Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (VCDL)

Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc.
PO. Box 513, Newington, VA 22122 • 804-639-0600 • 703-372-3285 • 757-271-3705 • 540-446-5783

09/30/09 - VCDL Update 9/30/09 - Part 1

Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VCDL Update 9/30/09 - "You might be an anti-gunner ... if you think that gun stores carry 45 MM handguns" 1. My personal journey with open carry 2. Tech reflects on peace, violence 3. Gun debate topic at VT Peace Center event 4. Video: VT students working to prevent violence and promote peace 5. Additional observations from VT peace center event 6. LTE: Why does gun violence permeate our society? 7. Dear VRE: Thanks for letting us bring our guns on the train 8. Senate tells Amtrak, "No guns, no money." Shenanigans in play! 9. Wilder is being shortsighted about guns 10. Professor punished for stating that he has a gun 11. America armed, but guns not necessarily loaded 12. U.S. is a pro-gun nation, especially from a Republican viewpoint, survey finds 13. Teens arraigned in burglary, murder plot in Scott County 14. UN convention on rights of children may be a move to limit gun rights 15. Video: Second Amendment March's Michigan chapter 16. Toronto police seize 400 guns in safety push ************************************************** 1. My personal journey with open carry ************************************************** Every day we have the opportunity to influence how other people view responsible gun owners. Who have you influenced today?. Marc Montoni emailed me this: -- My Personal Journey with Open Carry by Marc Montoni In 1971, at the age of 9, I was stuffing envelopes for a Democratic candidate I didn't even know, while on a family visit to Pittsfield, MA. My mother had taken me and my sister to see relatives in the area, and one of the relatives was supporting a local campaign for office. Two things I remember about the mailing party we stumbled upon during our visit were 1) one of the relatives making an impromptu speech about guns and how they should all be outlawed, and 2) I was a super mean envelope-stuffer. People around the table were amazed at how fast I was assembling the mailing. I distinctly remember the sound of those custom-imprinted nail files with the candidate's name and office on them, hitting the envelopes I was stuffing. In retrospect, I probably wasn't so fast so much as everyone else was yakking a lot about the campaign. Throughout the seventies as I became a young adult, I remember many conversations with my parents about gun laws in the United States. The often bemoaned their still-(somewhat)-legal status. At that time, I swallowed their line without question. Then, in 1980, a friend handed me a copy of 'The Fountainhead', by Ayn Rand, and from there I became affiliated with the Libertarian Party. I changed my mind about guns, but consciously declined to buy one for myself for several years. I remember thinking about it, but I was too nervous about guns -- a relic of my upbringing -- to own a "real" one. I had shot BB guns and even a small .22 during my youth, and it didn't seem a big deal -- but bigger guns seemed like magical objects to me. That changed in 1993. By chance one day, I saw a friend on the Henrico County police force, Officer Pace, looking through some collectible comics at a comic shop. Pace had helped me on a couple of previous occassions (accidents or crimes I had witnessed, I think). I believe this is the same Officer Pace in this [very poor] photo: http://tinyurl.com/n5dpl8 For whatever reason, we got on the subject of guns. He told me that citizens can wear a gun openly, on their hip, or three points visible in a car, without a permit. I'd been thinking more and more about guns in the years leading up to this, and I was looking for a way to increase public awareness of the law-abiding ownership and carrying of weapons. Officer Pace's words on open carry inspired me to do more research on the law. Eventually I decided that open carry fulfilled my goal perfectly, so I went to a local gun dealer and bought my first gun, a Davis P-380 semi- auto: http://tinyurl.com/mgdwxc In retrospect, it was a laughable carry piece. It was too small for my hand -- two of my fingers were all that could securely grip the handle. But for the moment, it would do. Besides, Davis Industries was a pretty cool little company. It was a California shop, and it warranted all of its guns for life -- which came in handy when a couple of parts eventually broke on the gun. Too bad they, like many others, were sued out of existence. But in any case, I knew if I owned a gun, I needed to know how it worked, so about a week after I bought it, I stopped in at a then- brand-new shooting range, U.S. Training & Development (now called Top Gun Shooting Range), in Harrisonburg, VA. I nervously bought my first box of