Former Portsmouth, VA City Employee Sues, Claiming Violation Of 2A Rights

Bearing Arms · October 9

If you’re unable to carry a firearm at work, but you have a permit and believe in carrying a gun everywhere else, what are you supposed to do? For many of us, we secure the firearm in our vehicle and go about our day, then put on the gun when we knock off for the day. After all, bad things can happen on the way to and from work.

But a former employee of the city of Portsmouth, Va. is suing the city because they took issue with him doing that.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — A former Portsmouth employee has filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming they violated his Second Amendment rights.

The lawsuit says Reginald McManes, 57, had worked for the city over 30 years before he was allegedly forced to resign over an unloaded handgun he kept locked in his truck.

McManes says he was on his break at the Royal Farms gas station on May 2 when he was first approached by a city official about having a gun at the workplace.

He says this all happened despite the fact that he had a valid concealed weapon carry permit.

The human resources director alleged the city got a call accusing McManes of having the gun at work.

According to the lawsuit, McManes explained to the director that he holds a valid Virginia concealed weapons carry permit and that the lawfully possessed pistol was secured, stored, and locked in his personal truck.

McManes was asked about the pistol, to which he replied that he had the permit and where the pistol was and offered to prove it to his supervisor.

The supervisor never showed up at his truck to see. Instead, McManes was given a choice, quit or be fired.

While many places may not have any protection for what the city of Portsmouth did, Virginia does. It provides an exemption for employees to have firearms secured in their locked, personal vehicles and also forbids local governments from banning the practice.

In other words, Portsmouth might be kind of screwed on this one.

Frankly, I’m trying to figure out how anyone thought this was a good idea. I spent a fair bit of time in Portsmouth. I was stationed at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center during my Navy days. I spent a few years in the area. It’s part of the same patch of Virginia that hosts Naval Station Norfolk, Naval Air States Norfolk, Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, and several other facilities. To say the region has a dense military population is putting it mildly.

One would think that such a makeup would at least reduce the likelihood of such a blatantly anti-gun move being made by the local government since the military is notoriously pro-Second Amendment.

But, then again, it wasn’t.

As a result, it looks likely that McManes is going to get a nice, big payout from the city for their violation of his civil liberties. After all, if what he alleges is what happened–and I understand that it might not be the case, but his word is all we have just now–this is nothing but a violation of his Second Amendment rights.

Unless there’s more at work here, the city needs to pay. Period.

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