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

08/12/09 - VCDL Update 8/12/09 - Part 2

a criminal is more likely to strike in gun-free zones, where he feels more confident that everyone else is disarmed). http://tinyurl.com/mhstqj Gunman kills 3, wounds 9, before killing himself By Michael Hasch and Andrew Conte TRIBUNE-REVIEW Wednesday, August 5, 2009 A gunman from Scott Township who investigators believe was nursing a grudge against women walked into an aerobics room at a Collier fitness center last night, turned out the lights and opened fire, killing three women and wounding nine others before taking his own life. Investigators identified the gunman as George Sodini, a 48-year-old member of the LA Fitness center in the Great Southern Shopping Center where the shooting occurred shortly after 8 p.m. Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said the gunman may have fired 50 shots at the 20 to 22 women inside the room at the time before turning one of his guns on himself and taking his own life. There were perhaps another 50 people in various other parts of the facility at the time. The county Medical Examiner's office identified the three women who died as Heidi Overmier, 46, of Collier; Elizabeth Gannon, 49, of Green Tree; and Jody Billingsley, 38, of Mount Lebanon. Moffatt said the gunman left a note inside his gym bag that indicated that he expected to die in the carnage. The superintendent did not reveal the contents of the note, but other investigators said it appears that Sodini hated women and had made a couple of trips to the fitness center earlier in the day before entering a final time shortly before 8 p.m., armed with at least two handguns hidden inside his gym bag. "The big question is, why would he do something like this?" Moffatt said. "It probably only lasted a minute or so." Sodini had maintained a Web site that included his blog, describing what he perceived as "lack of control over my life" and his inability to cultivate relationships and friendships. It also details his plans to conduct a public shooting, and describes an incident in which he "chickened out." Moffatt, who said the guns were all registered to the gunman, said "there was nothing anyone could have done" to prevent the slaughter. "I don't believe anyone could have stopped him, to be quite honest," he said. Moffatt said police and the Allegheny County Medical Examiner were still trying to identify the three dead women, one of whom was found about 7 feet from the gunman's body, the other about 12 feet away from him. The wounded women have all been identified. "Some of them are undergoing surgery, some of them are in critical condition, others were treated and released," Moffatt said in a news briefing shortly after 2 this morning. "The scene was so chaotic that we felt it was more important to secure the scene rather than send officers to the hospital," Moffatt said. "We're still attempting to identify some of the deceased. As you can imagine, in a fitness club they don't have their IDs on them, so we're having trouble." "He kept firing and firing," said Dennis Curry, 28, of Scott, who said he was working out on an elliptical machine upstairs when he heard the gunfire. "There was chaos. I ran out the back door, saw a girl lying there with a gunshot wound. I put a shirt on her to try and stop (the bleeding). There was blood everywhere." "All of a sudden there was a really loud noise," said Julia Zorzi, 27, of Crafton, who was on a treadmill on the main floor when the gunfire began. "I heard 40 to 50 shots, and I hit the deck. I saw people running out. I ran outside and there were two girls lying outside." "The shots came very fast," Zorzi said. "It sounded like he was using a serious piece of machinery." Richard Sieber, a spokesman for St. Clair Hospital in Mt. Lebanon, said one woman died at the hospital. Another woman, shot in the leg, was in stable condition. Another, shot in the shoulder, was released. Five women were taken to UPMC Mercy, Uptown, with multiple gunshot wounds. Three were in serious condition, two were critical, a spokeswoman said. Two women, ages 22 and 27, arrived at Allegheny General Hospital, North Side, about 9 p.m., spokesman Dan Laurent said. He had no information on their conditions or injuries. It's the fifth mass shooting in Allegheny County in 10 years. Witnesses described a chaotic scene as people ran from the gunman, ducking behind trees, running up hillsides and crouching behind parked cars. Michael Hentosz, 21, of Collier said he carried from the building a woman who had been shot once in the thigh. "She kept saying she thought she was going to die," Hentosz said. He waited with her until paramedics took her away. He was using free weights when the shooting started. He had on headphones, and first noticed people running. "It was like thud after thud," Hentosz said. "I probably heard 20 shots, but I had on headphones for about the first 10 shots." "Latin