ammo, a couple of targets, borrowed eyes and ears, and went to the lane. On the first round I shot, my hands were so shaky I there was this nagging thought I should just forget it and leave. But I squeezed it off, and except for a few jams that the attendant showed me how to handle, 50 shots went flying away just fine. A couple of thousand rounds later, that gun is pretty much toast, and I have a better carry piece that actually fits my hand now. But in between my first outing in the spring of 1993 and now, I have been in places all over Virginia with a gun on my hip, and have fired thousands of rounds through every conceivable type of gun at numerous indoor and outdoor ranges. Most places I have been, there were no issues. However, I was thrown out of the Valley Mall once in Harrisonburg (1995), I was asked to leave The Grey Wolf Grill (1998) at Willow Lawn Shopping Center in Henrico (ironically the Grey Wolf was two doors down from where that conversation with Officer Pace had taken place almost five years earlier), an old man in the buffet line at a Western Sizzlin in Henrico angrily asked me and my friend Chris why we were carrying, and verbally berated us for doing so, and a few other minor incidents of a similar nature. I have been stopped once or twice for traffic violations, and it's never been much of an issue with the officer involved. In all, I'd say my experience was positive, and advanced gun rights. * My mother, who had been anti-gun all her life, started talking to me about them. Eventually, she agreed to go target shooting with me -- the first time she'd *ever* held a gun, much less fired one. * My best friend, Chris, began a gun collection and open-carrying odyssey of his own -- he now has more guns in more varieties than I do (a fact which I agree shames me). * The barber I used to go to regularly began talking to me about guns and carrying, over the course of six months' worth of periodic hair cuts. By the end of that six months, I accompanied her to a gun store to shop. While she didn't buy that day, she did buy shortly thereafter -- and I treated her to her first 50 rounds of ammo and an hour at the range. * When I bought my first house, one of my longest-term roommates was a good friend -- a fellow I'd sold a car to in 1982, and we'd remained friends ever since (must have been a good car to him). After seeing me carry for a while, he bought his own gun, too. * Another roommate was a student from mainland China. I took her shooting with all of my guns also. We had several interesting conversations about guns -- she told me that all Chinese citizens are trained to arms from a young age. That meant shooting was nothing new to this bantamweight 18-year-old young lady, which surprised me no end. * Countless other friends have gone shooting for the first time in their lives -- with my guns. I eventually created a flyer to carry in my back pocket about open carry / any kind of carry, just to answer the most common questions (unfortunately, as open carry has become more accepted and I've had to explain it less, I managed to lose my digital file of that flyer). The gist of it was I'd been telling questioners verbally: that I believed a right not used is a right you will lose; and that I wanted to confront the image most people had of guns. TV news had long promoted a very one-sided view of guns - they would show the aftermath of violence in DC readily, but they would put stories of people defending themselves in the dustbin. The only other times citizens saw guns were when they were on the hips of government cops. In short, I became a missionary for gun rights as much as I had become a missionary for the Libertarian Party. It was a happy coupling, though. The Libertarian Party has by far the strongest position of any U.S. political party on the private ownership of weapons. Libertarians are probably more consistent on weapons than even some of the most radical gun groups. My own version of libertarianism says that if a weapon is too dangerous for citizens to own, then it's too dangerous for governments to own as well. Readers may then surmise that I believe as as the Founders believed - that individuals should be allowed to own & bear military-class weapons, primarily as the best defense against tyranny. I continue to carry to this day, and it warms my heart to see so many others have joined the movement. Thank you, Internet. And thank you, Officer Pace. ************************************************** 2. Tech reflects on peace, violence ************************************************** "'I think as a society we have to reflect and say, where should the resources go?' Nowak said. 