VA-ALERT: VCDL Update 2/4/13 Part 1

[Taggure]

VA-ALERT: VCDL Update 2/4/13 Part 1

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Not yet a VCDL member? Join VCDL at: http://www.vcdl.org/join
----------------------------------------------------------------------
VCDL's meeting schedule: http://www.vcdl.org/meetings
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. VCDL Supper Meeting in Salem on February 19th
2. VCDL Supper Meeting in Fredericksburg on February 24th
3. Lobby Day observations
4. Va. Senate panel kills gun show loophole bill
5. Feinstein falsely politicizes Virginia Tech massacre
6. Antigun Virginia lawmaker who brandished AK-47 during legislative session was disbarred following assault, death threat
7. Virginia gun laws debated [Video]
8. D.C. man who shot dogs biting boy could face charges
9. Student uses AR-15 to stop home invasion robbery [Video]
10. Feinstein, self-defense, and armed home invasions
11. States' crime rates show scant linkage to gun laws
12. Guns stop three home invasions, store robbery
13. How to stop mass shootings? [Video]
14. The school shooting the media won't report
15. GEICO Insurance cancels gun manufacturer's policy because he is in firearm business
16. 2A Supporters: Punching back twice as hard [Video]
17. Fox News poll: Twice as many favor more guns over banning guns to reduce crime
18. "Active shooter" training
19. Senator Feinstein declares war on pistol grips
20. Holder begins gun-control push
21. The stale claim that 40 percent of gun sales lack background checks
22. RTD LTE: Provide trained teachers the option to carry
23. Why young women want AR-15's
24. Gender gap on most gun issues is massive, polls suggest
25. Ending gun violence requires commitment, not all of it voluntary
26. Two-thirds of U.S. gun owners would 'defy' a federal gun ban
27. Oak Harbor City, WA Mayor defends 2nd Amendment in council meeting [Video]
28. Does UN arms trade treaty figure in Obama administration's gun control plans?
29. CNN: Red states and guns [Audio]
30. Boycott: Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, PA
31. Groupon stops gun-related deals, sparking outrage on social media
32. Democratic senators face "roused" gun owners at home
33. Let the Democrats shoot themselves in the foot
34. Journalists, politicians refuse to post lawn sign saying "Home is proudly gun free" [Video]
35. Expert gun advice from the Vice President
36. Maze of gun laws in US hurts gun control efforts
37. Guns and the President
38. Thanks to members of the VCDL, from the WVCDL


**************************************************
1. VCDL Supper Meeting in Salem on February 19th
**************************************************

VCDL will have a supper meeting in Southwest Virginia at:

CHIP & JO'S
315 8TH ST (Corner of 8th and Tennessee)
Salem Virginia

Date: February 19, 2013

Seating IS LIMITED TO 62 MEMBERS OR GUESTS, so RSVP is requested to reserve a seat!

Menu is a BUFFET, chicken OR pepper steak, with corn, mashed potato, green beans, drinks, desert.

COST will be $10.99 not including TAX and TIP.

Fellowship starts at 6:30 PM--meals to be served at 7 PM.

Speaker to be announced. We hope to have a special presentation to VCDL from the members here in SW VA.

RSVP to al@vcdl.org.


**************************************************
2. VCDL Supper Meeting in Fredericksburg on February 24th

**************************************************

VCDL will have a supper meeting in the Fredericksburg area on February 24 at 5 PM.

Location:

Vinnys Italian Grill
397 Garrisonville Road
Stafford, VA 22554

Thanks to Donald Balsavich for making the arrangements.


**************************************************
3. Lobby Day observations
**************************************************

Bob Theis emailed me this:

-

Although I'm a VCDL member, I was there Monday just to visit a delegate from the 99th, Margaret Ransone, who is a friend and have lunch.

Orange stickers were everywhere!

While visiting my delegate friend, I saw many VCDL groups in the general assembly building and a group came to talk with her although she was in session.

Later when she came back, several tea party folks from Northumberland county were there to see her and they both had VCDL stickers on.

Out at lunch several blocks away there were VCDL stickers and folks eating at the same restaurant as us.

When I left to return home around 2 PM, there was a very large VCDL group getting off the elevator as I was getting on.

So, as a "civilian" that day, VCDL certainly made it's presence known... great job!


**************************************************
4. Va. Senate panel kills gun show loophole bill
**************************************************

Bill Hine emailed me this:

--

From WTOP: http://tinyurl.com/bktjzax

By Larry O'Dell
January 24, 2013


RICHMOND, Va. - Legislation to close Virginia's so-called "gun show loophole" was sent to its annual death Wednesday after a state senator who assumed a key role in this year's debate pledged to vigorously pursue a compromise between gun control advocates and opponents before the 2014 legislative session.

The Courts of Justice Committee voted 8-7 to kill the legislation, which has suffered the same fate several years in a row. Several other gun control proposals _ including bills mandating universal background checks and banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines _ also have been rejected during the first two weeks of the 46-day legislative session.

In Virginia, only licensed gun dealers are required to run criminal background checks on buyers at gun shows. The courts committee last week endorsed a bill to allow only licensed dealers to operate as vendors at gun shows, but allow private sellers to place their wares on consignment with those dealers _ thus subjecting all customers to the background checks.

