For decades, my Dad has had to defend himself from knife-wielding White racists who didn't believe a Black man had the right to go about his own business.  How'd he do it?  By having a gun.  The assailants saw the blue steel of his legally-carried firearm and made Olympian sprinter Carl Lewis look slow running away.  My Dad walked away from those situations unharmed...as did his would-be assailants.

Now, I am burying my Dad.  He was recently murdered by four assailants because he couldn't get to a gun in time to defend himself.  They broke his neck and left him for dead, and he did die from the injury a short time later in the emergency ward.  There was nothing the doctors or nurses could do.

He was 83 1/2 years old.

By imposing this misguided rule, you will be putting even more people in the situation my Dad found himself in.

I find it remarkable that Gov. McAuliffe, with his 24/7 personal army for protection, wants us defenseless, unlike him and his.  "Guns for me, but not for thee", eh?  I guess you don't care about people like my Dad after all, Governor.

You don't have the authority to do this anyway, Sir.  You're doing it because YOU HAVE GUNS AT YOUR DISPOSAL TO IMPOSE IT; it's called the State Police.  That's what they do in North Korea, too, just on a larger scale.  You know you will lose in court with this.  You, therefore, have already broken your oath of service.  How dare you, Sir....

Gun-free zones are not safe.  The massacres that have happened in this country have occurred almost exclusively in "gun-free zones".  You want more massacres?  Then keep trying to expand gun-free zones, and you, unfortunately, will get it.  And as a native of San Francisco, California now living in Virginia, I've already seen the terrible results of that.

And isn't that, after all, why you have that armed phalanx protecting you and yours?  We all know the answer is yes.  So, don't deny us, either!

Sincerely,

C. Terrell "Cowboy T" Prude', Jr.

"San Francisco Liberal With A Gun"