'Incarceration, or rethink this entire process of providing safety to the society, and try working as early as kindergarten, and transforming the type society away from violence and gun culture.'" Professor Nowak is trying to find Shangri-La and thinks he has the formula: indoctrination of children. Wow - and I thought that Lenin, Hitler, Mussolini, Saddam Hussein had already thought of that... More foolishness from the antis, offset by Students For Concealed Carry on Campus: http://tinyurl.com/nkvo2r www.collegiatetimes.com Philip Kotlaba SNIP Not everyone agrees with that assessment. The university has equally passionate proponents of gun rights within Tech and elsewhere. "Let's be honest: What we really need to control are things like murder. If you try to control where I can carry my gun or where I can't, it doesn't change who I am," said Ken Stanton, vice president of leadership at Students for Concealed Carry on Campus at Virginia Tech. "I am still the same person whether I'm on a campus or off campus. So regulating the gun or where I can possess it really doesn't do anything." "You have to be 21 to get a permit, so we're talking about seniors and up. Secondly, only about three percent of Virginians (over 21) have permits anyway," Stanton said. "It's not like we would expect all of a sudden thousands of people (would carry on campus). We're looking at maybe a two or three hundred at most, but currently, those few hundred people are actively denied their rights." "If someone is able to pass the background check, goes through the training," Stanton said, "that's the best we can do to ensure someone's going to be responsible." Ultimately, despite divergent views in the university on how to achieve the goal, all aim for safety. "We want to serve as an organization that can show you that you can stop things before you need to call 9-1-1, that you can end the situation earlier and on the flip side that if you need help to make sure that you do call for help," Lyden, of Students for Non-Violence, said. Deisinger said his former department at Iowa State admired Tech's responses to prior instances of violence. "As a fellow campus law enforcement professional, I was struck by the thoroughness of the response during the two crises that the institution has had over the past couple of years," Deisinger said. "We raised questions in my previous department about whether we were as prepared as what VT appeared to have been." ************************************************** 3. Gun debate topic at VT Peace Center event ************************************************** Dennis O'Connor, John Fenter, and I got to drop by the debate for about 40 minutes. I was interviewed by WDBJ channel 7 below. Their website includes video of the interview and also shows pictures of the audience. Dennis was asked not to pass out "Guns Save Lives" stickers at the event by some woman attendee who said it would offend those attending. She claimed to be a minister, who was trying to protect the people there. Huh? Dennis pointed out that many where there with an alternate point of view and wanted those stickers. He said he would only hand them out to those that wanted one. The woman stomped over to a police officer and stomped back, telling Dennis that the officer said he couldn't hand the stickers out. Dennis said, "YOU are saying the officer said that, but I didn't hear HIM say that." Dennis then walked over to the officer in question, with the press in tow. Cameras glaring in his face, the officer said that we could not hand out commercial literature. Dennis held up a sticker and said, "This is NOT commercial, just a First Amendment item. Don't you agree that this is a First Amendment message, officer?" Well aware of the cameras rolling, the officer said, "I have no opinion on that." Dennis thanked him and proceeded to finish handing out the stickers, much to the consternation of the woman. He handed out over 100 of them and there were at least 50 people in the audience wearing them. Other than that one incident, the VT police were very helpful, pleasant, and professional. Amazingly the other side didn't stir up any trouble, so the police just had a pretty much boring evening. ;-) Of course, it's not that they antis didn't try to cause trouble. While I was being interviewed, an older guy who looked like a "professional" student, made some unpleasant comments and did a "thumbs down" motion. Interesting how he was trying to provoke a confrontation at a "peace event." Doesn't that just figure? It was clear the antis were really mad that we interfered with their little propaganda anti-gun love-fest by flooding the audience with those who believe that arming students, faculty, and staff is the right thing to do: http://tinyurl.com/y8pvhfv www.wdbj7.com The first campus event for Virginia Tech's Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention happened Thursday. The Center was created after the April 16th tragedy. The group Students for Concealed Carry on Campus showed up as well as members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. This was supposed to be a discussion