VCDL zealots making things harder for everyone in Virginia

The patrons at Champps in Reston, an upscale restaurant and bar chain, were eating ribs and drinking beer on a recent Saturday when customer Bruce Jackson stood up and made an announcement: He was armed, and so were dozens of other patrons.

The armed customers stood up in unison, showing off holstered pistols. Mr. Jackson said a word or two about the rights of gun owners to carry firearms in Virginia, then thanked everyone for his or her attention and sat down.

And the diners returned to their burgers and Budweisers.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) organized the dinner at Champps to prove a point: that the presence of armed customers in Northern Virginia restaurants would elicit little more than shrugs.

So goes this story taken from today's Washington Times.

And as a long-time gun owner and advocate of every law-abiding citizen's right to carry a concealed firearm for self-defense, I read stories like this, shake my head, and resolve once more never to give VCDL a penny when I see them begging for cash at local gun shows.

Now you'd think that as a gun guy, I'd support this sort of nonsense. But I don't. I don't support stupid publicity stunts designed around efforts to make other people uncomfortable, which this sort of thing does. I'm also very, very leery of the sort of person who feels a need or desire to walk around with their gun in plain view, knowing and hoping that everyone else will see it. First of all, I question the motives of people who do that. What I see is someone who gets off on projecting power and intimidating others, and I don't equate that sort of conduct with responsible gun ownership. Now for the record, I have the ability to carry a firearm concealed and I usually exercise that right and have a pistol on my person when I'm out and about. But unlike the VCDL yahoos, no one will ever know that I have one because I keep it concealed. And I do this because, aside from the fact that it's in very bad taste to show everyone your gun, it's also tactically unsound and a good way to get killed.

You see, when people properly conceal firearms, not only does the general public not know that a person has one, but criminals don't know, and not only does that uncertainly keep the bad guys wondering and perhaps dissuade a few of them from trying to rob a person or a business where there are multiple people present, but it puts a big target right on the back of the head of the guy who is so stupid as to let the criminals know that he's the armed guy. If I was a criminal planning to rob a bank, and I walked in and saw some joker standing in line with a holstered pistol on his hip, I'd be about as likely to start the robbery out by shooting him as I would be to just leave. You see, Joe Schmoe with a gun isn't on the same level as a uniformed police officer in the eyes of the criminal world, even if Joe S. does feel like he's as big and bad as any cop who ever wore a badge. Joe's just target #1, and since the criminal's gun is probably concealed, Joe doesn't even know. The only one who still has the element of surprise is the criminal, unless of course there is another law-abiding gun owner there who has their firearm lawfully concealed because he or she is smarter and more tactical than Joe.

And my last objection is perhaps the most troubling. Right now, the VCDL extremists are acting under Virginia law, which basically allows anyone who can own a gun to carry it unconcealed. Concealed weapons permits on the other hand are routinely denied to people who have criminal histories which, while they are not a complete bar to firearms ownership, indicate that the person might not have the judgment or maturity necessary to carry that gun in public. Examples of such crimes are Drunk Driving convictions, misdemeanor drug convictions, assault or theft crimes which were only prosecuted as or pled down to misdemeanors, and pretty much any other crime which only led to a misdemeanor conviction. There's a lot of room there and under the law, people who have been convicted of one or a number of misdemeanors can still own guns and carry them openly, but they don't qualify for a concealed weapons permit due to the high standards used in issuing those. Since it's common sense that most everyone who wants to carry a gun would prefer to have a concealed weapons permit, it follows that many of the people who carry guns openly are people who could not get a concealed weapons permit and a criminal history is the most obvious reason. Therefore, when I see someone carrying a gun on his hip in plain view and trying to look like he's some badass right off the stagecoach from Deadwood or Tombstone, I assume that he's a petty criminal who couldn't meet the strict requirements for a concealed weapons permit and I'm on my guard. I don't view that person as an ally or anyone that I intend to rely on if things go bad the way that I would a concealed weapons permit holder. I'm uncomfortable around them precisely because I suspect that this person couldn't get a permit to lawfully conceal that gun. And when they do the "hey look at me" crap that VCDL continues to stage (in conjunction with phone calls to the media), all that does is reinforce my opinion that it's not about safety or gun rights but a quest for attention and a desire to intimidate others.

So VCDL, my advice is for you guys to give it a rest. Stop shooting yourself in the foot and quit selling your credibility out just to benefit a small number of Walter Mitty wanna-be's and petty ne'er-do-wells.