Covering your face is illegal

[Sir Edward]

At the convention I'm attending this weekend, it came up that it's illegal in Virginia to wear masks/helmets in public. Not only is it illegal, but it's a felony. A Class-6 Felony specifically, which is harsher than the class-1 misdemeanor you'd get for impersonating a cop, were you to do that.

This came up since apparently this weekend, a cop gave a warning to the "Umbrella Corporation" costumed folks here, and the Mandalorian Mercenaries said they've been hassled by cops as well.

Googling a little, I found this thread mentioning it, and they highlight some of the exceptions under the law, which include safety equipment (as part of a profession), and holiday costumes (which means Halloween of course), or a masquerade ball, which you can see here:

http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/read/2/34357/34444.html

Here's the relevant part of the Virginia code:

http://law.justia.com/codes/virginia/2006/toc1802000/18.2-422.html

This is important to know, since we have helmets. If we do events off of renfaire grounds, this becomes an issue. And if you find a cop who's having a bad day, he may try to stick it to you.

I'm assuming other states may have similar provisions, so it may be worth looking into if you are active elsewhere.

[Leganoth]

All i have to say is: thats stupid as hell.

[Sir Brian]

Well it is certainly something we needed to know. I am fairly confident however in our case there would be a less likely chance of us be rousted by the police since if we're outside the area of a fairground or event we typically wouldn't be wearing our helms. I am honestly I would rather not wear it than wear it, and I only wear it as often as I do at faire because of the photo ops requests or my arm gets sore from carrying it. 

[SirNathanQ]

I'm contec\nt to kick around in my coif most of the time myself. I'll need to look up WVs laws on that. We might be pretty lax. After all, I can legally wear a sharp sword anywhere except the courthouse and schools in my hometown.

(I looked this up for Holloween.)

[Sir Wolf]

haahah

[Sir Matthew]

None of my helmets are enclosed, so I guess I'm safe for now. I'll have to look into what Pa. law says, I guess, so when I do finally get around to working on my 14th Cent. kit, I'm prepared. It does seem to be kind of a common sense thing though, that with us we aren't really up to no good. When's the last time you heard of a bank or other robber (which would really seem to be the target of this law) being described as wearing armor and a helmet? 

[Sir James A]

Interesting. Last I heard, years ago, it's illegal for anyone over the age of 13 to wear a mask on Halloween; too many teenagers picking on the younger kids and stealing their candy, and the young kids only being able to describe the bullies by the mask they are wearing. And that's of little use any other day but that Halloween. Looking back, it's probably a good thing I was sick and couldn't wear the menpo (face mask) with my samurai armor. Of course I knew not to take a sword, even a stainless steel, unsharped SLO - it'd be a deadly weapon to anybody else, legally.

I wonder how SCA gets away with their fighter practices? Last ones I looked into were both in public parks.

Also, Virginia is such a "nanny state" on many things, it's completely ridiculous. Too many highly paid people with almost no common sense or sense of reality, combined with crooked politicians who are more than happy to strip away everyone else's rights while maintaining their own. If I didn't have so much family there, I'd be glad to have moved out of VA.

[Sir Patrick]

I just checked on swords in Missouri, and basically as long as it's part of a costume I'm good!  I always peace tie it with zip ties at Halloween just to be safe.  Still looking into helms.

[Leganoth]

I just checked on swords in Missouri, and basically as long as it's part of a costume I'm good!  I always peace tie it with zip ties at Halloween just to be safe.  Still looking into helms.

ive been wondering how to peace tie a sword. care to explain it to me?

[SirNathanQ]

Basically so it can't be drawn. A knot or something tying it down.

[Sir Patrick]

I usually run a zip tie over each side of the cross guard and then trough the rings on either side of my scabbard.  Suspension systems vary, but you basically don't want to be able to pull the weapon out of the scabbard.

[Sir William]

I'm contec\nt to kick around in my coif most of the time myself. I'll need to look up WVs laws on that. We might be pretty lax. After all, I can legally wear a sharp sword anywhere except the courthouse and schools in my hometown.

(I looked this up for Halloween.)

WV officially rocks on one single level, just for this.  While I'm not usually one for adopting anything that WV does, at least in this case, they seem to have gotten it right!

[Jeffrey Boyd Garrison]

I'd think the no-mask in public laws are just a wee bit unconstitutional (and possibly outmoded) and if it were strongly contested by a large enough contingent of interested individuals, perhaps something could be done to repeal them in the municipalities/states which otherwise couldn't be bothered to clean up their legislations.

[Sir William]

What about balaclavas?  I'm guessing they aren't sold in VA?  lol

[Sir Edward]

I'd think the no-mask in public laws are just a wee bit unconstitutional (and possibly outmoded) and if it were strongly contested by a large enough contingent of interested individuals, perhaps something could be done to repeal them in the municipalities/states which otherwise couldn't be bothered to clean up their legislations.

I agree that it should be thrown out on constitutional grounds. The interesting thing is that while there are exceptions made for safety gear, holiday costumes, and actors in plays, it does not include traditional ethnic or religious clothing. Maybe the ACLU needs to get in on this.