CDfingers said:
... too small, too poor, too suthun and too foolish ...
I see that Inter-State rivalry is not dead on the East Coast ;-)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U ... per_capita
Virginia is the 12th largest of the US States. It is a Commonwealth, not a State, the meaning of which has diluted over the centuries.
By GDP per person, Virginia has 96% of the GDP per person as California. Cost of living adjusted, Virginian's earn 105% as much as Californians.
5 US Presidents came from Virginia, but it has had no real political power since the Civil War.
I was raised in Virginia and went to her best University. I cannot return to my home Commonwealth however:
- The heat and humidity in the Summer are insufferable
- The mosquitos swarm in huge clouds
- The racial tensions in the Southern parts of Virginia are palpable
I visit Virginia to see my brother every few years. Most of the Southern areas look like a time capsule from my youth. Few new buildings, little economic growth, a residual tobacco industry. Heat, Humidity, Mosquitos, Racial Tension. What more could one wish for?
In some ways, politics in Virginia reminds me of California. The "red" parts of Virginia are mostly to the South, and the "blue" parts to the North.
I have another brother, who told me "but for the population around Washington DC distorting Virginia, it would clearly be all red" ... I suppose that is so.
As for "foolish", I confess that all of the former slave States appear to have really weird State level legislatures - I can think of no exceptions, and I am pretty current on the matter. Sure, Raleigh and Atlanta are pretty modernized cities. I visit both a few times a year for business reasons. But poke into the State level legislative records and a hot mess surfaces.
This push-me-pull-me tug of politics is the last stand of the mass migration from rural to urban life that occurred in the last Century. Our Constitution artificially preserves the power of the rural vote; I will leave it to others to decide if this is a healthy buffer or an anachronism.
And here I see how isolated I am from my "neighbors", and also why I visit this forum: few urbanites are 2A advocates. Whatever the charms and benefits of urban living are, they seem to weed out the individualism I see in most gun owners. (You may send counter arguments to that last sentence to this special email address -
nononehere@devnull.com)
As I have said elsewhere, I both believe in the 2A and believe it is an endangered species. It is a quirk of history that we codified the RKBA as clearly as we did (and not quite clearly enough, eh?) Look around the world and the RKBA is clearly in the decline. Most of the other G7 Countries think us barbarous for retaining the RKBA. While I do not need to agreed with them, I can see which way the wind blows.
Recently. Switzerland (and in case you don't know the place, I should have put it in all CAPS). SWITZERLAND voted to reduce their own RKBA. I have spent many, many months living in Switzerland. The Swiss I know believe that gun ownership is essential to their self preservation. I have listened to this conversation many times over dinner all around Switzerland. I have been shooting with Swiss friends often. They do not have a "gun culture", they have a "self-defence religion". And yet, for the right of continued commerce with the EU, the Swiss voted to "normalize" their laws regarding gun ownership.
I do not like this. I do my best to counter the trend, but in retrospect, the recent swelling of gun buying and gun ownership in the United States looks more counter-reactionary to me than a long term trend. The number of gun owners is declining year on year. Until 1995, I only ever owned two firearms at a time. One long gun and one hand gun. I maintained that number until less than 10 years ago, when my collection grew. But the global political trend lines do not favor a continuance in the RKBA. And truly, it is rather easy to regulate out. I will remind people of how scarce 22 LR ammo became just a few years ago in a very short time frame.
Yes, I know that many people have reloading equipment and supplies. But a few small changes here and there (California's ammo laws?) and things could change quickly.
In summary, I see the recent changes in Virginia WRT gun rights as one more squawk from the Canaries in the Coal Mine of gun rights.
Think this is a Democratic vs Republican issue? Then tell us all, exactly how the Republicans have advanced long term gun rights outside of the Supreme Court.