on violence prevention but it quickly turned into a gun debate. There were some tense moments. [PVC: And all those tense moments were artificially created by the antis, naturally.] "Frankly it was not planned as a debate," says Lori Haas, Mother of April 16th survivor. "We're here to discuss the issues of gun rights," says Ken Stanton with Students for Concealed Carry. The night started with a viewing of an ABC documentary on guns in America. The brother of April 16th victim Reema Samaha was part of the 20/20 special and on the panel afterwards. "We're against the wrong people having guns. We're against criminals having guns, those who are mentally ill," says Omar Samaha. All panel members agreed, their message isn't anti gun. Survivors of April 16th attended, so did other victim's family members. And there were also plenty of folks with orange stickers that read "Guns Save Lives". "It's our beliefe that had there been an armed student the day the tradgedy happened here, then perhaps lives could have been saved," says Philip Van Cleave, with the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Issues surrounding access to guns quickly came up as audience members made statements and asked the panel questions. "I think a background check at a gun show will not stop a law abiding citizen from buying a gun. Hopefully, prayerfully it will stop a criminal," says Haas. "That second amendment does not mean that we have to have everybody have any kind of gun anywhere they want at anytime. That's absolute nonsense," says Father of April 16th survivor, Andrew Goddard. No matter your opinions or beliefs, one thing's for sure, the conversation about guns has started here at Virginia Tech. ********* Carla & Dave Hicks, who were at the event, emailed me this: -- Good Pro-RKBA showing. Well, it went well -- albeit: No pro-RKBA members of the panel. The TV coverage was a hatchet job, on the two stations that I taped. I doubt if anyone changed their mind. However, - The crowd was very small considering 30,000+ full-time students (a fairly small auditorium, less that half full) - about half that audience wore blaze orange "Guns Save Lives" button/ stickers and were respectful and presented themselves quite well - the vast majority of the Qs in the Q&A were from people wearing blaze orange "Guns Save Lives" button/stickers - the questions were hard and for the most part well articulated - the "loaded" panel showed frustration that it wasn't a anti-RKBA love fest - the moderator got more frustrated - the "head" of the "Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention" got frustrated enough to intervene and take over the mike for a long ramble of hopeful wishing. IMHO, "Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention" now know they do not have a bully pulpit to hype their agenda among the VT students & staff. ************************************************** 4. WSLS tries to cover up the large group of pro-gun supporters at event ************************************************** "They [VCDL] handed out stickers to about half a dozen people in the audience that read Guns Save Lives." The media's slip is showing. HALF A DOZEN gun rights supporters? Baloney - we handed out about 100 stickers and at least 50 were visible to me when I scanned the room early on. Even better, another TV station, WDBJ, contradicts that number in both their video coverage and in their still pictures in Update item #3, above. This is a classic and shameful example of an agenda driven story. Notice how they never pan the audience from the front. The good news is that you can see (but not hear) Dennis's encounter with the police officer over handing out the GSL stickers at the end of the video, discussed in Update item #3, above. The woman on Dennis's right when you first see him is the women minister, who was determined to stop us from handing out those GSL stickers, but failed. Of course you have to watch the 95% of the video pushing anti-gun silliness to get there (sorry): -- http://tinyurl.com/yendygs www2.wsls.com Ashley Roberts September 24, 2009 The issues of gun-violence and the dangers of firearms hit close to home for Lori Haas and Andrew Goddard. Their children were injured in the Virginia Tech shootings. It came out of nowhere, said Goddard. One day we were talking to him and two days later we were sitting next to his hospital bed. We have lax gun laws, said Haas. We need background checks. They, along with dozens of others, gathered at Virginia Tech inside of the Haymarket Theater in the Squires Student Center to watch the documentary titled If I Only Had a Gun. It was produced by ABC 20/20. It looked at the issues of gun violence in America, especially on college campuses and the so-called gun show loophole. It?s something Omar Samaha put to the test. His sister, Reema, was killed in the April 16, 2007 shootings. In the documentary, Omar