[khouriya]

I'm new to this site, so I hope I'm doing this correctly. We display our flag at home and were wondering how long we fly at half staff in memory of the victims of the VA Tech shooting? Has anyone heard?

Thanks!

[rspa]

Hi and welcome to the site. I believe the president ask the flags to be flown at half staff from Apr 17 thru Apr22......HTH........RSPA

[khouriya]

Thanks for your answer. I better get out there and run it back up!

[Peter Ansoff]

Hi, and welcome to the board! Rspa is correct -- the half-staff period ended at sunset on Sunday, April 22nd. You can read the President's proclamation here:

Honoring the Victims of the Tragedy at Virginia Tech

(scroll down a screen or so and you'll see it).

I better get out there and run it back up!

Don't worry -- you are not alone! I saw many flags this last week that were still at half-staff, even on buildings here in Washington DC.

Regards,

Peter Ansoff

[NAVA1974]

Last week (Week of April 23rd) the flags were half-staffed in Washington in honor of Juanita Millender-McDonald of California who passed away on Monday.

[Peter Ansoff]

Last week (Week of April 23rd) the flags were half-staffed in Washington in honor of Juanita Millender-McDonald of California who passed away on Monday.

According to the news reports, Representative Millender-McDonald actually passed away on Sunday the 22nd. The flag code (para 7m) says that the flag shall be half-staffed "on the day of death and the following day for a Member of Congress." This would seem to imply that the flag should have been half-staffed on the 22nd and 23rd only. However, I'm sure I saw some at half-staff on Thursday the 26th when I was downtown for a meeting. (I was actually out of town on the 23rd.)

Thanks to some sloppy legislating, the flag code is ambiguous about whether the flag should be half-staffed automatically when a Government official dies, or whether the President has to direct it. First it says "By order of the President, the flag shall be flown at half-staff upon the death of principal figures of the United States Government." Later in the same paragraph, it says "The flag shall be flown at half-staff 30 days from the death of the President or a former President; 10 days from the day of death of the Vice President . . . " and so on, implying that it's done automatically even if the President does not specifically direct it.

Regards,

Peter Ansoff