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

08/26/09 - VCDL Update 8/25/09 - Part 1

Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VCDL Update 8/25/09 - Defending your right to defend yourself 1. Salem picnic pictures 2. VCDL member offers discount on VA safety and emissions tests to VCDL members 3. OC encounter at Walmart in NoVA 4. Creigh Deeds: 'Yes, I will sign that [gun show] bill' 5. Correction to Bob McMahan's letter in 8/17/09 VCDL update 6. Two VCU students robbed at gunpoint 7. Senator Chap Petersen says being pro-gun doesn't hurt candidates in NoVA 8. LTE RT: Would more guns solve the gun problem? 9. Washington Post Editorial: Gunning for the district 10. Can this be a rebuttal to the 'VT families'? 11. Washington Post columnist: Leave the guns at home 12. Eleanor Holmes Norton and the traveling GFZ 13. Support BATFE reform bills S. 941 and H.R. 2296 14. Jane Ann Morrison: Speak up when someone carries guns, urges violence to make statement 15. More on anti's hate agenda 16. MSNBC follow up: Um, we were speaking 'generally' 17. Good video to counter MSNBC edit of Obama rally 18. Man carries 'assault' rifle to Obama protest -- and it's legal 19. White House backs right to arms outside Obama events 20. Gun rights, control groups find fight in health debate 21. Another good guy wins story 22. Permit holder rescues boy from kidnapper w/o using firearm 23. Gun law complaints trail Obama during park tours 24. Federal ruling helps protect shooting ranges 25. ABC World News on firearms and alcohol 26. Letting gun nuts pack weapons near Obama is insane 27. American Seniors Association counters AARP on health care and Second Amendment 28. Shirt-pocket trauma kit 29. Florida plan urges firearms in every Belleview home 30. Connecticut Citizens Defense League 31. Anti-gun bigotry may be losing traction 32. Info on the roots of the anti-gun "Gun Guys" blog 33. Secret Service contradicts Brady Campaign's Helmke 34. Frommer encourages boycott of gun-friendly Arizona ************************************************** 1. Salem picnic pictures ************************************************** VCDL picnic in Salem, Va. caught on camera Neil Yeakel forwarded me this: http://tinyurl.com/n8vbcu ************************************************** 2. VCDL member offers discount on VA safety and emissions tests to VCDL members ************************************************** Half price safety and emissions tests for VCDL members ONLY. Be sure to bring your VCDL membership card. Eun Yung Lee emailed me this: -- Dear VCDL, Hello. My name is Eun Yung Lee and I am a member of the VCDL. I am a certified safety and emissions inspector located in Alexandria. I am going to give all VCDL members half price on both the safety and emissions tests. This is not a store promotion and is only for all VCDL members only. Please have a valid membership card to get this half price or else you will not get the benefit. The reason for this is to help the members due to the economy. When you arrive at the station please ask for Mr. Lee (inspector). If you have any questions, = please feel free to contact me during the hours of inspection. My address is listed and thank you for taking the time to read this. AGAIN, THIS IS FOR VCDL MEMBERS ONLY ( sorry NRA )! Woodlawn Chevron (703)780-5996 8689 Richmond Highway Alexandria, VA 22079 ************************************************** 3. OC encounter at Walmart in NoVA ************************************************** VCDL open carrier draws praise from passerby at Fairfax Walmart Paul Kent emailed me this: -- Philip, You may be aware I routinely O.C. here in Fairfax County in mild-to- warm weather. Today, during Saturday errands, Wei [PVC: Paul's wife] and I stopped at the Fairlakes Walmart, shopped, and checked out without incident. Upon exiting the store, a 30/40-something woman with daughter in tow, about 15 feet away in a small crowd of shoppers entering and exiting the store, said in a loud voice, "We want to go shopping with you!" = She was far enough away, I wasn't sure what that was about, and what she said was odd enough that I turned and looked. She looked directly = at us, and repeated, "I want to go shopping with you, [glancing at the = gun and smiling] because we would be safe!" I thanked her, and we went on our way. Have a safe day! ************************************************** 4. Creigh Deeds: 'Yes, I will sign that [gun show] bill' ************************************************** Gubernatorial candidate and state Senator Creigh Deeds says he would sign a bill to close the non-existent 'gun show loophole.' Since there is no loophole, his attempts to close it are political pandering = at its worst: http://tinyurl.com/phyhqd www.washingtonpost.com 'Yes, I Will Sign that Bill' .....and said he would sign a bill