The Roanoke Times columnist from last week apparently caused quite a stir with his column, which highlighted that you could get a license to carry a gun without ever having touched one, just like 600,000 people do in Pennsylvania, and many other states that have no training requirement. Â You can say it’s reckless all you want, but we don’t exactly have significantly more problems than other states that do require training, probably because LTC holders are a self-selected bunch, and not many choose to get an LTC if they don’t know anything about guns.
6 thoughts on “Look Who’s Caused a Stir”
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Terrific. I hadn’t actually read that guys column until you just mentioned it. I actually had no idea I could take an on-line course for $39.99 to get my Virigina CCW permit. I’ll be doing that, as the range courses are hard to get into around here and they are much, much, much more expensive… and from what I’ve heard, they are somewhat of a joke.
BTW, Virginia allows military and former military to get CCW permits just by showing their credentials. Now while every Marine is a rifleman, not every Marine has been trained to carry a handgun, much less a concealed handgun. In fact, the former Marine that I work with who does have a CCW permit told me he learned to shoot handguns after he got out. I’m not trying to be harsh on the military, but the belief that somebody who served in uniform and is therefore trained and capable of handling a concealed firearm is incorrect.
One of the major advertisers on the local channels here is East Coast Gun Sales in Duncansville. It’s odd to see their ads interspersed with the occasional gun hysteria story.
If I haven’t taken English Composition, do I still have the right to free speech?
Training requirements are an affront to the concept of “rights.” But then, so are the “permits” themselves.
I’ve helped teach a lot of concealed carry classes here in Virginia and, after that, I have to say that a life-fire requirement isn’t very useful. If someone doesn’t know anything about shooting, and doesn’t really believe that they need to stay proficient, that one class isn’t going to make a real difference in the long run.
Learning what is legal in Virginia, with respect to self-defense and carry, and becoming proficient are completely separate things. Besides, you can get a CHP in Virginia by taking a Hunter Safety Class, which doesn’t require you to fire anything, or by being in the military. Anyone that thinks the latter guarantees that you’ve shot a gun has never been in the Navy.
Jessup, it could be taken one step further in a direction that is certain to infuriate a large portion of the public… require classes in politics as a prerequisite to voting. Just sayin’…
LFS — Good point, and it really makes the point that I was alluding to: If something is a “right,” and we mean that, and we don’t mean a State-granted “privilege,” there can be no prior restraints on our access to it. All voter qualification tests that I have ever heard of were declared unconstitutional, once voting was regarded as a genuine human right. I know it is a fact of life, but I think it is a shame that gun owners are so quiet and accepting of prior restraints, while at the same time being so adamant that the RKBA is a fundamental right.