George,

Recent news concerning Virginia’s open-carry firearm law comes to a shock to many people unaware of the existing law. One does not usually see people walking down the street with a firearm strapped to their side – but when you do, you really take notice. You just stare at the holster, you stare at the gun and you look for the badge only to find none.

Many people in our community and the Commonwealth carry every day and you just don’t notice. I am not a Law Enforcement Officer nor am I a government employee required to be armed. I am just plain old Will Lyster – native resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia and citizen of the United States of America. I legally carry my firearm concealed from your view. I carry a firearm every day. I carry it wherever and whenever legally allowed. I know the law and abide by the law.

Why do I carry? I carry for my protection. I carry for the protection of my family and the protection of those around me who may not be armed.

One year before I was born, Charles J. Whitman killed 16 people and wounded 31 when he fired from atop a tower on the campus of the University of Texas in Austin.

Twenty years ago today, July 18, 1984 James Huberty walked into a McDonald’s Restaurant in San Ysidro, CA and killed 21 men, women and children and wounded 16 others before being killed by a police sniper. Most of the victims had been slowly wounded, bullet by bullet before being finished off with a shot to the head.

The gravity of this shooting as many others can only be realized after reading accounts of survivors:

“Jackie Wright Reyes, her baby Carlos, in her arms, was at the counter with the rest of her group. They'd just gotten their order when Huberty fired into the ceiling. Aurora Pena, Reyes's niece, later remembered that they all dropped to the floor; Reyes tucked Carlos against her and shielded him and Aurora with her body. Huberty looked down at them and started firing. He killed Jackie's friend Elena Colmenero with a shotgun blast to the chest; he fatally shot nine-year-old Claudia Perez in the cheek, chest, belly, thigh, hip, armpit, and eventually, head. Imelda Perez was lucky; she was only hit in the hand. Aurora Pena wound survive a bullet wound in her left leg.

Both girls remained conscious. Aurora, lying up against her aunt, Jackie Reyes, could feel her aunt's body jerking and bucking when Huberty turned his weapons on her. He shot the young women in the shoulders, breast, back, buttocks, left arm, both legs, neck and head - 48 wounds by the coroner's count. Beside his dead mother's body, baby Carlos sat up and started wailing at the top of his lungs. Huberty shouted at the shrieking child in red jumpsuit - then took careful aim and killed the infant with a 9-mm. slug through the center of the back.”

Miguel and Alicia Victoria were the oldest victims that day. They had come for those hamburgers to take home to Tijuana. They parked and walked to the west door. James Huberty met them with shotgun blasts. The buckshot caught Alicia in the face and threw her down. It ripped into the old man as well, and he, looking in horror at his wife, screamed, "God dammit, you killed her!" Then he tottered and fell. He pulled himself to a sitting position and wiped the blood from his wife's face, wiping and cleaning and cursing the maniac who'd murdered her.

The old man kept wiping his wife's ruined face while his own blood ran down his chin as he shouted curses at the gunman inside. Huberty walked to the door. He yelled angrily at the old man - then shot him from only inches away. Miguel crumpled beside his dead wife.

This was a brutal public massacre. School and workplace killings are increasing as well. Here are some recent workplace shootings:

• July 29, 1999: Former day trader Mark Barton, 44, killed nine people at two Atlanta brokerage offices and later committed suicide.
• Nov. 2, 1999: Copier repairman Byran Uyesugi, 40, shot seven people to death at Xerox Corp. in Honolulu. He was convicted and sentenced to life.
• Dec. 30, 1999: Housekeeper Silvio Izquierdo-Leyva, 36, fatally shot five co-workers at Tampa, Fla.'s Radisson Bay Harbor hotel. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life.
• March 20, 2000: Fired employee Robert Harris, 28, shot five people to death at a Dallas-area car wash. He was convicted and sentenced to death.
• Dec. 26, 2000: Software tester Michael McDermott, 42, shot and killed seven people at a Wakefield, Mass., Internet consulting company, Edgewater Technology Inc. He was convicted and sentenced to life without parole.
• Feb. 5, 2001: William D. Baker, 66, killed four people, then himself at a Navistar International engine plant in Melrose Park, Ill.
• Feb. 25, 2003: Emanuel Burl Patterson, 23, allegedly opened fire at Labor Ready Inc., a temporary employment service in Huntsville, Ala., killing four fellow job-seekers and wounding a fifth. Patterson has been charged with murder.
• July 1, 2003: Jonathon Russell, 25, shot and killed three co-workers and wounded five others at the Modine Manufacturing Co. in Jefferson City, Mo., before killing himself.
• July 8, 2003: Doug Williams, 48, gunned down 14 co-workers, killing six, at a Lockheed Martin aircraft parts plant in Meridian, Miss., before turning the gun on himself.
• August 27, 2003: Salvador Tapia opened fire at an auto parts warehouse in Chicago, killing six former co-workers. Tapia, 36, who had recently been fired from his job at the warehouse, was shot dead by police.

While most of these were in people’s workplaces where, as an employee, you may not be able to carry a gun, who is to say that I may not walk into one of these offices as a customer on an employee’s bad day? When I go to the Post Office or the drycleaners, or the grocery store, I am taking a chance that there may be a disgruntled employee about to open fire on his/her fellow workers.

What makes us think these kinds of events will never happen here? Criminals be warned: when you think about killing those around you – some may be armed. All Virginia concealed permit holders have passed training proficiency tests with a handgun by law. When you decide to take human lives or use deadly force to endanger the lives of those around you, I am prepared to fire immediately and without hesitation – regardless your looks, your age, religious beliefs, race, sex or relationship to me. I will not wound you – I will kill you.

While I could carry openly, I choose not to. When it comes to self defense, a low profile is the best profile so I keep my shirt or jacket over my gun. But why are Virginians upset when they see a gun? I carry one every day and you don’t know it. You do now, but when you see me next you won’t even remember or think about it. So why should you act differently if it is exposed?

Will Lyster (electronic mail, July 20, 2004)

Politically we know most conservatives are pro-gun and liberals are anti-gun. For those liberals, this might be a good read:

The Armed Liberal http://www.armedliberal.com/archives/000147.html#000147