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

05/22/10 - VCDL Update 5/22/10 - Part 1

Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VCDL Update 5/22/10 1. UNTRUE? VA CCW issue with doctors 2. RESULTS: Annual VCDL/RRRC Defensive Pistol Shoot 3. VCU officer to gun owner: You can't open carry in Richmond! 4. LTEs: Gun rights about 'sovereignty' and 'freedom,' Canada's gun registration scheme costly and ineffective 5. LTE: New gun law will benefit those with concealed handgun permits 6. 20 states have banned carrying while intoxicated 7. RT Opinion Column: Relax; gun rights are secure 8. Video of VCDL president speaking at 2nd Amendment March rally in Richmond on April 12, 2010 9. RT LTE: Drunks are the real danger 10. LTE: Chicago murder rate teaches gun-law lesson 11. Video: Beer-bottle-wielding man foils Va. truck-stop robbery 12. Triggernometry - some good guidelines 13. Number of colleges allowing concealed carry on campus doubles 14. Guns in national parks vs. grizzly 15. Houston, TX PD: Man killed in home invasion after suspect poses as = census worker 16. Who needs a gun when you have pitchforks? ************************************************** 1. UNTRUE? VA CCW issue with doctors ************************************************** Item from the 5/9/2010 update may be false according to some sources. A VA-ALERT reader emailed me this: -- Hi Philip- In regards to article #4 below (VA CCW issue with doctors?) this article is untrue. Please see: http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/v/va-test-permit.htm http://www.moaablogs.org/battleofthebilge/2009/06/va_screening_gun_permits/ http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfjun09/nf060409-4.htm As a veteran I was very alarmed to read the original story that was sent out by VCDL until I was directed to those rebuttals, can you please send out a correction in your next mailer? Thanks Clayton ************************************************** 2. RESULTS: Annual VCDL/RRRC Defensive Pistol Shoot ************************************************** The Roanoke Rifle and Revolver Club's (RRRC) VCDL shoot was a great success! 66 shooters turned out and netted VCDL $1,200! Dennis O'Connor and I ended up in the middle of the pack, but we had a = really fun time competing. Some of those competing were absolutely incredible. A big thanks to the RRRC for hosting the event, to the range officers for keeping the event fun AND safe, to Paul Deel for his long hours setting up the six stages of the shoot, and to Board member Al Steed, Jr. for making the arrangements. I know I sound like a broken record, but truly, gun owners are the best people you could ever hope to meet. Special thanks to the sponsors for donating door prizes: PSS RANGE AND TRAINING-ROANOKE: gave 3 gift certificates and also invited VCDL to have a table at their up coming Customer Appreciation Day on May 22nd. The event starts at 9 AM and runs until 5 PM. Representatives from SPRINGFIELD and GLOCK will be there, too. Plan on some range time while you are there. Drawings for prizes at 10 AM, 12 PM, and 2 PM. YES, some GUNS will be given away! TRADER JERRY'S-SALEM: 2 Nice long gun cases; case of .40 S&W Ammo; cup = holders; key rings. Another great place to shop (2 stores) and a 'regular' at gun shows around the state! ALLIANT POWDERS-RADFORD: A case of Reloading Powder; Hats; Patches; Reloading Books; and several cases of water! JOHN EVERETT: 2 UPSs (uninterruptible power supplies) for computers. ROANOKE FIREARMS: A BEAUTIFUL SHADOW BOX, with a silver coin from Iraq, mounted with the story of how it was found---and a certificate for the coin---AND an AUTOGRAPHED program from LEE GREENWOOD! Another = great place to shop! SHANNON HONAKER: A beautiful LADIES purse, with concealable pouch for a handgun. BRYANSTEEN'S GUN & ARCHERY- ROANOKE: THREE GIFT CERTIFICATES! Be sure to visit their store! JOHN MARKELL; FOUR GIFT CERTIFICATES for a CCW class at any ROANOKE or = SALEM gun show --valid till 31 DEC 2010! John has some great classes and has been a long time supporter of VCDL. KATHY SMITH: TWO GIFT BAGS, each with a HAND MADE cold weather head & = face cover! JAKE ARRON: Several boxes of AMMO! You can never have too many ammunition prizes. SHELLIE & STEPHEN: HOME MADE COOKIES-About 12 DOZEN-there were four left at the end of the day--Al Steed said he won't tell who ate them ;-) AMSOIL-AL STEED JR: TWO cases of 'MP' METAL PROTECTOR spray. Great stuff for use on guns and other metals. It is also handy when you need to displace water, such as when your gun gets soaked in the rain :-( THANKS KEN MODICA for providing a chauffeuring all the VCDL 'STUFF' and Al Steed to and from the range. And be sure to try RRRC for Sporting Clays and Skeet---these ranges are open to the public. Other open events can be found at www.roanokerifle= ..com Please tell our sponsors that you