Impact" was the gym's last class of the day, starting at 8 p.m. The gym's Web site describes it as "A Latin influenced aerobic workout that will leave you ready for more! Enjoy the dance styles of Salsa, Meranga and Cha Cha Cha while getting fit." Debi Wozniak, of Dormont, said she usually attends the Latin Impact class, but did not last night. Her sister and niece were there, along with about 30 other women, she said. "She told me she was in class when a man came in through the glass doors," Wozniak said. "He put a duffel bag down. She said, 'The next thing I knew he pulled two handguns out and starts firing. People were dropping.'" Wozniak's sister said the instructor was hit. Loretta Moss, 44, of McDonald described two waves of gunfire and confusion as people tried to figure out when to run and when to take cover. She jumped off her treadmill to run after the first wave. But after a pause of about five seconds, everybody lay back down, and she tried to crawl under the man next to her for protection, she said. "I thought it was just tin cracking," Moss said about the first shots. "I thought it was guys hitting a racquetball and they knocked something down." After the second round stopped, the gym went quiet for a moment. Somebody yelled, "Run!" and people ran down the steps and outside, she said. "We just heard a lot of shots in the aerobics room, about eight or nine," said Erma Torgent, of Carnegie, who was with her husband, Mike. "After the first two I just ran. I was upstairs, I just heard a pop, then a shout. There were a lot of shots. The lights in the aerobic room were off when I ran out. Everybody ran down the stairs and out the door." Desiree Conrad, 30, of Coraopolis was inside the gym when the shooting took place. "It took everyone a while to figure out what was going on ... the trainers figured out what it was before everyone else did," she said. Jennifer Arienzo, 26, of Dormont could not believe she was hearing gunshots. "We're in LA Fitness - who would be shooting in there?" she said. "It took us a few shots to realize that, 'Jesus, there's a man in here with a gun,'" Conrad said. Ron Michaels of Collier, who runs the racquetball courts, said he heard 15 to 20 shots "and I knew there was a lot of trouble. If that guy comes out, there were 10 people in the racquetball courts, two people in five courts, who could not have got out." Michaels and the racquetball players were next door to the shooter. "There must have been 30 women working out in the aerobics room. At first I thought it was a joke and then I realized this is not a prank," Michaels said. "It was unbelievable. We all ran out and made it up the hillside." "There was one guy running around looking for his wife or daughter. He was hysterical. He was looking into every ambulance for them," Michaels said. "I still can't believe it happened." Richard Walker went to the gym to play basketball with a group of friends. Two of them left carrying shooting victims, both women, over their shoulders, Walker said. They got 50 yards from the gym's side entrance, and took cover between cars as soon as they reached the edge of the parking lot, he said two hours after the shooting, the right side of his Oklahoma All-State T-shirt covered in dried blood. "They were like losing blood and almost freaking out," said Walker, 23, of Carnegie, who recently moved from Tulsa. "I just knew you put pressure on the wound." Lisa Ross of Cecil was one of more than 20 people gathered outside Mercy waiting for news and updates of loved ones. Her best friend's daughter-in-law and niece were working out together when the shooting started. One of them was shot in the shoulder, the other in her leg. "People told us the guy turned out the lights and started shooting," Ross said. County Executive Dan Onorato was out of town, but released a statement saying, "Our sincere condolences go out to the families of the victims, and we pray for the recovery of those who were injured." Staff writers Bobby Kerlik, Mike Wereschagin, Timothy Puko, Chris Togneri, Jeremy Boren and Jeff Widmer contributed to this report. *********** 'We knew him, but obviously we did not really know him' Homeowners gathered this morning outside their tidy brick homes in Scott with one question in mind: Why did neighbor George Sodini kill three women in a nearby gym and then himself? "We will now all have to live with the fact that we knew him, but obviously we did not really know him," said Candace Gettys, 58, of Orchard Spring Road, who lived a few houses away for 12 years. She said the two would "chit-chat about our lawns, things that were going on," when they saw each other. "He was always very friendly, if not a bit reclusive," she said. Starting about two years ago, she noticed changes in Sodini, 48, a systems analyst at K&L Gates, a Downtown law firm and University of Pittsburgh graduate. "He was always a little off, but he became even more so," Gettys said. She said she sometimes saw Sodini's