If you ask a gun control advocate why you shouldn’t be allowed to carry a gun in certain places, they’ll give you a number of supposed reasons. One will undoubtedly be that more guns will somehow materialize into violence for no reason. When you point out that cops can carry in those places, they’ll respond that police have the training to do so.

So, it’s a training issue, right?

Well, a bill in Virginia was just shot down that makes it pretty clear that while they say police are exempt from some gun control measures because of their training, that’s really not it.

House Democrats on Thursday rejected two measures by Del. Tim Griffin, R-Bedford County, that would have expanded some concealed carry permits and allowed someone who has been granted a protective order to carry a concealed handgun even if they don’t have a concealed handgun permit.

By a 7-2 vote, a newly created Firearms Subcommittee killed Griffin’s House Bill 395, which would have allowed anyone age 21 or older to apply for an enhanced concealed handgun permit, which would give them the right to carry a firearm in any place a law-enforcement officer may carry a firearm, including most public buildings.

In order to qualify, the applicant would have been required to demonstrate competence with a handgun, including a live fire shooting exercise conducted on a range with a minimum of 100 rounds of ammunition.

“What this law does is, it says, listen, if you have proven yourself by doing a little bit of extra training and asking permission, so we know who you are, we know that you are competent and have shown your experience firing a firearm for 100 live rounds, then you have the ability to apply for a permit that gives you ability to take your firearm into places like only law enforcement would be able to take into, like government buildings,” Griffin told the panel.

Gun crime rarely comes from concealed carry permit holders, Griffin said. “We’re talking about giving people the right to protect themselves with their guns when no one else is there to protect them.”

Obviously, I agree with Griffin.

Gun-free zones don’t keep anyone safe. We know that the vast majority of mass shootings, for example, take place in gun-free zones.

What Griffin’s bill did, though, was basically lay down the plan for someone to undergo more training, including a live fire portion, and then be permitted to carry in these places that most other concealed carry holders wouldn’t be allowed to.

In other words, they’d undergo the training gun control fans claim most others lack, and they still oppose it.

Now, this isn’t overly surprising. We know that the issue isn’t training and never was. They don’t trust regular people to carry firearms under any circumstances. Some of them may claim they support the Second Amendment, but a whole lot of them also don’t seem to understand what “bearing arms” actually means.

Or they do and simply don’t care.

Regardless, what the gun control crowd in Virginia’s legislature are clearly telling people of the Old Dominion State is that they cannot be trusted no matter what they do or how they try to show that they can be.

And as soon as they figure they can get away with it, they’ll whittle away and what rights remain, all to create a world where your guns won’t be yours anymore.