closing the gun show loophole if it passed the General Assembly... ************************************************** 5. Correction to Bob McMahan's letter in 8/17/09 VCDL update ************************************************** VA concealed carry permits were available to residents long before "shall issue" took effect in the state in 1995. Of course it was "may = issue" back then and relatively few were issued. It was completely up = to the judge. Some judges wouldn't issue to women, some not to men, some not to minorities, some only to personal friends or politicians. Prior to 1995, there were only about 12,000 permits in Virginia (today = there's about 185,000). However, the permits were concealed WEAPON permits and you could legally carry concealed in ALL restaurants. Shall issue changed the permit to concealed HANDGUN permits and added the restaurant ban. Rick LeBlanc emailed me this: -- A short correction to Bob McMahan's letter to the mayor of Alexandria. = While "shall issue" took effect in Virginia in 1995, concealed carry permits were available long before that. I believe the law I looked up = when I applied for mine was dated 1952. ( I applied for and received my CCW in 1985). There wasn't even an official form. All that was required was to send a letter to the local sheriff. It was called a concealed weapon permit. There was no mention of handgun. That changed = later. Rick LeBlanc ************************************************** 6. Two VCU students robbed at gunpoint ************************************************** Do college students need to be able to protect their lives? Yes, they = do: http://tinyurl.com/lazvcn www2.timesdispatch.com 2 VCU students robbed at gunpoint By STAFF REPORTS Published: August 20, 2009 Two Virginia Commonwealth University students were robbed at gunpoint last night near the southern edge of the downtown Richmond school's main academic campus. No injuries were reported in the robbery, which occurred at 10:15 p.m. = in the 800 block of West Cumberland Street. Richmond police Capt. Scott Booth said the students, age 21 and 22, were walking along Cumberland when they were confronted by ***two males, both carrying firearms*** [emphasis added]. The robbers demanded money, and the victims surrendered a wallet and a = cell phone before the robbers fled on foot, Booth said. ************************************************** 7. Senator Chap Petersen says being pro-gun doesn't hurt candidates in NoVA ************************************************** Northern Virginia (NoVA) and the rest of Virginia (RoVA) not so different on gun rights Dave Yates emailed me this: -- Chap points out that it doesn't hurt to be pro gun in NoVA. Lots of good information for democratic candidates from a Democrat who has won = in NoVA. -- http://tinyurl.com/nrnl4h oxroadsouth.com Another NoVA vs. RoVA Article I'm going to clash with my good friend Not Larry Sabato on this one (sorry Ben). I like Sandhya Samoshekar but I thought her article on Northern VA and = the Deeds campaign was the pits [http://tinyurl.com/mob3up]. First of = all, it reduces NoVA voters to stereotypes that are deceptive at best. Secondly, it completely ignores the past few election cycles in = Virginia. Third, it ignores the driving force behind the economy and politics of Northern Virginia. Here are the points I take issue with. 1. "NoVA voters won't support a candidate from rural Virginia." Really? Because in the primary two months ago, Democratic voters in this area had a clear and obvious choice between the RURAL CANDIDATE and two NORTHERN VIRGINIA CANDIDATES. And Deeds won easily with a campaign that did not hide his country roots. 2. "NoVA voters distrust a candidate that 'embraces gun rights.'" This statement is so wrong it's almost farcical. Is the Post aware that Jim Webb and Mark Warner are both "pro-gun" Democrats representing Virginia in the U.S. Congress? And both were easily elected in Northern Virginia in 2006 and 2008, running well ahead of other Democrats? Is the Post aware that "anti-gun" attack ads against = Deeds failed miserably in the Democratic primary in June? Is the Post = aware that Fairfax County has more concealed carry permits than any other jurisdiction in Virginia? There is no evidence that Democrats with a strong record on Second Amendment issues suffer in northern Virginia. 