NoVA meets VCDL

NoVA meets VCDL:

A while back, a group of gun owners were having dinner in a pizza joint in Manassas, VA. As required by VA law, when dining in a restaurant which serves alcohol, they had their firearms openly displayed.

Somebody called the cops and reported a bunch of armed men eating dinner, and said the guns made him "uncomfortable." The cops apparently harrassed the dinner party, and then went to the manager of the restaurant to get him to ask them to leave so they, the cops, could throw out the gun-owning diners.

No one was arrested because no laws had been broken by anyone. But the cops got what they wanted -- a chance to show that, if you carry a gun, legally or not, you'll be in trouble with the police.

Last night, the gun owners gave their reply.

More than a hundred members of the Virginia Citizens' Defense League showed up at the Manassas city council meeting to protest the action and demand the officers be disciplined. Speakers from the organization held the floor for one and a half hours -- video will apparently be available soon -- to explain the virtues of gun ownership and gun rights, and to demand that people exercising those rights be treated with respect.

According to the VCDL page, "The Mayor led off by saying that he could not remember ever seeing such a large crowd for **anything** they had done before!"

Good job.