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Accomplished Advocate
This thread was created by Moderator (not by User below) to establish current law and allow closing of old necro thread:
I have to respond, "Good." One of my big arguments against gun-crazies' obsession with eradication of firearms in the name of "gun control" is the way automobile violence goes unpunished, and even unnoticed, demonstrating that the crazies are violent and dangerous people who aren't really concerned with criminal violence, but with disarming law abiding and socially responsible people so that they may further their criminal culture with impunity.
Speed limits are designed not to control speed but to control stopping distance. And, in Virginia, there has been a legislative conclusion to the effect that if you're going twenty miles an hour over the speed limit or at any speed over eighty miles per hour, you cannot possibly stop your car in a reasonable way in the area in which you're driving, and are therefore driving recklessly. "Reckless" means "in a manner that creates a threat to life, limb and property by extreme negligence". It doesn't require that you have malice toward any particular person, or even that there is a particular person likely to be injured. The gist of the crime is that you don't care whether you kill someone or not and are driving in a way that disregards your duty to avoid injuring other people and their property.
Reckless driving is a crime, a class-one misdemeanor, punishable by up to a fine of $2,500 and incarceration for up to twelve months. There are defenses available, and I would suggest that any time one be charged with a criminal offense, that he hire the best lawyer he can who understands the area of law implicated. Best way to find one is to ask the bailiffs who work in the traffic court in Caroline Co. (in this instance). The mere fact that you failed to control your speed is not a defense. But if you're lucky, you can get the charge knocked down to improper driving, a class-2 misdemeanor. But in Caroline Co., I would say that you'll be lucky to stay out of jail.
To my mind, and I believe this sentiment is shared by the General District Court of Caroline County, driving that way is like taking a gun out of the holster in a shopping mall and waving it around blindfolded and with your finger on the trigger. Maybe you have no intention of actually harming anyone, but the risk is unreasonably great. I may piss off eighty percent of the people on OCDO, but if I were the judge, I'd put your ass in jail, and if you don't like the sentence I give you, you could appeal to the Circuit Court and take your chances with a local jury. You're going to need about ten thousand dollars in legal fees, I reckon, and you'll probably still go out through the side door in handcuffs.
Brandishing a firearm, the same level of crime as reckless driving, is treated as if it only required that you be in possession of a firearm and that some person who sees it is willing to testify that you "pointed, held, or brandished" the firearm and that they felt fear as a result - the term "brandishing" having been "interpreted" by the Va. Sup. Ct. to mean "to display in an ostentatious or shameful manner" (which could include any form of open carry the court finds is "ostentatious" or "shameful"). But the same cops who'll charge you with brandishing will give you the benefit of the doubt when you're doing forty-six in a twenty-five zone (i.e., one in which pedestrians, including small children, are likely to come into the street, and where a short stopping distance is required). Open carry doesn't kill or injure anyone, and brandishing is only about "feeling fear"; speeding causes death, serious injuries, and excessive property damage. If the gun-crazies (people with a morbid neurotic obsession with guns in the hands of law abiding citizens) really cared about criminal violence, they'd obey the traffic laws.
I have to respond, "Good." One of my big arguments against gun-crazies' obsession with eradication of firearms in the name of "gun control" is the way automobile violence goes unpunished, and even unnoticed, demonstrating that the crazies are violent and dangerous people who aren't really concerned with criminal violence, but with disarming law abiding and socially responsible people so that they may further their criminal culture with impunity.
Speed limits are designed not to control speed but to control stopping distance. And, in Virginia, there has been a legislative conclusion to the effect that if you're going twenty miles an hour over the speed limit or at any speed over eighty miles per hour, you cannot possibly stop your car in a reasonable way in the area in which you're driving, and are therefore driving recklessly. "Reckless" means "in a manner that creates a threat to life, limb and property by extreme negligence". It doesn't require that you have malice toward any particular person, or even that there is a particular person likely to be injured. The gist of the crime is that you don't care whether you kill someone or not and are driving in a way that disregards your duty to avoid injuring other people and their property.
Reckless driving is a crime, a class-one misdemeanor, punishable by up to a fine of $2,500 and incarceration for up to twelve months. There are defenses available, and I would suggest that any time one be charged with a criminal offense, that he hire the best lawyer he can who understands the area of law implicated. Best way to find one is to ask the bailiffs who work in the traffic court in Caroline Co. (in this instance). The mere fact that you failed to control your speed is not a defense. But if you're lucky, you can get the charge knocked down to improper driving, a class-2 misdemeanor. But in Caroline Co., I would say that you'll be lucky to stay out of jail.
To my mind, and I believe this sentiment is shared by the General District Court of Caroline County, driving that way is like taking a gun out of the holster in a shopping mall and waving it around blindfolded and with your finger on the trigger. Maybe you have no intention of actually harming anyone, but the risk is unreasonably great. I may piss off eighty percent of the people on OCDO, but if I were the judge, I'd put your ass in jail, and if you don't like the sentence I give you, you could appeal to the Circuit Court and take your chances with a local jury. You're going to need about ten thousand dollars in legal fees, I reckon, and you'll probably still go out through the side door in handcuffs.
Brandishing a firearm, the same level of crime as reckless driving, is treated as if it only required that you be in possession of a firearm and that some person who sees it is willing to testify that you "pointed, held, or brandished" the firearm and that they felt fear as a result - the term "brandishing" having been "interpreted" by the Va. Sup. Ct. to mean "to display in an ostentatious or shameful manner" (which could include any form of open carry the court finds is "ostentatious" or "shameful"). But the same cops who'll charge you with brandishing will give you the benefit of the doubt when you're doing forty-six in a twenty-five zone (i.e., one in which pedestrians, including small children, are likely to come into the street, and where a short stopping distance is required). Open carry doesn't kill or injure anyone, and brandishing is only about "feeling fear"; speeding causes death, serious injuries, and excessive property damage. If the gun-crazies (people with a morbid neurotic obsession with guns in the hands of law abiding citizens) really cared about criminal violence, they'd obey the traffic laws.
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