appreciate their support and shop in = their friendly places of business. ************************************************** 3. VCU officer to gun owner: You can't open carry in Richmond! ************************************************** Roy Scherer emailed me this. It is a example of why EVERYONE should memorize '15.2-915'. When a government official claims that a locality has an ordinance prohibiting guns or gun carry, you need to do more than just claim state law invalidates local gun bans to actually provide the section of the Code of Virginia that preempts local gun bans: -- I think I emailed you about the rally today in Monroe Park. Well, an interesting thing happened. Picture it: a gorgeous spring day, a couple of hundred people, mostly young and white, music and speeches in Monroe Park in favor of changing drug laws. Occasionally there's a = strangely familiar scent wafting through the air. I'm running a tiny = table with a plastic pot plant and three notebooks getting email contacts, and saying a few words at the mike between bands. I'm wearing my POS .38 on my hip. I go over to a friend's table, where he's doing voter registration, and chatting with a uniformed VCU Police officer. We chat for a moment or two. Seems like a decent guy. He notices my weapon, mentions that I can't carry it onto VCU property (about a hundred yards away). I reassure him that I know that, and that I'll be careful. I go back to my table. A few minutes later, he comes up to the table -- from behind, never a good sign. He chats for a moment, then asks if I have a permit for my = pistol. I told him I did, but that I didn't need to have it on my person because I wasn't carrying concealed. Then HE tells me that several people have mentioned that there's a man with a gun in the park. (I didn't tell him that there were at least TWO, at that moment.) He then tells me that people are NOT ALLOWED TO OPEN CARRY in the City of Richmond. I explain that he's wrong. First, there is no such ordinance; second, = if there had been such an ordinance, it would be illegal. I explained = the pre-emption statute. [MUST remember to get that printed, and shrunk to wallet-sized!] He tells me that he's been on the radio and = the phone, and that he's being told otherwise. (By this time, we're gathering a crowd around my table.) I excuse myself for a moment, and = ask a colleague nearby if she'd mind taking care of my table and other = gear if I'm arrested, promising to pay her from the proceeds of the false-arrest suit; she agrees. I turn back to the officer, and start to repeat about the pre-emption law. He says that I might be right, but he's heard from several -- unnamed -- sources that I'm wrong. He asks if I'll show him my permit, which I do. He then asks me if I'd mind putting the permit in = my pocket, and covering the weapon, just to make his day a little easier. He repeated that I might be right about the law, but that so far all the information that he had was that I was breaking the law, and he repeated it, as a request, not as an order. I told him that, since it was a request (and a polite one at that), I'd go along with it. I draped the pouch with my permit in it over my = shoulder, and un-tucked my teeshirt so that the gun was covered. He thanked me, and gave me his card with his email address, and asked me to email him a copy of the law. I said I would, we shook hands, he went away. I kept the permit with me, and now and again pulled the teeshirt down over the butt of the weapon. I created a teaching moment for the thirty or fifty people watching, with a riff about self- defense, gun laws, and the difference between police and pigs. Now then, comes the GOOD part. About 30-45 minutes later, the officer = came up to me again. He said that he had done more checking, and he'd = found out that I was right, and that what he had been told was wrong. = He apologised. I say again, he was a uniformed police officer, and he = apologised for being wrong. We chatted, we shook hands, and I uncovered my weapon and had no trouble for the rest of the day. When I email him, I'll refer him to VCDL. Just thought that you might find that little slice-of-life interesting. Share as you see fit. -- Roy ************************************************** 4. LTEs: Gun rights about 'sovereignty' and 'freedom,' Canada's gun registration scheme costly and ineffective ************************************************** Dennis O'Connor emailed me this. Alan Whistler and I go back a ways. = Alan wrote a superb LTE. This is how it's done: -- http://tinyurl.com/2el4f6a www.timesdispatch.com Letters to the Editor By STAFF REPORTS Published: May 11, 2010 Gun Activists Angry Over Many Issues Editor, Times-Dispatch: In his recent column, 'Guns Are Just a Pretense in This War,' Michael Paul Williams chides gun rights activists for voicing their anger over issues like brainwashing