3. "NoVA voters are highly-educated liberals who listen to NPR and hate country music and NASCAR." Okay, these are my words. And there is a grain of truth behind every stereotype. But the "MSNBC and Zinfandel" crowd won't give you 50,000 vote margins in Fairfax County. No they won't. Because they are a small portion of the County. Let me elaborate ... The white vote in Fairfax County is about evenly split between R's and = D's. Outside the Beltway, it may trend slight to R's. That has been pretty consistent year after year. Take it from someone who has knocked about 50,000 doors in Fairfax County. What has changed the County has been the minority presence all over (save a few select neighborhoods) which has increasingly pushed the margins to Democrats in recent years. To look at it another way, I grew up in Fairfax City which is right in = the heart of NoVA. In my graduating high school class (1986), the students were 90% white. And the City was solidly Republican. In 2009, the graduating class is over 50% black, Asian or Hispanic. And the City is Democratic. Are you getting it now? The "average" Northern Virginia voter today is an computer engineer born in Bombay and living in Reston or a Central American family living along Route One or a middle-class black family in Dale City or a Korean retail store owner in Burke. You meet them at church, at the grocery store, at the Back to School nights. They're focused on education for their kids, enough customers for their business and care = for their elderly parents. Same issues as everyone else in Virginia. If you can reach these voters, you win. If you can't, then you lose. Leveraging participation from all voters -- not just those with season = tickets to Wolf Trap -- is what wins elections. That is far more important than a perfect score from NARAL or good press on "DailyKos." That is not what motivates general election voters, not even in northern Virginia. Again, I'm not just slamming the Post for playing the predictable regional card. Some of us have endured the "Real Virginia" and "Fake Virginia" nonsense for too long now. There's a lot more that we share in Virginia than the media wants to admit. ************************************************** 8. LTE RT: Would more guns solve the gun problem? ************************************************** Mr. Willis must think criminals are only evil because there are guns in the world. I wonder if his ancestors evolved from ostriches? http://tinyurl.com/n3239b Guns are the problem, not the solution www.roanoke.com Would more guns solve the gun problem? The online gun merchant who sold weapons to Virginia Tech's mass killer and to an Illinois campus murderer also sold gun accessories to = George Sodini, who killed three people and wounded nine at a Pittsburgh-area health club. The merchant, Eric Thompson of Green Bay, Wis., shows no compunction; people like Sodini, he says, could get weapons lots of other places, such as stores like Kmart. In short, everybody does it, and because everybody does it, there's no need for anybody to stop doing it. Thompson also said in a newspaper interview that Sodini's attack shows = police are too slow to respond to emergencies and underscores the need = for people to protect themselves. OK, gym rats, time to strap on a piece during your workout in case another madman enters; Thompson will sell you a weapon. Mightn't hurt to pack some heat, too, at the shopping mall, in a restaurant, on your = evening stroll or even in church. Got to protect yourselves. Against whom? Why, against all those other folks who bear arms. To gun = people, if there's any problem with guns, the answer always is more guns. Think. Does this lead us anywhere good? [PVC: Hmmm - thinking, thinking, thinking... YES!] BOB WILLIS FINCASTLE ************************************************** 9. Washington Post Editorial: Gunning for the district ************************************************** D.C. lawsuit asserts right to carry extends beyond the home http://tinyurl.com/nmhbuc www.washingtonpost.com Gunning for the District For some gun advocates, securing the right to keep and bear arms at home wasn't enough. Saturday, August 15, 2009 IF TOM PALMER and his fellow plaintiffs have their way, they'll soon be carrying loaded handguns through the streets of the nation's capital. Mr. Palmer, three other individuals and the Second Amendment Foundation sued the District last week, arguing that city laws that "ban registration of handguns to be carried for self-defense by law- abiding citizens" are unconstitutional. Mr. Palmer, a resident of the District, is asking Judge Henry Kennedy of the U.S. District Court for = the District of Columbia to strike down the prohibition. The lawsuit also asks Judge Kennedy to nullify laws that prohibit non-District residents from registering their weapons and obtaining handgun carry permits. The plaintiffs are represented by the same lawyer who argued successfully last year before the Supreme Court against District laws that essentially prevented residents from keeping functional firearms at home for self-defense. They now argue that the right to keep and carry firearms for self-defense extends beyond the home and that licensed owners can be prohibited only from carrying handguns into "sensitive places" such as schools or government buildings. This argument should be rejected as wrong on the law and wrong as a matter of public policy. In the landmark 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, the justices narrowly tailored the decision to recognize an individual right to keep and bear arms for self- protection in the home. Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the majority = opinion, made clear that the decision to strike down the District's law pertaining to guns in the home should not be read to discredit all = other gun regulation. "From Blackstone through the 19th-century cases, commentators and courts routinely explained that the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose," Justice Scalia wrote. "For example, the majority of the 19th- century courts to consider the question held that prohibitions on carrying concealed weapons were lawful under the Second Amendment or state analogues." No right may be exercised without restrictions. Just as there is no First Amendment right to yell "fire" in a crowded theater, neither may = the Second Amendment be exercised without serious consideration of public safety. Prohibiting guns in schools, courtrooms and government buildings is a no-brainer. But it also makes no sense from a safety perspective to sanction the carrying of such weapons on city streets, where everyday clashes over a fender bender can suddenly turn deadly if weapons are at hand. The majority of states have passed laws allowing their citizens to carry weapons in public. It is their sovereign right to adopt such policies, as it must be the District's right to pass laws that make sense for those who live, visit and work in the seat of government. Common sense and constitutionality must not be made mutually exclusive. [PVC: Actually one man's common sense is another man's stupidity. So Constitutionality is the ultimate arbiter of such things.] ************************************************** 10. Can this be a rebuttal to the 'VT families'? ************************************************** Marin County deputies watched, called for back-up as two killed on bridge. Remember, according to the US Supreme Court, police have no duty to protect any individual. Ultimately, you are the only one you can count on to save your life from a violent criminal. http://tinyurl.com/ml3rhp Marin deputies watched while gunman killed two on bridge By Karl Fischer Contra Costa Times Two Marin County sheriff's deputies watched from 50 feet away while a man killed two people with a shotgun on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge = last week. The deputies, detectives returning from an unrelated investigation in San Pablo, stopped traffic and radioed for help, Richmond police said Tuesday. But they made no move to stop the killer's rampage, or to follow. Their reactions that night left local law enforcement circles buzzing in the days following the Aug. 11 deaths of 51-year-old Deborah Ross and 58-year-old Ersie Everette. "It's easy to Monday-morning quarterback," Marin County Sheriff Robert = Doyle said. "But you have to understand that those deputies were returning from a search warrant in another jurisdiction, they were not = all in the same car and, for all I know, did not all see the same thing." The Marin County sheriff's deputies, whom police would not identify, saw Burris as they approached the toll plaza, one in front of the other in unmarked cars. They wore street clothes but were armed and on = the clock, returning from a follow-up investigation in San Pablo. One saw the muzzle flash in the south parking lot, where police say Burris shot Everette. Moments later, Burris jogged out into traffic toward the toll booth. The attack lasted less than half a minute. One of the deputies alerted = her dispatch center in Marin County during the shooting, and the other = used her car to block traffic so other drivers would not blunder into the gunman's sights, Richmond police said. They then checked on workers in the toll booths and the adjoining Caltrans building. A third deputy, who arrived after the shooting, assisted them and found Everette's body, Doyle said. Meanwhile the suspect, later identified as 46-year-old Nathan Burris, drove away. A statewide manhunt ensued. California Highway Patrol officers in Placer County arrested Burris several hours later. "I'm not in a position to know whether their actions might or might not have influenced the outcome. It's fair to say we're still putting the pieces together," said Richmond police Chief Chris Magnus. He acknowledges that he has heard from many residents and police officers, retired and active, on the subject. Ross, a toll-taker at the bridge, borrowed Everette's pickup that day to get to work. Everette, a bus driver, stopped about 6 p.m. to pick it up. Prosecutors say Burris