early 90’s.  That is a 118% increase in murder as laws passed to disarm citizens.  After federal bans expired, more and more states repealed their restrictions and became more firearm friendly, private ownership of firearms has skyrocketed and the murder rate drop dramatically.  So dramatically in fact, that it drop to the exact same murder rate that we had in 1933; 4.6 per 100,000.  After 82 years and the passing over 23,000 new firearm laws nation-wide, we have a net zero.  Nothing has been accomplished.  Not one life has been saved. 

As a quick side note, it’s also a proven statistical fact that that firearms owners with conceal carry permits are less likely to commit crimes than police officers, and more specifically murder.