kids in public schools, property rights, our health care system, and a tax revenue scheme masquerading as the solution to (nonexistent) global warming. He then postulates that the gun rights community must be up to something, because their words reveal that 'clearly, this isn't about guns.' It looks like Williams finally gets it -- sort of. This is about way more than guns. It's about the sovereignty and freedom of the individual versus the power of the state. It's about free enterprise, based on free individuals striving to achieve the American dream, versus the mediocrity of the progressive, collectivist world view that = is thrust upon us constantly. In today's America, many seem to think government is there to provide for our every need. Most gun owners think otherwise. We cherish our gun rights precisely because of our firm belief in all the other God- given freedoms protected by the Constitution, not the other way around. And we look at politicians and their actions through that prism. The gun rights movement admits openly that this is about way more than = guns. We want a government that allows us to live as free men and women, not as helpless children to be lorded over and taken care of from cradle to grave. That's not the America we grew up in; it's not what the Founders intended; and we are not going to allow America to drift that way if we have anything to say about it. We are in a war, to be sure. But guns are not a pretense in this war; they are the tip of the spear and the litmus test for good government as the Founders intended. Alan Whisler. Henrico. -------- It's Different In Canada He Knows Editor, Times-Dispatch: I grew up in northern New York and have friends and relatives north of the border. After reading Donald Nuechterlein's recent Op/Ed, 'A Cooperative but Vigilant United States = Ally,' I'm not sure that he's talking about the same Canada I know. In the wake of a heinous massacre at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique in = which a lone psychopath murdered 14 and wounded 10 others, the Canadian media whipped up an anti-gun frenzy in the government. In 1995, Parliament passed a bill that called for universal licensing of gun owners, a universal firearms registry, bans on certain types of guns, and draconian gun storage requirements. Supporters of the bill claimed that the fees charged for registering an estimated 7 million rifles and shotguns would pay for the system. Cost to taxpayers, they said, would be no more than $2 million. To date, the registry has cost Canadian taxpayers $2 billion. An Angus Reid poll indicated that only 8 percent of respondents think the program has reduced crime. So far, five provinces have opted out of the system. An estimated 50 percent of Canadian gun owners simply ignore the law. A repeal bill is = pending in the House of Commons, having passed its last two readings with broad support across party lines. The Senate is expected to pass it as well, and it will then be signed by the prime minister -- who won his seat in 2006 by running on a staunchly pro-gun platform. There is a direct correlation between private gun ownership and murder = rates. According to the FBI, last year the number of privately owned guns in America increased by nearly 2 percent while the nation's per capita murder rate dropped by 10 percent in the first six months. In Washington, D.C., when the Supreme Court struck down the District's unconstitutional ban on handguns, the murder rate almost immediately dropped by 19 percent. Jay Templin. Charles City. ************************************************** 5. LTE: New gun law will benefit those with concealed handgun permits ************************************************** Roy Scherer emailed me this: -- http://tinyurl.com/2fx7nru http://progress-index.com/ New gun law will benefit those with concealed handgun permits Published: May 9, 2010 To the Editor: I'm sorry that you don't like the new law that allows those of us with = concealed handgun permits to enter a place that serves alcohol without = making an ostentatious display of our weapon. Perhaps you just haven't = thought this through. After all, guns and alcohol have always been permitted under Virginia law. First of all, Virginia does not have 'bars'; it has places that serve food, and some of those are also licensed to serve wine, beer, and perhaps liquor as well. Under Virginia law stretching back to Colonial = days, most adults are allowed to carry a holstered firearm, not concealed, into any such place and consume alcohol. So long as they don't violate any law (including public intoxication), and so long as the manager or owner doesn't tell them to leave, they can stay all day, and drink as much as they want. The current law prohibits those of us with concealed handgun permits from even entering places with ABC licenses while our weapons are concealed; instead, we must rearrange our clothing to show the weapon. In many places, this can serve as a provocation to some people. When I'm on my way home from a hard day at the Capitol, stopping off half- way through a 3 1/2 mile walk to my home, I really would rather not to = have to interrupt my coffee in order to deal with some half-drunk idiot who sees my handgun as a challenge to his manhood. The law which will take effect on July 1 will allow me to keep my weapon concealed, and thus avoid any unintentional provocations. It will also prohibit me from drinking, but that's a small price to pay for the freedom it grants. Roy B. Scherer Petersburg ************************************************** 6. 