watched through binoculars for that moment, having slashed a tire on the pickup before Everette arrived. While Everette waited for roadside service, Burris shot him, according to authorities. "I'm guilty. I did it," Burris told a Contra Costa Superior Court judge during his arraignment last week. "All I need is the penalty phase. Kill me." Burris, held in County Jail in Martinez, has declined interview requests, a Contra Costa sheriff's spokesman said. Last week he told police more than once that he would have shot officers, or anyone else, in his way. Witnesses reported him brandishing his weapon at any = car that came near him on the bridge. Soon after the arrest, Monday-morning quarterbacking began in and around Richmond. The most vehement question the decisions of those out- of-town officers who did not directly intervene when lives were at stake. More measured commentators bear no grudge =97 anyone would think twice = about accosting an agitated man with a shotgun =97 but do wonder why the = deputies did not follow when the gunman fled or do more to ensure the suspect's capture. Others just feel sorry for their fellow officers, judged harshly by strangers and, possibly, by their own co-workers. "I think it goes with the territory," Magnus said. "Most police officers understand that they will undergo a rigorous critique from the public. I think police officers also do a fair amount of critiquing of each other, for better or worse. ************************************************** 11. Washington Post columnist: Leave the guns at home ************************************************** Dionne opines, 'an armed citizenry is not the basis for our freedoms." That would be news to our Founding Fathers. http://tinyurl.com/nwl4r8 www.washingtonpost.com Leave The Guns At Home By E.J. Dionne Jr. Thursday, August 20, 2009 Try a thought experiment: What would conservatives have said if a group of loud, scruffy leftists had brought guns to the public events of Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush? [PVC: If they weren't violating any laws, there's nothing to say.] How would our friends on the right have reacted to someone at a Reagan = or a Bush speech carrying a sign that read: "It is time to water the tree of liberty"? That would be a reference to Thomas Jefferson's declaration that the tree "must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." [PVC: Freedom of speech, there's = nothing to react to.] Pardon me, but I don't think conservatives would have spoken out in defense of the right of every American Marxist to bear arms or to shed = the blood of tyrants. [PVC: A person's political beliefs alone shouldn't effect their rights.] In fact, the Bush folks didn't like any dissent at all. Recall the 2004 incident in which a distraught mother whose son was killed in Iraq was arrested for protesting at a rally in New Jersey for first lady Laura Bush. The detained woman wasn't even armed. Maybe if she had been carrying, the gun lobby would have defended her. The Obama White House purports to be open to the idea of guns outside the president's appearances. "There are laws that govern firearms that = are done state or locally," Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said on Tuesday. "Those laws don't change when the president comes to your state or locality." Gibbs made you think of the old line about the liberal who is so open- minded he can't even take his own side in an argument. What needs to be addressed is not the legal question but the message that the gun-toters are sending. This is not about the politics of populism. It's about the politics of = the jackboot. It's not about an opposition that has every right to free expression. It's about an angry minority engaging in intimidation = backed by the threat of violence. [PVC: Angry? That's a laugh! The = only angry people I have seen on this issue are the press. Dionne is the perfect example of just what I mean.] There is a philosophical issue here that gets buried under the fear that so many politicians and media-types have of seeming to be out of touch with the so-called American heartland. The simple fact is that an armed citizenry is not the basis for our freedoms. Our freedoms rest on a moral consensus, enshrined in law, that in a democratic republic we work out our differences through reasoned, and sometimes raucous, argument. Free elections and open debate are not rooted in violence or the threat of violence. They are precisely the alternative to violence, and guns have no place in them. [PVC: Ah, Dionne is longing for the old "living" Constitution that can be bent anyway he wants. "If you don't like history, just rewrite it" ploy.] On the contrary, violence and the threat of violence have always been used by those who wanted to bypass democratic procedures and the rule of law. Lynching