This is not about "Allowing" law-abiding people to carry guns in State Forests, it is about unreasonably prohibiting that lawful exercise of our rights.

It is up to the Department of Forestry to prove that there is Overwhelming Need for visitors to State Forest lands to be disarmed.  Arguments that disarmament reduces poaching or helps authorities catch or prevent poaching, are whole insufficient justification for the total disarmament of law-abiding visitors.  Arguments that legally carried firearms might be used to perpetrate crimes or cause harm to wildlife, visitors, or employees of the State Forests are also specious.  Firearms are not prohibited on National Forest and BLM lands in most of the country with no detrimental result.

Laws and regulations should address behavior, not tools.  The proposed regulatory change, lifting the ban on firearms for individuals who possess a recognized concealed firearm permit, is an improvement over the current situation, but it is not nearly enough.  The right to arms, concealed with a permit or carried openly without a permit, is recognized and freely exercised virtually everywhere in the state of Virginia with the exception of the woods and countryside controlled by the state game authorities.  Responsible cisizens such as my wife, who enjoys walking and hiking in the woods with her small dogs, must either forego the means of protecting themselves and their pets from predators and rabid beasts - both four-legged and two - or maintain the means of defense in violation of the law.

The regulations should be changed to lift the ban on concealed carry of firearms by permit holders and the porcess should be initiated to lift all bans on personal defense firearms on all public lands in the state.