20 states have banned carrying while intoxicated ************************************************** A VA-ALERT reader emailed me this: -- If you're going to drink, leave your gun at home. That was the message from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and State Senator Jeffrey Klein who introduced a bill Thursday that would make it illegal to carry a firearm WHILE DRUNK. Currently 20 states have banned the mix of alcohol and guns. [PVC: New York is one of many states that allows CHP holders to drink = while carrying concealed.] http://tinyurl.com/2ecj8b6 Planning on Drinking? Leave Your Gun at Home, Mayor Bloomberg Says February 4, 2010 1:44pm By Mariel S. Clark DNAinfo Reporter/Producer If you're going to drink, leave your gun at home. That was the message from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and State Senator Jeffrey Klein who introduced a bill Thursday that would make it illegal to carry a firearm while drunk. 'If you are too intoxicated to drive a car, you should not be carrying = a gun,' Bloomberg said in a statement. If passed, the bill would make carrying a gun while intoxicated a class-A misdemeanor punishable by one year in jail and a $10,000 fine. = Lawbreakers could also have their gun permits revoked. The law would use the same .08 blood alcohol level that is used to determine drunk driving. 'Guns and alcohol are a deadly mix,' Klein said in the statement. 'The = time is now for us to get serious about penalties for those who chose to carry a gun while intoxicated.' The bill would not apply to people possessing guns within their own home. Currently 20 states have banned the mix of alcohol and guns. [PVC: = However, many states do not ban RESPONSIBLE drinking while carrying a concealed handgun - just like one can drink responsibly and carry concealed car keys without being a danger.] ************************************************** 7. RT Opinion Column: Relax; gun rights are secure ************************************************** Another Roanoke Times op ed on firearms written by someone who is clueless about guns. My general response to this diatribe is, 'relax; = criminals don't open carry'. Carla and Dave Hicks emailed me this: -- http://tinyurl.com/3xdv3zc www.roanoke.com Relax; gun rights are secure Stratton Wayne St.Clair St.Clair is a graphic artist living in Roanoke. While I do not like guns and don't own any, I have marksman and sharpshooter ribbons from the military. I support the Second Amendment. If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns, and that worries me far more than any criminal. Still, I do not support the people who want to take their guns everywhere, who claim this or that administration is threatening those = rights or think it's all right to take guns to political rallies, who want them in schools, bars or even church. Who do they think they are? Do they think flaunting their guns is supposed to make the rest of us feel safe? They don't. I see a potential threat instead. I have no idea how sane they are. And from some of their actions, I suspect that they aren't very sane at all. Whoever thinks a loaded gun = in a bar is a bright idea once the alcohol is flowing is an idiot. The = Old West ended 100 years ago. What would've happened if guns had been allowed in the classrooms at Virginia Tech? Odds are, far more injuries and deaths. I can see it now. Seung-Hui Cho starts shooting and all the wannabe cowboys return fire like it's the shoot-out at OK Corral, and there would have been far more innocent people wounded and killed. There is no convincing me otherwise. I have no faith in these armchair = warriors. Basic training taught us how to be calm under fire. Most people haven't had that training, and once the shooting started, they would be so pumped up with adrenaline there would be shooting everywhere. Shooting a buck or a target is not the same as shooting at = someone who is shooting back. The gun-rights kooks disproved their whole 'the government is taking away my rights' thesis recently by holding a rally with loaded weapons = in a national park within spitting distance of D.C. Did they think the = government was afraid of