mother visit and another woman she thought was his sister, but those were the only visitors she ever saw - and they didn't come often. She hadn't seen him for weeks. "His house was looking a little less tidy. The lawn was looking overgrown," she said. "To be honest, I assumed he was away on vacation." Gettys was horrified after she turned on the television last night and saw police searching a silver Nissan Altima, the car driven by Sodini. "When I saw that car, granted there are a million Nissan Altimas around, it was just a gut feeling," Gettys said. "He's been strange lately. There's always been something not quite right, but when I saw that car, it clicked for me and something just told me it was him, he's the one who did this." Sodini kept an online blog (georgesodini.com) in which he talked about his neighbors - and his plans to kill young women at LA Fitness Center in Collier, where he worked out. Bob Fox, 45, who moved across the street 14 years ago, was one subject. Sodini wrote about Fox and young women visiting his house. "I am so shocked. I cannot believe he was writing about us. That is so creepy," Fox said. "It shows you never really know somebody." The online diary begins in November, nine months before the massacre. In December, Sodini said the women at the gym were just some of the 30 million American women who rejected him. "Many of the young girls here look so beautiful as to not be human, very edible," he wrote. Sodini complains about his inability to attract women, rails against his family and details how he "chickened out" on Jan. 6 when he first planned to execute "young girls" at the gym. K&L Gates hired Sodini in 1999. He worked in the firm's finance department. "Most people there are OK and I would never have a shoot 'em up there," Sodini wrote. "They paid me for 10 years, so far!" James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University, said some individuals reach a point in their lives where they're "so miserable .... there's little reason to live any more," he said. "Life is that unhappy. But there's a desire first to get even with those who he holds responsible. It wasn't an individual he holds responsible but, in a general sense, young, active people in these clubs and the world in general that wouldn't give him the time of day." Sodini's blog states he has not had a girlfriend since 1984 or sex since 1990. "Who knows why. I am not ugly or too weird," he wrote. "Did it maybe only 50-75 times in my life. Getting to think that a woman now would just, uh, get in the way of things. Isolated." On New Year's Eve, Sodini wrote that his "anger and rage" eased when he took up weight lifting. "I guess strenuous exercise is necesary for a man." Family members and others mentioned in the blog did not immediately return telephone calls. The day before the planned shooting, on Jan. 5, Sodini went to the gym and found it to be crowded. "Tomorrow should be good," he wrote. He added that a woman in the gym "gives me a certain look every time I am there," but she left before he could approach her. "Better that I do not get sidetracked from tomorrow's plan anyways. Life is just playing games," he wrote. "Why should I continue another 20+ years alone? I will just work, come home, eat, maybe do something, then go to bed (alone) for the next day of the same thing." On the day of the planned shooting, Sodini wrote what he thought would be his final entry: "I can do this. ... The future holds even less than what I have today. .... God have mercy. I wish life could be better for all and the crazy world can somehow run smoother. I wish I had answers. Bye." Later, though, he wrote that he "chickened out." "I brought the loaded guns, everything," he wrote. "Hell!" Sodini did not post again for more than three-and-a-half months. On May 4, he began to revisit his plan: "The problem is I feel too good now to do this but too bad to enjoy life." The next day, he wrote that alcohol might "take the edge off" and help him pull off the plan. He had not had a drink since 1988, he wrote, but bought a fifth of vodka and a bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey. On May 18, Sodini went on a date but shared few details. "It was with a woman I met on the bus in March. We got together at Two PPG Place for lunch." Sodini wrote a short entry on May 29: "Another lonely Friday night, I'm done. This is too much." On Monday, Sodini wrote that he took time off from work to practice his "routine." He wrote that he stopped drinking again because "total effort needed." "I need to work out every detail, there is only one shot. ... Tomorrow is the big day." His last blog entry read: "Maybe soon, I will see God and Jesus. At least that is what I was told. Eternal life does NOT depend on works. If it did, we will all be in hell. Christ paid for EVERY sin, so how can I or you be judged BY GOD for a sin when the penalty was ALREADY paid. People judge but that does not matter." - By Jill