was the act of those who refused to let the legal system do its work. Guns were used on election days in the Deep South during and after Reconstruction to intimidate black voters and take control of state governments. [PVC: Here he goes way into the past to justify his elitist view of gun owners.] Yes, I have raised the racial issue, and it is profoundly troubling that firearms should begin to appear with some frequency at a president's public events only now, when the president is black. Race is not the only thing at stake here, and I have no knowledge of the personal motivations of those carrying the weapons. But our country has a tortured history on these questions, and we need to be honest about it. Those with the guns should know what memories they are stirring. And will someone please tell the armed demonstrators how foolish and lawless they make our country look in the eyes of so much of the world? Are we not the country that urges other nations to see the merits of the ballot over the bullet? [PVC: Sure, but bullets are the tool of last resort to ensure that we all have free access to the ballot box.] All this is taking place as the country debates the president's health- care proposal. There is much that is disturbing in that discussion. Shouting down speakers is never a good thing, and many lies are being told about the contents of the health-care bills. The lies should be confronted, but freedom involves a lot of commotion and an open contest of ideas, even when some of the parties say things that aren't = true and act in less than civil ways. Yet if we can't draw the line at the threat of violence, democracy begins to disintegrate. Power, not reason, becomes the stuff of political life. Will some group of responsible conservatives, preferably life members of the NRA, have the decency to urge their followers to leave their guns at home when they go out to protest the president? Is that too much to ask? [PVC: Mr. Dionne - wouldn't you have a problem telling your black friends and associations to sit in the back of the bus and shut up? That's what you are asking the NRA to tell gun owners.] ejdionne*washpost.com ************************************************** 12. Eleanor Holmes Norton and the traveling GFZ ************************************************** Norton wants all guns banned near the president. The President and the Secret Service aren't concerned, but Ms. Norton is. Anybody want to bet that her real purpose is that she wants that gun-free zone around herself (a "top federal official")? http://tinyurl.com/lwz3ds Norton Wants Gun-Free Zone for Obama Published : Wednesday, 19 Aug 2009, 7:00 PM EDT Karen GrayHouston By KAREN GRAY HOUSTON/myfoxdc WASHINGTON, D.C. - D.C.'s Congressional Delegate is joining the chorus = of those outraged at gun-toting protestors at events where President Barack Obama is speaking. Eleanor Holmes Norton has gone one step further. She's asking the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service to create gun- free zones around the president, his cabinet and other top federal officials. Norton says she's concerned about a rash of shooting after some protestors in Arizona and New Hampshire have turned up recently sporting guns, including an assault weapon. Arizona and New Hampshire both have open carry laws. Norton's call for restricting guns comes at a time when a lawsuit has been filed aimed at letting D.C. residents and visitors carry concealed guns in public. There has been no comment from Homeland Security. The Secret Service tells FOX 5 the Arizona and New Hampshire protestors had no proximity to the president. A spokesman says they were outside the outermost level of security and not deemed a threat. ************************************************** 13. Support BATFE reform bills S. 941 and H.R. 2296 ************************************************** Bills would modernize BATFE administrative penalties for firearms dealers, manufacturers, and importers http://tinyurl.com/npvxu7 Your Help Is Needed In Support of BATFE Reform Bills S. 941 And H.R. 2296 Friday, May 29, 2009 As we reported earlier this month, Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) have introduced S. 941, the "Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Reform and Firearms Modernization Act of 2009" in the U.S. Senate. Representatives Steve King (R-Iowa) and Zack Space (D-Ohio) have introduced a companion bill--H.R. 2296--in the U.S. House. The bills would roll back unnecessary restrictions, correct errors, and codify longstanding congressional policies in the firearms arena. These bipartisan bills are a vital step to modernize and improve BATFE = operations. Of highest importance, S. 941and H.R. 2296 totally rewrite the system of administrative penalties for licensed dealers, manufacturers and Continued ...