them? Phfft. All they proved was that the Constitution was alive, that their rights = were not being threatened and that our system was working. Do they really think that they would have been allowed to do that if it weren't? Yet, both the GOP and the National Rifle Association spread misinformation to those who have a hard time reasoning things out that = their gun rights are about to be taken away. They have been doing this = for decades in order to separate fools from their money, aka fund raising. The reality is this: No one is going to take away people's precious guns. For the record, amending the Constitution to give or take away rights is a long and tedious process. It takes a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress, and then two-thirds of all the state legislatures have to approve as well [PVC -- Actually, it takes three- fourths of the state legislatures]. It takes years, and there is no way even the most strident anti-gun lobby will ever be able to pull that off, so people can put away their ammo. Only the most fanatical seem incapable of understanding that a background check or a waiting period or a limit on the number of guns they can buy at one time are not threats to their gun rights but common sense and an attempt to keep us all safer. A society that thinks it needs to be armed to the teeth all the time within it is not a healthy society. ************************************************** 8. Video of VCDL president speaking at 2nd Amendment March rally in Richmond on April 12, 2010 ************************************************** James Serino emailed me this: -- http://tinyurl.com/2behbhw ************************************************** 9. RT LTE: Drunks are the real danger ************************************************** Dave Hicks emailed me this. Classifying all anti-gunners as liberals is a big mistake. Some liberals very much understand and support carrying guns. And some conservatives are anti-gun. It is better to = just refer to our counterparts as anti-gunners - their political leanings are not a valid litmus test: -- http://tinyurl.com/25gopma www.roanoke.com Drunks are the real danger Re: 'We will become the Wild West,' May 4 letter: Many places that serve booze had a bad reputation before the right to carry a concealed weapon into them became law. Arguments, fights and people getting injured and killed are commonplace in establishments where alcohol is served, not to mention drunks getting into motor vehicles and endangering other drivers on our roadways. Many a newspaper or TV news account tells of some drunk who has caused a bad wreck. Riley Cash compares the right to carry weapons with the Old West. If he had taken time to read our Western history, he would have found out = that there were very few 'shoot 'em ups' as portrayed in movies and on = TV. That gunplay was strictly the imagination of the scriptwriters. He, like all liberals, is like the boy who cried wolf. With liberals, it is always 'What if? What if?' They want to drink their slop, but they don't want people to have the Second Amendment right to carry a weapon. Drunks are the danger to people, not the person with the legal = right to carry a weapon. GLEN C. WATSON JR. MAX MEADOWS ************************************************** 10. LTE: Chicago murder rate teaches gun-law lesson ************************************************** Bruce Jackson emailed me this: -- http://tinyurl.com/39zo2k4 www.washingtontimes.com LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Chicago murder rate teaches gun-law lesson I read the editorial about the problems caused by Chicago's gun-control laws and could not agree more that the city needs to allow = residents to have the tools to defend their communities ('Guns needed to stop Chicago murders,' Comment & Analysis, Thursday). This illustrates why Maryland and the District need to go a step or two further along the same road and begin the process of changing their concealed-carry bans to put their laws in line with the majority = of the states. A total of 41 states allow their residents concealed- carry permits without requiring a special show of need. Others, such as Alaska, Vermont and Arizona, allow for carrying without a permit. Dangerous events have occurred in the Washington area in recent weeks. = While relative calm prevailed in Virginia, West Virginia and other surrounding states that permit concealed-carry, criminals have preyed on people in both the District and suburban Maryland. It is an established fact that criminals fear armed victims, and nowhere that liberalized concealed-carry has been implemented has the prediction of = wanton mayhem been realized. To the contrary, violent crime has been reduced in those states. The first state to pass a liberalized concealed-carry law was Florida in 1988. There were the usual screamers from the Statehouse in