King Greenwood, with contributions from Jason Cato and Chris Togneri. ************************************************** 17. More on L.A. Fitness shooting ************************************************** additional links to news coverage of the shooting http://tinyurl.com/men5tx ************************************************** 18. USA Today on Concealed Carry ************************************************** More seek concealed weapons permits Interesting signage in the photo with the article! http://tinyurl.com/ksn3gj By Emily Bazar, USA TODAY Gun owners are packing heat in record numbers, fearful of stricter gun control under the Obama administration and higher crime in a sour economy. Some states and counties report a surge in applications for concealed weapons permits since the November election. All states but Illinois and Wisconsin allow concealed weapons, but requirements differ. Applications already have hit a record this year in Clay County, Mo., where the sheriff's office received 888 through June, compared with 863 in all of last year, says Sheriff Bob Boydston. The office recently hired two part-time workers to deal with the rush. In the past, applicants tended to be middle-aged men, he says, but recent applicants include "grandmothers, older folks, young women, young men." They tell him the bad economy will lead to more thefts and break-ins, he says, but his statistics show violent crime related to the recession hasn't gone up. They also say they fear gun control, he says. Last week, Boydston spoke with an elderly couple seeking a permit. "They are positive the president is on the verge of coming to our homes and taking our weapons," he says. Statewide, the Missouri State Highway Patrol has processed 18,878 background checks so far this year for the permits, the most since the agency began keeping statistics in 2005, Lt. John Hotz says. It processed 18,466 checks during all of last year. In May, Obama signed a law that will allow guns in national parks. "The president respects and supports the Second Amendment and the tradition of gun ownership in this country," White House spokesman Ben LaBolt says. Interest groups on both sides agree that demand for permits is up because of economic uncertainty and concerns about a new president and a Democrat-controlled Congress. "People pay attention to politics. . They're afraid of another effort" to try to enact more gun control, says Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the National Rifle Association. "Part of the concern is spurred by the economic downturn and fear that crime will go up." Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, fears that violent confrontations will increase as more people carry concealed guns. "When someone's carrying a gun around and they're not fully trained, oftentimes they'll use it just because it's there," he says. Demand is also up in: ..Florida. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services hired 61 temporary workers in spring to tackle a backlog in applications, says spokesman Terence McElroy. The department received 75,520 applications through June, on pace to beat last year's record of 90,331. ..Caldwell County, N.C. Residents filed 358 applications for permits in the first half of this year, compared with 135 for the same period last year, "a bigger increase than we've ever seen in the past," says Sheriff's Detective B.J. Fore. "People are worried about desperate times." ..Texas. The Department of Public Safety has seen "an unprecedented increase" in applications since November, spokeswoman Lisa Block says. ..Utah. June ranked as the top month ever for applications, with 11,292 received, says Lt. Doug Anderson of the state Bureau of Criminal Identification. This year also is record-setting, he says, with 49,499 applications in through June. Craig Ball, manager of Impact Guns in Ogden, Utah, has offered more training courses to meet demand. "Last year, a typical class would be 15 to 20 people," he says. "Right after the election, we had as many as 55 people." ************************************************** 19. Demand for guns may be easing ************************************************** Gun and ammo sales may have peaked Thanks to Board member Bruce Jackson for sending this story. http://tinyurl.com/lpclpd Demand for guns may be easing Gun, ammo sales still strong, but may have peaked BY CHELYEN DAVIS Date published: 8/1/2009 Demand for guns and ammunition, which surged after President Barack Obama's election, is still high but may be leveling off. Two firearms companies that recently released earnings reports said their backlog of orders is starting to fall back to normal levels. "We may be seeing where it's starting to flatten out," said Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. "We've got to be close to peak now, if we've not already passed it." After Democrats, who already controlled Congress, won the presidency last fall, concerns that