Surovell: Farmers markets and assault weapons don’t mix
This column was submitted by State Sen. Scott Surovell (D-36), and does not necessarily represent the views of Covering The Corridor.
Every Saturday morning, my father and 12-year-old son go to the Alexandria Farmer’s Market. My son gets cookies. My dad gets ham biscuits. Two weeks ago, they brought me some homemade salsa. This weekend, they got something else.
Four men in a group called “The Right to Bear Arms” showed up at the Alexandria City Farmer’s Market carrying AR-15 assault rifles outfitted with scopes and bipods for sniping. According to a video posted by one of the group members, they staged this action to “educate people” about gun rights and “exercising our constitutional rights without fear to do so.” The video is also filled with the usual references to freedom and the government taking away rights if you do not use them. He also indicated they intended to do these kind of “monthly walks.”
While the current President has lowered the bar for socially acceptable political conduct and while this was technically legal, this was outrageous. It never escapes me that Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad terrorized Northern Virginia for two weeks using an AR-15. Every time I hear that word, it triggers memories for me of the 10 people who were murdered and three others, including a 13-year-old child, who were shot in 2002.
Those memories have only been reinforced with by the recent carnage inflicted by the AR-15 including Poway, Aurora, Orlando, Parkland, Las Vegas, Sandy Hook, Waffle House, San Bernandino, Sutherland Springs, El Paso, Tree of Life and Midland/Odesa two weeks ago. The sight of an AR-15 in public is anything but reassuring.
These “education lessons” are extremely dangerous. Perusing a farmer’s market with an assault rifle in a country that sees an assault rifle related mass shooting about six times per year is more likely to promote shock, fear, and terror than it is likely to “educate” anyone. If anything, the presence of an AR-15 is more likely to incite violence than to deter it.
The United States and Virginia are currently being strangled by a small minority who wield political power orders of magnitude larger than their numbers. Background checks are supported by over 90 percent of the public. “Red Flag Laws” that would allow judges to take guns away from dangerous persons are supported by over 80 percent. Law limiting ammunition clips are supported by over 60 percent of voters. Assault weapon bans have majority support. None of these bills are capable of passing Republican-controlled General Assembly or the U.S. Senate because of internal Republican Party politics.
There is no question in my mind that this past weekend’s actions were not done to “educate” anyone – they were done to threaten, intimidate and terrorize a community that believes firearms should be more tightly regulated. The First Amendment protects speech, but it does not protect physical threats.
While the vast majority of gun owners are law abiding citizens and would never dream of parading their weapons in public spaces, this incident demonstrates there is a minority who are irresponsible. Similarly, while most people drive safely, there are others who would be happy to drive 100 mph on the Beltway. We have rules to keep our communities safe and control small groups of people who are incapable of being either responsible or exercising self-control.
Fairfax County, Arlington County and the City of Alexandria (but not Prince William County) already wisely prohibit the carriage of loaded rifles in automobiles, but this incident only underscores the need for the Commonwealth to prohibit the open carry of assault weapons at a minimum at permitted events or at public assemblages. Alternatively, the Commonwealth should consider allowing localities to regulate the public carriage of assault rifles to consistent with the expectations of each local community. I am sure we will be taking this up next session in Richmond.
In the meantime, my advice for this group called “The Right to Bear Arms” is simple: Go home and stay away. You are doing anything to help your cause. People go to Farmer’s Markets to buy local food. They don’t go there for lessons in firearm rights, terrorism, bullying, intimidation or demonstrations of male insecurity.
Feel free to send me any feedback at scott@scottsurovell.org.
That is not an assault weapon.
Dude-fool Death-Eater with open carry of his AR-15 (does he sleep with it?) looks like he just shot himself in the foot. We have to respond to these fringe folk with legislation so they don’t continue to disturb what is a generally typical and pleasant outing to our local Farmers Markets. Our core values and beliefs are supported by the majority. So get off your bottoms and vote on Tuesday Nov 5, 2019 (polls open 6 am – 7 pm) so we get more of a majority in the VA House of Delegates and Senate to pass common-sense legislation. In VA. an election is decided by one vote. Local.State.Elections.Matter. Your.Vote.Matters.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/local/homicides/
Take a look at this homicide map for the DC area. It includes DC and surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia. I live in Fairfax County which is across the
Potomac from DC and Maryland. Here in Virginia we have private sales w/o background checks, open carry and shall issue concealed carry. I can open carry an AR-15 if I want. The places that are off limits for carrying in Virginia are few and far between. DC and Maryland have very restrictive gun laws to include handgun permits, background checks and bans on “assault weapons”. Note how the non Virginia jurisdictions have had many fold more homicides? Here in Virginia we have few restrictions on law abiding citizens bearing arms and our violent crime rate is minuscule compared to DC and DC neighboring Maryland counties. The ability to defend ourselves helps keep the crime on the other side of the river. I will stick with Virginia.
“A spurious correlation is a relationship between two variables that appear to have interdependence or association with each other but actually do not. Spurious correlation is often caused by a third factor that is not apparent at the time of examination.” In other words a gun rights “cause” does not produce the “effect” cited in DC and Maryland suburbs versus Virginia. The true cause(s) are more likely the interrelationship between economic disparity, greater gang presence, drugs and the shear ease of gun availability, legal or otherwise, in bordering Virginia.
Precisely!
Same spurious correlation that millions of responsible gun owners are the reason we have the mentally ill and criminals using guns to commit their misdeeds.
Nobody is making such a correlation. It is not responsible gun owners that cause criminals or the mentally ill to commit misdeeds. There are responsible gun owners and mentally ill people in all countries. The difference is that in most countries there are common sense controls on the access to guns.
It is the NRA’s position that everyone should have access to guns. The NRA has opposed background checks to prevent dangerous people from getting guns and opposes prohibiting selling guns to people on the terrorist watch list.
The ability of anyone to get any type of weapon they want, is the problem.
You fool. DC homicides are caused largely by guns bought in VA!
It is completely and utterly outrageous that these people showed up at the Alexandria Farmer’s Market. How many people will be affected by their “right” to do so? Fear of attending the market now will drive people away for fear of violence or worse, and the vendors will suffer as well. All for what “education”? This has gone way too far.
The last thing these people can be called are responsible gun owners. This behavior needs to be banned and when it is people like this will have nobody but themselves to blame.
Surovell should stop attacking citizens exercising their rights and do something about the illegal immigration in NOVA. I suppose his being triggered by this individual would be enough to enact the proposed red flag laws and have this citizen stripped…
There is no right to use a gun to intimidate people. In fact, there is no right to unrestricted gun ownership, period. But this type of intimidation is not just not a right, it needs to be outlawed.
Why are you intimidated? Who was he intimidating? Google the Bill of Rights and then read the 2nd Amendment, there is certainly a right to bear arms…and the SCOTUS has upheld it.
I was not intimidated, I was not even there. I would imagine most people were not intimated who were there, they saw him for what he is: An immature coward who needs a gun to reassure himself of his masculinity. The point is that was clearly his intent, to intimidate people.
On the 2nd Amendment you are obviously VERY misinformed. SCOTUS in Heller, made clear that very significant regulation of gun possession is allowed under the 2nd Amendment. It even specifically touched on the legality of a ban on unusual weapons such as assault rifles.
By, the way, the I don’t need to google the Bill of Rights to know what is in the 2nd Amendment, including the part about it existing for militias and especially the part about “well regulated.”