Tallahassee, but to their credit, a few years later, they became public advocates as they saw the liberalization working as predicted. We need to pressure Annapolis and Washington to take the inexpensive, proactive measures that are certain to create safer streets. Politicians with armed guards and escorts may think they know better, but they don't - and it is time to give those who don't have government-supplied bodyguards the means to defend themselves and their communities. NORMAN HENDRICKSON Bowie, Md. ************************************************** 11. Video: Beer-bottle-wielding man foils Va. truck-stop robbery ************************************************** Josh Kellogg emailed me this. It is far better to have a gun to stop a robbery than to hit the criminal with a couple of beer bottles. However, the Good Samaritan was trying to help and did a brave thing. = Unfortunately, he did receive a few gun shot wounds: -- http://tinyurl.com/23mae9c http://hamptonroads.com Video: Beer-bottle-wielding man foils Va. truck-stop robbery The Associated Press May 11, 2010 CARMEL CHURCH Caroline County officials say a customer who struck a gun-toting man on the head with two beer bottles foiled a robbery at a truck stop off = Interstate 95. Sheriff's officials say the would-be robber brandished a gun at the clerk Saturday night at Mr. Fuel and demanded money, then pointed the weapon at several store customers. One customer walked to the rear of the store, got two beer bottles and struck the suspect in the back of the head. The customer struggled with the gunman, who in turn shot him several times. The customer didn't suffer life-threatening injuries. Sheriff's officials say the gunman hasn't been arrested. A telephone message left Tuesday for Gary Poland, the general manager of Mr. Fuel, wasn't immediately returned. ************************************************** 12. Triggernometry - some good guidelines ************************************************** Triggernometry by Jim Higginbotham Choose Your Weapon! Part I: http://tinyurl.com/29npgef ''What handgun would you recommend for self defense?'' That is a question I get a lot. Sometimes it is from folks who have little or no shooting experience and sometimes it is from folks who just want me to tell them that the latest weapon they have chosen wasn't a really stupid choice. Choose Your Weapon! Part II: http://tinyurl.com/25aaanc Last month in Part I of this series you may have been shocked to find that I didn't instruct you to go out and buy my 'pet' favorite carry pistol. I have one of course, but I have changed what I carry over the = years as my preferences changed. The point was that there are a lot of = factors, but the most measurable 'correct' answer is to measure what you are shooting well, and weigh those choices against the standard 'bigger is better' considerations when choosing a handgun for carry. No, I'm not going to tell you what to buy this month either, but we will get into some interesting details about aspects that many people just gloss over, but that are vitally important and will affect your ability to survive your gunfight. Choices have consequences. ************************************************** 13. Number of colleges allowing concealed carry on campus doubles ************************************************** James D. Durso emailed me this: -- http://tinyurl.com/23tlxdc www.saysuncle.com Number of Colleges Allowing Concealed Carry on Campus Doubles Daniel of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus emails: I don't know if you have seen anything about this, but the number of colleges allowing concealed carry on campus has more than doubled this = week. Especially as this has not received any media coverage, I feel that this is a substantial news issue that should be covered and would = be of interest to your readers. I've gone into more detail about this below, but feel free to email or call me at the address below for any additional information. Prior to this week, only twelve colleges in the entire nation explicitly allowed carry of a firearm: The ten public colleges of Utah, Blue Ridge Community College in Virginia and Colorado State University. Following a substantial ruling to remove the ban at the University of Colorado, the fourteen colleges in the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) voted to rescind their current ban and = allow any licensed adult with a concealed carry permit to exercise that right while on campus. While I cannot find any direct news articles about it, you may link to the revised policy [here] This action alone more than doubles the number of universities and colleges allowing concealed carry from twelve to twenty-six. In addition, one of the two community colleges in Colorado not part of = the CCCS, Aims Community College, has scheduled a meeting to make the Continued ...