Millions of Virginians enjoy the challenge of hunting, target shooting, and fishing. As a child, I spent much of my summers on Smith Mountain Lake and Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks of New York fishing for Perch, Blue Gill, Crappy, Carp, Catfish, and if I was lucky, Striped Bass or up north for Perch, Bass, and, if I was lucky, Pike, Pickerel, and Trout.

My mother’s family comes from a long rural tradition from Franklin County in Southwest Virginia. In many families hunting and gun ownership is a family tradition and very much a way of life. The Right to Hunt is enshrined Article XI, Sect. 4 of the Constitution of Virginia. The United States Supreme Court recently found that Virginians have a Constitutional Right to gun ownership, but left open the question of how to balance the rights of owners and public safety. Virginia’s natural assets also provide tourist dollars with national bass fishing competitions occurring on our lakes and rivers.

We must respect the values, activities, and way of life of all of Virginia’s residents. Keeping our rivers, streams, and lakes clean allows Virginians to enjoy the same activities that I did as a child. Preserving open space is critical to ensuring opportunities to hunt. However, as with all things, there is a time and place for everything, and while the vast majority of gun owners use them responsibly, there are a small number of people who do not. I believe in the right to bear arms to hunt and protect one’s family, but I do not believe that felons, terrorists, or troubled teenagers have a right bear arms that threaten our children.

When elected to the House of Delegates, I will:

• Work to end the ban on Sunday hunting in Virginia.
• Fight to encourage the preservation of open space for hunting.
• Fight to keep our lakes, rivers and streams clean so Virginians can fish.
• Work to balance the right to own guns with public safety concerns by working towards common sense restrictions on firearms such as closing the gun show loophole and sustaining Virginia's ban on concealed weapons in restaurants where alcohol is served.