To the editor:

Thank you to the Suffolk News-Herald for covering the recent State Budget Appropriations Committee hearing, and for Mr. LaRoue’s accurate reporting of my questions to the committee members regarding gun control legislation in the Virginia General Assembly.

I want to clarify my concern. I do not own any of the weapons under scrutiny addressed in these new regulations.

My concern is what is happening to our rights as Virginians. If a rule can be made to take one right in Virginia, what restriction exists to prevent the arbitrary removal of other rights? Today it may be guns taken away, tomorrow it may be red cars, or life itself, a question on which Gov. Northam has already demonstrated his position.

We enter 2020 on a slippery slope. Today, some might agree with the new gun regulations. Tomorrow, when it is new ecology regs restricting boating and camping or rank disregard for our right to assemble in a house of worship, or worse, then we may wish we had spoken up when we had the chance. Voting, prayer and speaking up are the solution, I hope.

Malcom Massey

Suffolk