bought ten guns in one hour without showing his identification. I just walked in, gave people cash for guns and walked out, said Samaha. It's one of the easiest things I've ever done like buying a candy bar. Virginia Tech Students for Non-Violence and The Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention hosted the screening of the documentary. They hope it will make people think more about the dangers of owning a hand gun and the dangers of other people owning handguns, said member John Welch. From personal conversations with the survivors not a single one of them thinks they could have done anything had they been armed, said Haas. Samaha added It's about preventing that situation from occuring in the first place. It's not about having a gun and pulling it out it's about preventing someone from having to carry a gun to class at all. Meanwhile, members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League peacefully protested the event. They handed out stickers to about half a dozen people in the audience that read Guns Save Lives. ************************************************** 5. Additional observations from VT peace center event ************************************************** Carla & Dave Hicks emailed me this: -- One panel member is openly against any form of gun ownership. In her closing remarks, she laid her goal for this presentation on the table, figuratively. She made a pitch to rally students at VT to vote against State Senator Edwards. This whole issue of students voting against the local residence is a touchy one. Two members claim to be pro-RKBA arms "w/ reasonable restrictions." However, in their panel presentations last night their real agenda crept out. Their goal is much like Washington DC, e.g., a very limited range of firearms kept in the home, only. When pushed for carry outside the home, they come back to MAYBE w/ ongoing/repetitive training/proficiency mandates that would rival SWATs regimens. They ignore any knowledge they may have of FBI studies showing most LEOs do not have that level of training/proficiency (which the 20/20 show that started the presentation ignores, also). BTW -- I suspect this "training" issue to be high on their agenda this coming session. The forth panel member, a lawyer/book author, is very slick at deflecting questions and even more slick at gratuitous analogies and using rhetorical question to deflect the questions ask him (e.g., The right to vote is a right also, but it isn't exercised anytime/any place/any how each individual wants....) and hiding his agenda as "seeking common ground to build from (IMHO, getting all he can w/o our oppositions and then after any compromise gained that way, "building" on it -- a.k.a. forcing the rest of his agenda down our throats. A friend, who was there also, called me, today, and made an observation, which I had not put into word but with which I agree and which I thought I'd share w/ you. "If you ever need evidence that the gun control crowd is about "control" as much as it's about "guns", last night was a dozy. That woman's [the moderator's] time enforcement [un-even] was bad enough, but when that guy [the "head" of the "Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention"] took over the microphone -- that iced it." Or words very close to that. [PVC: That is typical for the other side. They have shutdown their "public" meetings here in Virginia whenever gun owners would come to watch and make videos of their comments.] ************************************************** 6. LTE: Why does gun violence permeate our society? ************************************************** Lori Haas has an guest commentary in the Catholic Virginian pushing to close the imaginary gun show loophole. Dennis O'Connor has already responded, as have others. Doug Peterson emailed me this response that he has submitted to the publication: Sir: As a law abiding gun owner and advocate for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, I must respond to Ms Haas' emotional call to stem gun violence. No law abiding gun owner condones the misuse of firearms, and those used by criminals to perpetrate crimes are clearly misused. However, removing guns from criminal hands is a daunting task, as shown by the volumes of (largely ineffective) gun laws currently in existence. Unfortunately, criminals are criminals because they don't obey the laws and lack consideration for their fellow man. If they practiced (or felt) empathy toward their neighbor, then violent crimes of all types would decrease dramatically. The Second Amendment recognizes (does NOT grant) the right of individuals to own firearms, and was written by the Founders to provide a mechanism for the people to rebuff attempts of tyrants to abuse our form of government for their own ends. It is this concept which is so cherished by gun owners and their advocates, such as the