From ‘sssshhh!’ to ‘bang!’ in Virginia libraries

Anonymous Patron writes “I’d swear this is from The Onion, but, no, The Roanoke Times has an odd little piece on the Virginia House of Delegates and their love of guns.
“If law-abiding citizens are disarmed in libraries, only the career criminals will be armed there,” a National Rifle Association spokesman said. “Who guarantees the right of self protection then?”
I can’t pick my favorite quote in this, they’re all so good!
In Richmond, local authorities expressed hope that the “Arm Your Local Librarian” measures would also cut down on disputes involving the use of library facilities.”

Update: 02/09 09:34 EST by B:I should’ve added this is obviously not real news, but rather a humor column.

February 9, 2005 by Blake Uncategorized 8

rochelle says:

February 9, 2005 at 7:31 pm

Hoax?
Nothing comes up when you do a search for the “Librarians Protective Association,” except for the article you linked to. Some days at the ref desk, it sounds like a good idea to me.

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Cyberpunk Librarian says:

February 9, 2005 at 8:00 pm

Well…

There’s been more than one occasion where it’d have been nice to have my pistol on me. I’ve had people in my face. I’ve had them threaten me. I’ve had full on fistfights break out between patrons. I’ve had a gang fight roll through my front door.

Now I don’t know about the gang fight, since gang members are notoriously short sighted, but I wonder if I’d have had half the problems listed above if the patrons knew that at least one librarian was packing heat.

Eh, now that I think about it, it’d probably make no difference.

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kylere says:

February 9, 2005 at 8:48 pm

Hrmm
Well, I think being well read should be a requirement to possess a firearm, guns don’t kill people, dumb people with guns kill people.

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Bishop says:

February 9, 2005 at 8:58 pm

Heh
After all, an armed society is a polite society!

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rochelle says:

February 9, 2005 at 9:18 pm

Note to self…
Don’t read and respond early in the morning, especially in the throes of a dope-head sinus infection.

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Fang-Face says:

February 10, 2005 at 1:42 am

Har har!
Nice to see a noosepaper article quoting people who have a sense of humour and know how to use it; makes a nice refreshing changing from all those pompous asses who take themselves too serious.

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infodiva says:

February 10, 2005 at 2:34 am

actually, part of this is real…
The second portion of the article is, of course, meant to be funny. But the first part is real–there was real proposed legislation.

The “Virginian Pilot” has an article describing the current gun bills which were “shot” down, available at: http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?sto ry=81715&ran=164960

Virginians are very protective about their guns; I’m from urban VA, and lets just say I would never want to work in the local public library without one 🙂

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Anonymous Patron says:

February 12, 2005 at 7:18 am

Guns in Virginia libraries
When I sent this story to a coworker, he replied, “When the measure restricting guns in libraries was voted down in the House a couple weeks ago one legislature was quoted in the Times-Dispatch as saying “Instead of having the Gunfight at the OK Corral, now we’ll have the Gunfight at the OK Carrel.”

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