they would enact legislation to further restrict guns fueled a boom in purchases of guns and ammunition. Gun owners began complaining that it was impossible to find ammunition. Those who found some bought more than they needed. Prices for bullets and for some guns rose with the demand. Some companies manufacturing firearms and ammunition wound up with a backlog of orders. The Virginia State Police saw a big jump in concealed-carry permit applications after the election: a 19 percent increase last year, when the typical increase is 3 percent, and a 60 percent increase in November 2008 over November 2007. But that seems to be tapering off. The number of applications for concealed-carry permits has dropped each month since March. In March 8,137 applications were received by the state police; in July, as of the next-to-last day of the month, there were 4,635. A state police spokeswoman said permits do typically decrease in the summer. Sturm, Ruger & Co. this week released a second-quarter earnings report that showed a 94 percent increase in firearms sales over the second quarter of 2008. The company report said that about half of that was thanks to new products, but about 25 percent of it was due to an "industry-wide surge in demand." At the same time, the report suggests that the surge is already on the wane. Sturm Ruger's backlog of orders has dropped by 59 percent since this year's first quarter, reflecting "a reduction in the industry-wide surge in demand" that began last year. Smith & Wesson reported last month that its fourth- quarter sales--which ended in April--were 20 percent higher than sales for that quarter a year ago. Like Ruger, Smith & Wesson reported a backlog of demand for firearms, but also said that backlog had peaked in April. The Sturm Ruger report also notes that ammunition shortages have begun to discourage firearms sales, something that Anthony Ball, owner of B&B Pawn in Fredericksburg, also is seeing. "A lot of people have told me they want to buy a gun from me, but if they can't find ammo to shoot it, why buy it?" Ball said. Ball, who has a whole wall of his pawnshop devoted to firearms, said ammunition prices are still high, when you can get it at all. He used to be able to order ammunition by the case; now he's lucky to get a few boxes. "I used to pay 7 bucks, 6 bucks for a box of 9 mm," Ball said. "I would sell it for $11. Now I have to pay $11 to get a box of 9 mm. And finding it is ridiculous." Georgia Arms, a large ammunition-manufacturing company, has a big red sign on its Web site warning customers of a five- to seven-week backlog in orders, because bullet components are in short supply. Van Cleave said hunting ammunition is easy to find, as is expensive premium ammunition. But the kind of bullets most people use for, say, target shooting is still scarce. Van Cleave said the ammunition shortage is partly because the military is using a lot of it. But it's also because of a domino effect--a shortage prompts people to buy more than they normally would, leading to more shortages. "It basically starts a spiral going," Van Cleave said. "At some point the spiral will stop, where people finally have enough ammunition that they don't need to buy any more, and when you go to the shelves you'll start to see ammo there, and that'll start a spiral the other way." Chelyen Davis: 540/368-5028 Email: cdavis*freelancestar.com ************************************************** 20. Sotomayor's confirmation isn't a win for the White House ************************************************** Sotomayor's narrow support among voters could cost the White House in 2010 and 2012 http://tinyurl.com/mfb2nk Sotomayor's Confirmation Isn't a Win for the White House Sonia Sotomayor is the Supreme Court's newest justice. And now the fallout begins. The confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday will impact this nation for decades, on issues ranging from free speech to racial preferences to gun rights. It will also become a major issue in the 2010 midterm elections and the 2012 presidential election, an issue that more likely than not will backfire on Barack Obama to the benefit of the Republican Party. Barack Obama was looking for a big political win from the Sotomayor confirmation. He chose a Hispanic woman with an interesting personal story. His staff and congressional allies then tried to make this nomination all about race and gender, playing identity politics and openly declaring that Republicans would pay a price if they did not vote for this nominee because of her gender and skin color. But Thursday's vote was not a win for the White House. The latest Zogby poll showed that Americans were tied 49% to 49% on whether Sotomayor should be confirmed. That's worse than any Supreme Court nominee in recent history except for Harriet Miers. Even Judge Robert Bork had less opposition, with those favoring his confirmation exceeding those who opposed him by a three-percent margin. Even