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6. Problem at DMV in Chesapeake fixed
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Brian Abbott had a bad experience at the DMV on Greenbriar Blvd in Chesapeake and brought it to our attention. It happened at approximately 5:30pm on Tuesday, May 29th.
Philip contacted his contact in DMV and has since been informed that the security guards in this incident have been disciplined. As usual, DMV was professional to deal with and worked in good faith to fix the problem. Guards (rent-a-cops) are going to be retrained on the issue of gun carriage by lawful citizens.
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Brian said:
Well, I was just ejected from the Chesapeake, VA DMV for open carrying. I had just completed conducting my business there. While walking out, a gentleman stopped me to ask if I could give him advice on a good starter gun. While I was starting to respond to him, Security Guard #1 walked up and asked me to show him my credentials.
Me: "What credentials"
#1: "Your permit. I need to see your permit."
Me: "You don't need a permit to open carry in VA."
#1: "Well, if you don't have a permit, you have to leave"
Me: "This is state property, and you have no statutory authority to prohibit me from being here simply because I'm armed"
At this point, the second guard started chiming in with it being common courtesy to come inform them. I pointed out that she was effectively acknowledging that I was doing nothing legally wrong at that point, but they continued to insist that I had to leave. I was tempted to escalate this further, after he said he'd have to get the manager if I didn't leave, but I had been there for almost two hours already and was too hungry to want to continue this. I asked for their names at that point. SG #2 had a name tag, but #1 refused to identify himself to me.
The most insulting part was when Security guard #1 found it necessary to stand out front to watch me leave. I guess the rent-a-cop was trying to show how brave he is or something. The fact that they ignored me for the 90+ minutes I was there and then approached me as I was leaving anyway wasn't lost on me either. I've used the online email form at the DMV site to complain already, and I was wondering if you could suggest any other routes I could take with this?