Dear Ladies & Gentlemen, at the present moment you are in the hearing with I would imagine a room full of pro-gun activists who answered the call of the NRA and the Virginia Citizens Defense League.  While it may be impressive, the numbers of retired men & women who came to this hearing on a workday, I urge you to look with a broader lens at the Virginians who are in support of this ban but who were unable to make the hearing, and note who those Virginians are.   I also urge you to solicit the counsel of those stakeholders who have opinions we should value when it comes to public safety in the spaces where they work.  The Presidents and faculty of VCU? UVA? William & Mary? VA Tech?  What would they say allowing citizens to carry on their campuses?  Surely their insight should be sought out, as the armed constitutional patriots in your room today do not speak for them.  What about the Executive Director and Board members of the VA Museum of Fine Arts?  An institution responsible for bringing renaissance to Richmond as well as tourism dollars?  Do they want a return of armed museum visitors around their exhibits worth hundreds of millions of dollars?  Do their patrons who visit from all over the country and beyond our borders need to feel a sense of alarm when they see an armed patron? Is it really in the best interest of public safety for armed security and police at state buildings to have to make a risk assessment everytime they see an armed citizen walk into the building.  The fact is, people have the individual right to carry firearms for their own protection. But that right can be regulated, per Scalia's Supreme Court Decision.  The Governor is well within his authority to put reasonable parameters on that right when it comes to state buildings where armed security is already in place.  The NRA's narrative of "guns for everyone, everywhere"  is not an ideology shared by most gun-owners.  Think about it:  The NRA has 5,000,000 members.  Impressive, right?  But gun-owners in America number about 270 million.  So the NRA does NOT speak for the majority of gun-owners.  Not even close.  Open carry is an extremist behavior, and not the norm. Do not allow this group of extremists dominate our public-safety practices.  We have too much at stake.  Thank you.