VA: Alexandria Police Misinform Businesses about Open Carry

The above flyer was being handed out to local businesses in Alexandria Virginia  recently.   A VCDL member observed it and was able to take a picture of the flyer, with the cooperation of the local business owner.  From an VCDL email:

The flyer particularly endangers 18 to 20 year olds as it incorrectly tells a store owner that if they see someone under 21-years-old with a handgun on their hip, that is illegal! That is NOT true and having the police show up on a bogus “man with a gun” call endangers everyone unnecessarily.

The flyer also makes these other FALSE claims about the law, which again could lead to unnecessary man-with-a-gun calls to the police:

* Open carry is not legal in churches

* Open carry is not legal in government buildings (we’ll show that’s not true when we flood their city hall on Saturday, December 13th - see below).

Similar situations have occurred in other Southern states.  Sheriffs are said to have promoted "gun free zone" signs in Georgia, in Mississippi, and a police department in Arkansas.

It is an abuse of power for police and sheriffs to "educate" businesses to discriminate against people exercising their rights by distributing false information.   I firmly believe that privately owned businesses should be able to  do business with whom they chose.  I also believe that the government should not be in the business of not so subtly advising the businesses who they should discriminate against.

I suspect that this will not work well for the Sheriff's department.

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch