Please seriously consider enacting this petition to allow law-abiding citizens to <I>retain</I> their inalienable right to self-defense in state forests. Besides, Virginia law should be the same inside state forests as well as outside, across the board.

Concerning a matter such as this it must also continually be noted that law-enforcement entities - be they forest rangers, police, or any other State-sanctioned law-enforcement agents - are obviously not constitutionally bound, nor are they otherwise <I>lawfully required by statute</I> (as affirmed by several past court cases, i.e. <A href="http://supreme.justia.com/us/59/396/case.html"><I>South vs Maryland</I> (1855)</A>, <A href="http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/490641"><I>Bowers v. DeVito</I> (1982)</A>, and others), to defend private citizens from assault and/or murder. In fact, they're given blanket immunity in such cases. Ergo, I'd rather depend on myself for defense in a chance encounter with an armed aggressor by having the choice of being armed while within the boundaries of a state forest, or park for that matter. Then, I'd only have myself to blame for being defenseless.

Thank you in advance for your serious consideration of this petition.