among Hispanics, the group Obama was targeting with this nomination, a Gallup poll shows she lacks majority support, with 47% in favor and 43% opposed. Moreover, Zogby shows that a majority of independents oppose her, as do small business owners. The final confirmation vote of 68 - 31, with poll numbers like these, means that President Obama has not scored the big win that he wanted with this nomination by playing racial politics. It's a mixed result at best, and if her rulings from the bench show a clear liberal philosophy then the end result will be negative for the White House and Democrats. President Obama chose to pick a fight by nominating a controversial nominee. Sotomayor's speeches and court opinions on various issues have been unpopular and contentious, such as her racial preference case that the Supreme Court recently overturned in Ricci v. DeStefano. Obama passed over other female judges and scholars who are considered leading lights when it comes to liberal legal philosophy in naming Sotomayor, but now will likely not reap any benefits from his choice. Now the fallout begins. The president and his party, and especially Senate Democrats from red states, will now have to answer for Sotomayor if she proves true to expectations as a solidly-liberal justice. By far, Justice Sotomayor's most troubling issue is the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Her two gun-rights decisions, one holding that the right to bear arms does not apply in any way to states and the other that the Second Amendment is not a fundamental right, prompted gun-rights leaders to fiercely oppose her nomination and even persuaded the National Rifle Association to come out against her. Next year the Supreme Court is almost certain to take up the question of whether the Second Amendment applies to the states. It's likely that the Court will not take Sotomayor's case from the Second Circuit, Maloney v. Cuomo, because it's not a good case to present such an important issue and doesn't even involve guns. Instead the Court is likely to go with NRA v. Chicago from the Seventh Circuit, a picture-perfect case challenging the Chicago gun ban from Barack Obama's home town. This ban is every bit as severe as the D.C. gun ban struck down by the Court in 2008 and is also one that President Obama openly supports. If the Court takes the Maloney case, then we might not know Justice Sotomayor's true beliefs on the Second Amendment for years, because she would likely recuse herself from having any part in that case. NRA v. Chicago, by contrast, would prove once and for all what she really thinks about the constitutional right to bear arms. We will not have long to wait to see what kind of jurist Sonia Sotomayor will be on the High Court. On Sept. 9, the Supreme Court will consider a major free speech case in Citizens United v. FEC, where America's most accomplished Supreme Court lawyer, former Solicitor General Ted Olson, will take on the Obama Justice Department. A decision in that case is expected before the Court's new term starts on Oct. 5. Sonia Sotomayor now becomes the newest justice on the Supreme Court. The president and her supporters say she is a mainstream moderate, while her opponents say she's a liberal activist. We'll know soon enough, as this issue heats up for next year's election. Ken Klukowski is a fellow and senior legal analyst with the American Civil Rights Union. ************************************************** 21. AARP Letter ************************************************** AARP gun policy favors restrictions on handguns and banning semi-automatic "assault" weapons. AARP's politics is the reason I'd never consider joining them. It goes beyond their firearms policies too. Here's the AARP letter posted on the Second Amendment Sisters website: http://tinyurl.com/n9sgmr ************************************************** 22. Washington Times Editorial: Gun control on a roll? ************************************************** Dream on: Voters still oppose gun control, despite votes on Sotomayor and state reciprocity rules for concealed carry http://tinyurl.com/mk5ahj EDITORIAL: Gun control on a roll? Americans are clinging to their arms more than ever By | Friday, August 7, 2009 The Senate confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court yesterday. Gun-control groups are crowing that the 68-31 vote was a major defeat for the National Rifle Association, which actively opposed the nomination. The gun controllers are reading too much into this vote. The NRA scored Judge Sotomayor's confirmation and ran ads to defeat her, but the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence counted eight NRA-endorsed senators who spurned the powerful gun-rights group to support her nomination. Some Democratic senators, such as Virginia's Mark R. Warner, even took to lecturing the NRA about being hijacked by extremists. The Sotomayor vote and the successful filibuster of state reciprocity for