NRA, the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), and others, that cause us to refuse to allow infringement of our rights by any sort of legislation. That states with the highest gun ownership have the highest crime rates is utter nonsense. Guns are highly regulated in New York City, handguns are outlawed completely in Chicago, and until recently were completely banned in DC, yet these cities have gun related homicide rates that make the "Wild West" seem like church socials. Even the OK Corral didn't have the body count of Columbine or Virginia Tech. I expect you will hear more about this issue from the firearm ownership community, as many of them will see Ms Haas' writing as a call to further diminish their already infringed rights. Doug Peterson --------- Here is Haas's article: http://tinyurl.com/mntrsu www.catholicvirginian.org Lori Haas I am sick. With tears in my eyes, I tear up the article I had started and begin again. I learned this afternoon that two students, sophomores at Virginia Tech, were found dead today murdered by someone with a gun. I think about the heartache and pain yet another family will suffer. Although I do not yet know the details, I do know that two more senseless deaths from gun violence have occurred in our state and that these families will suffer for years. They will never get over it as so many think they should. Care, concern, love, prayer and support will help these families begin their grief filled journey. But their loved ones were killed by a person who should not have had a gun and our elected officials do not care enough to try to prevent gun violence. Then again, are we, the Christian community, doing what we can to prevent the gun violence that rips through our communities leaving such devastation and pain? Deaths from gun violence occur at an alarming rate in our state. Every year, approximately 800 Virginians die from firearms. Has there been any discussion or response to this appalling number? We seem to care more about those who die from contaminated food sources. When there are four deaths from tainted peanut butter, we demand Congressional hearings. Why do we not demand the same for victims of gun violence? I would suggest that our duty as Christians includes caring enough about victims of gun violence to look for ways to impede the easy access to guns by those deemed legally ineligible. Gun violence can happen to anyone, anytime, anyplace. It happened to our family on April 16, 2007. My daughter Emily, then a student at Virginia Tech, called us at 10:38 that morning. I will never forget her words, Mommy, I?ve been shot. As we raced down the highway to get to the hospital in Blacksburg, the news worsened by the minute. I sobbed and prayed; all I could think of were those families who were making that same drive only to find their child had been killed. I thanked God that by some miracle Emily was alive. I thank Him every single day and pray for all the families of those who were killed that day. In the two years since the massacre, I have learned a considerable amount about the gun violence that permeates our society. The sad fact is there are too many who, in some misguided attempt to cling to their right to own a gun, are unwilling to make even small sacrifices so that we can keep guns out of the wrong hands. Law abiding citizens have the right to purchase and own guns. But we must make it much, much harder for those the law has deemed ineligible to purchase a gun. We must make it much, much harder for those who are criminals and the mentally ill to get guns. How can we call ourselves Christians if we do not respect all human life? We must be willing to make sacrifices out of love, kindness and respect for our fellow human beings. I am reminded of the saying that became popular when Emily was a young teenager: What Would Jesus Do? I do not believe He would condone, much less call on us to continue to arm ourselves as we have done. More guns are not the answer. In fact, the five states that have the highest number of gun ownership per capita also have the highest gun death rates per capita, while the five states with the lowest gun ownership rates have the lowest gun death rates per capita. I appeal to you, my fellow Christians, to look at our society the horrific loss to families and communities because of gun violence and ask yourselves, are we doing everything we can to stop it? ************************************************** 7. Dear VRE: Thanks for letting us bring our guns on the train ************************************************** An attempt at humor by an anti falls flat: http://tinyurl.com/kwt6nh www.washingtoncitypaper.com Erika Niedowski Dear Virginia Railway Express Operations Board: I don't live in Virginia, and I don't take the VRE in to the District each day, but I sure wish I did, because of the enhanced service you have decided to Continued ...