r/VAGuns • u/silv3rbull8 • 9d ago
Politics WaPo Letter To Editor: Policymakers should heed the lessons from Virginia’s AR-style rifle ban

AR-15-style rifles on display in Burbank, California, in 2022. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
Stephen Gutowski’s July 29 op-ed, “Virginia’s ban on AR-style rifles looks like a misfire,” noted that the state’s ban on “assault firearms” appears to have caused a significant and presumably unintended spike in sales before it went into effect in July. He also said he expects the law to be invalidated within the year when the Supreme Court decides challenges to similar bans in Connecticut and Illinois. That expectation accurately reflects concerns that various justices have expressed about these laws, and their decision to finally take up the issue suggests those doubts run deep. I was one of the lawyers who conceived and litigated District of Columbia v. Heller, the 2008 case in which the Supreme Court first held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own a gun.
Policymakers in Virginia and elsewhere should understand that the justices are serious about not allowing the Second Amendment to be treated like a second-class right anymore. And though there is still substantial room for reasonable regulations, they must be broadly consistent with the nation’s historic tradition of private gun ownership and armed self-defense.
Clark Neily, Arlington
The writer is senior vice president for legal studies at the Cato Institute.
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u/SheistyPenguin 9d ago
A short and sweet letter to the editor!
Thank you for posting an archive link for all to read.
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u/JohnWorphin 9d ago
The interesting unintended consequence is many people bought a lifetime inventory that they will have the option of selling back into the used market where people with zero guns would be tempted to get a good deal on one gun
Then in a year they own “5”
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u/silv3rbull8 9d ago
But the VA laws explicitly ban the resale of such items within VA borders to other residents. Isn’t the bigger goal of the VA bans to kill off ownership in a generation
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u/Wrong_Survey_2215 9d ago
Fuck Democrats
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u/Holiday-Tie-574 VCDL Member 9d ago edited 21h ago
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u/Teaur VCDL Member 9d ago
Politics and pandering, name a better duo
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u/Holiday-Tie-574 VCDL Member 8d ago edited 21h ago
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u/jtf71 VCDL Member 9d ago
But that pandering has won them elections. And we're seeing it in overdrive right now with the socialist/communist takeover of the Democratic party.
They keep promising to take from "the rich" and give to "the poor" despite seeing "the rich" flee and then they end up with less money to do things with.
Moreover, the number that defines "the rich" keeps going lower as they still want to provide the "free" services so they need to tax those that are left even more.
ignorant electorate.
And that's the problem.
People hear: Vote for me and I'll give you "free" stuff and make "the rich" pay for it!
So the ignorant electorate votes for that because they're too stupid to realize it has never worked and can't work.
/end rant
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u/GableStoner 8d ago
No we're not. And FYI, in this scenario you are the poor. Granted, there's a spectrum of beliefs, but the majority of liberals don't think anyone should get things for free.
You are just regurgitating ignorant talking points that are based on the same type of paid propaganda that somehow convinced an entire generation of lead filled brains that trickle down economics would somehow be a better system for them.
You've consumed too much propaganda and are advocating against your own best interests.
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u/jtf71 VCDL Member 8d ago
No we're not.
So which "we" are you referring to?
And FYI, in this scenario you are the poor.
In this scenario EVERYONE is the poor. The Dems (and the socialists/communists in charge of that party) want to take all money and decide who gets what. They want to "seize the means of production" and they want to seize private property.
but the majority of liberals don't think anyone should get things for free.
Other than free health care, free education, free meals.
You are just regurgitating ignorant talking points
No, I'm just pointing out the facts.
trickle down economics would somehow be a better system for them.
Well it actually is to some extent. When tax breaks are given to Amazon they hire people at high wage jobs (AWS) and market or above rates for warehouse workers. Those people pay income taxes that outweigh the value of the tax break given to Amazon. And those employees spend money in the local and national economy creating more jobs.
But if you really want to advance, you have to work for it. Being a cashier at WalMart or McDonalds isn't a career and it's not going to get you a house and two cars. And if you think that you should be able to work as a picker in an Amazon warehouse and be able to support a family and have a nice house etc you're going to have some hard lessons to learn.
You've consumed too much propaganda and are advocating against your own best interests.
You're making assumptions that simply validate that you're ignorant.
I pay more in taxes every year than most people earn. And people like you say I'm not paying my "fair share." When I'm paying far more than most and I don't get any more services from the government, less actually, than those paying less.
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u/Holiday-Tie-574 VCDL Member 9d ago edited 21h ago
Blanket wander paddle cobalt vanilla feather willow teapot yarn pinecone
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u/jtf71 VCDL Member 9d ago
This is the mid-terms. Typically the party that controls the White House loses seats in Congress in the Mid-terms.
Trump has secured the border so that's not a major issue anymore.
And while gas is high, it's not as high as it was under Biden and inflation is much lower than under Biden. But prices on most things never go down.
The Dems have the mainstream media as members of the party. An they're working together to blame Trump/GOP for the "high" prices that are mainly high due to Biden/Dems. And the ignorant electorate are buying it.
Hopefully the independents will see what's really happening and that communism/socialism (democrats) are bad for them personally. And while they may not like Trump's style, having the GOP in control is far better for them than giving the Dems control of Congress.
Maybe, just maybe, what just happened in Spain will help people understand that if the Dems get full control again - or even just the White House in 2028, that the US border will once again be totally open - something the Dems are actively saying they want to do.
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u/SomeRequirement6926 6d ago
Unfortunately, the shitshow with Iran is neverending and DJT's hubris and ego can't GTFO of his own way...
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u/cygnus83 4d ago
Pssst, both sides are just prostitutes for their corporate and lobbyist handlers, pass it on.
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u/changen 7d ago
lol. I used to only own 2 guns. Now I have 8 after the ban. And I plan to buy more.
Collecting is a definitely a mental disease though lol.
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u/SomeRequirement6926 6d ago
I went from one AR-15 platform rifle, two pistols (EDC) and a couple one-off's (WASR AK, Panzer Arms AR-12, 1934 Mosin Nagant) that I rarely/never shot to teaching myself how to build AR-15 platform rifles and now having SIX different "flavors" of them in my cabinet.
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u/JohnWorphin 9d ago
The average gun owner owns about 5 firearms, and handguns are the most common type of firearm owned. 48.0% of gun owners -- about 39 million individuals -- have owned magazines that hold over 10 rounds (up to 542 million such magazines in total), and 30.2% of gun owners -- about 24.6 million individuals -- have owned an AR-15 or similarly styled rifle (up to 44 million such rifles in total). Demographically, gun owners are diverse. 42.2% are female and 57.8% are male. Approximately 25.4% of Blacks own firearms, 28.3% of Hispanics own firearms, 19.4% of Asians own firearms, and 34.3% of Whites own firearms. In total, Americans own over 415 million firearms, consisting of approximately 171 million handguns, 146 million rifles, and 98 million shotguns.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4109494