title:  Virginia Trump Supporter Patrols Polling Place With Gun And Cops Say They Are Okay With That
text: A Trump supporter in Loudoun County, Virginia, spent his Friday patrolling a polling place while armed with a gun. Go figure, the cops are perfectly okay with that.Erika Cotti says she came across him while she was trying to vote at the county registrar s office. I had my 9-year-old son with me. I felt intimidated,  Cotti said.  And I had to explain to my 9-year-old why a man with a 357 magnum is standing outside the polling station. The man then tried to get her to take a sample of the Republican ballot, but she refused it. He s like,  Who are you going to vote for, crooked Hillary?  And I was like, that s really none of your business,  Cotti said.According to Loudoun County registrar Judy Brown, there was indeed a man strutting around with a gun strapped to his hip who was handing out GOP propaganda in front of her office. However, police said that since Virginia is an open carry state, it is perfectly legal for him to do so. There is a gentleman standing outside the office with a holstered gun,  Brown said.  According to law enforcement, because Virginia is open carry, he s allowed to have it. Brown said that even though the man was obviously packing heat, he was being nice  to people and didn t violate the 40-foot no-canvassing zone in front of the entrance to the building.  They said that there s nothing they could do, that he was well within his rights to be carrying his weapon,  Brown said.Brown decided to get in touch with the state Republican Party. Their answer was to get the guy to pull his Trump shirt over the gun on his side so that it wasn t clearly visible. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Hopefully nobody else will be concerned about him,  Brown said.Loudoun County Republican Committee Chairman Will Estrada said that the man has military and law enforcement experience, as well as a concealed carry permit.  We don t want to startle anyone,  Estrada said he told him.  He felt really bad, he pulled his T-shirt over it, and I think everything was fine after that. Estrada also said that he does not support the idea of banning volunteers from carrying firearms. It s a free country,  Estrada said.  I m a NRA life member myself. So long as no laws are being broken, I m not going to tell someone they can t. But I ve told all of our volunteers that we re here for our candidates, we don t want us to become the story. Cotti, who has been involved in political activism, said she gets that Virginia is an open-carry state but still doesn t think it should be acceptable to have random people blocking the entrances to polling places with guns. We re an open carry state, I get that. But he s wearing a huge Trump t-shirt, he has a huge gun, and he was obstructing my exit on public property,  Cotti said.  That s insane to me. Featured image via Twitter