Mayor Levar Stoney has proposed a gun ban on all Richmond owned buildings and city parks.
The Virginia Crime Commission has proposed more meetings to study the issue.
Today Stoney’s Office released the following statement.
“The Virginia General Assembly already has all the evidence it needs to reach the conclusion most Virginians reached years ago. We need action on commonsense gun safety laws, not more deliberation by the Virginia Crime Commission.“
“The epidemic of gun violence and the role Virginia’s lax laws play in the proliferation of and access to firearms by those who should not have them will continue unabated until our lawmakers make the commitment to act on behalf of their constituents — not the gun lobby — and propose commonsense laws to protect the people they were elected to serve.“
“In the City of Richmond, 40 people have been shot and six killed since the day the Republican leadership in the General Assembly turned a special session called by the governor after the tragedy in Virginia Beach into a dismissive charade, spending all of 90 minutes before adjourning without discussing one of the 60 gun violence reform bills before them. Instead, they punted the issue to the Virginia Crime Commission to hold two days of hearings and then not convene again until after the November elections.”
“Further discussion is delay, and delay means another day that our residents, law enforcement and local elected leaders do not have the basic protections they need to keep our communities safe. Universal background checks, allowing localities to ban firearms from public places and imposing penalties for failing to report stolen firearms are simple steps supported by a majority of Virginians. Most importantly, they will save lives.“
“We owe it to all of those families and communities who have been traumatized by gun violence to do everything we can to keep firearms out of the hands of people who should not have them and away from places where children play and citizens conduct business. Let’s hope the Commission’s efforts are not another Republican charade, and that lawmakers will finally have the spine to implement these commonsense gun control laws. Actions speak louder than words. Every Richmonder and every Virginian deserves to feel safe.”
1 comment
The criminals will always have illegal guns. If you take guns from law abiding citizens they become easy targets for criminals. Citizens need to protect themselves. We live in a war zone.
The literature shows that well armed citizens deter the violence of criminals because criminals never know who is carrying a gun to protect him/herself.
The problem is that we all want to be pacifists. The criminals know that, so they know they are safe from being hurt or killed. It becomes a free-for-all for them and we whine about being victimized.
There are not enough police or enough money to have enough police to protect the pacifists. We have to protect ourselves. Once word gets around that the pacifist easy targets are packing, these criminals will think twice about engaging in criminal behavior around us. I don’t believe in killing anyone, but I do believe in standing up for my right to life, liberty, and happiness without being traumatized and taken advantage of every single day. One thing I learned living in Church Hill. I’m not in Kansas anymore.
My innocence from a sheltered life was torn from me. There are really bad people out here, who don’t care unless they might get hurt themselves during their criminal activities. Right now, they have nothing to fear from us. They only fear their fellow criminal friends who have illegal guns.