But Republican Sen. Bill Stanley of Franklin County, who voted for the bill, had second thoughts and persuaded the committee to reconsider. He said Wednesday that he had been working with activists on both sides of the issue and was close to reaching a compromise, but there were too many details to work out to get it done in this session. He offered the motion to kill Democratic Sen. Henry Marsh's bill, but vowed to continue to work for a solution.

"I commit to you, Sen. Marsh, there will be legislation next session," Stanley said. "I'm not doing this to kill your bill for the sake of killing your bill."

Marsh, D-Richmond, and his allies on the committee opposed shelving the bill.

"It's untenable, it's unconscionable and delaying another year makes absolutely no sense at all," said Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax.

The debate comes more than a month after a gunman fatally shot his mother at their home and then killed 26 children and adults at a Connecticut school before killing himself.

Stanley said the compromise that he and others will be working on in the coming year would require gun show promoters to create a kiosk where buyers could voluntarily submit to a background check to purchase from individuals who want to sell only to customers who are legally entitled to own a gun. Details, including how the kiosk would be staffed, have yet to be determined.

Gun control advocate Lori Haas, whose daughter Emily was wounded in the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, said she believes Stanley is sincere about wanting to find a solution agreeable to both sides. She said citizens, including gun owners, are demanding background checks.

"That's clearly the direction the country is heading," she said.

Philip Van Cleave, president of the pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defense League, said he is open to the concept being discussed as long as it is workable.

"We think options are good as long as they are voluntary," he said. [PVC: This is a tricky issue as we don't want go down a slippery slope.]


**************************************************
5. Feinstein falsely politicizes Virginia Tech massacre
**************************************************

James Durso emailed me this:

--

From JHPolitics.com: http://tinyurl.com/akta87n

By Justin Higgins
January 24, 2013

About a year ago, I moved to Blacksburg, Virginia, home of Virginia Tech. Having not been here (or even in Southwest Virginia) when the Virginia Tech massacre occurred in 2007, I'm always a bit uncomfortable talking about the tragedy. What I've learned, over this year, however, is that most in this community hate the politicization of the massacre, by both gun control advocates and gun rights enthusiasts. That's why it upsets me when I see someone like Senator Diane Feinstein using the event as political fodder:

"These massacres don't seem to stop," the California Democrat lamented, listing notorious rampages of past years known by the lone name of their locations - Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Tucson and Oak Creek.
"We should be outraged at how easy it is" for attackers to get hold of the semi-automatic weapons or large-capacity magazines used in those slaughters, Feinstein told the event at the U.S. Capitol that she organized.

Given that she cited Virginia Tech, it's worth asking whether or not Feinstein's proposed legislation could've changed the outcome of the event. Her bill targets high-capacity magazines (those with 10 or more rounds of ammunition), as well as a number of "assault weapons" she wants banned. The Daily Caller revealed Feinstein's list of proposed weapons:

So what did Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech gunman, use to kill 32 of his fellow classmates? He used two sidearms, a .22 caliber Walther P22 and a 9mm Glock 19. You'll notice that neither of these semi-automatic weapons are on the list above. Cho also used a number of 10 and 15 round magazines. Theoretically, Feinstein's bill may have limited Cho to smaller magazines (8 or 9 rounds each). Would this have made a difference?

It's hard to argue that a high-capacity magazine ban would have made a difference. 203 rounds of ammunition were found to have been used in Norris Hall, where a majority of the violence occurred. That means that Cho reloaded well over a dozen times, between the two weapons. Assuming that he was limited to 8-round magazines, he would have needed to reload a minimum of 25 times to dispense over 200 rounds of ammunition. What's the difference between reloading 17 times and 25 times? Not much.

This goes to show how tragedies are used for political purposes, even when it is illogical. The Virginia Tech massacre was a terrible incident, and we need to take every step necessary to prevent further damage, but the assault weapons ban proposed would have done nothing. Feinstein should be ashamed of her politicization.


**************************************************
6. Antigun Virginia lawmaker who brandished AK-47 during legislative session was disbarred following assault, death threat
**************************************************

James Durso emailed me this:

--

From The Daily Caller: http://tinyurl.com/ajhlnoy

By David Martosko
January 20, 2013

A Virginia lawmaker who drew gasps from his colleagues when he brandished a borrowed AK-47 during an anti-gun speech Thursday was found guilty in 2002 of committing a vicious 1999 assault, was sanctioned for legal misconduct while prosecuting a rape case, spent six months in jail for contempt of a federal court, and saw his law license revoked in 2003.

Democratic Delegate Joseph Morrissey brought the rifle to the floor of the House of Delegates to demonstrate how easy it is to carry firearms in Virginia. Republican Delegate Todd Gilbert interrupted Morrissey's speech to ask him to remove his finger from inside the gun's trigger-guard - a basic gun-safety practice.

"I don't think you should be able to possess an assault rifle," Morrissey told ABC News on Friday.

But while Morrissey introduced a gun-control bill Thursday aimed at reducing criminal violence in Virginia, he has a history that involves physical violence of another kind. (RELATED: Politician responsible for brutal assault may run for Va. attorney general)

Morrissey paid a man $500,000 in 2007 to settle a 2002 court judgment against him, related to a 1999 physical assault.

According to legal brief filed by the victim's attorneys, Morrissey shouted, "I'm going to kill you. I'm going to beat your head in," before beating the victim and "smash[ing] his head into the corner of a brick wall."

The 2003 revocation of Morrissey's law license followed that courtroom reckoning, but by then his disciplinary record in the legal profession was already a lengthy one.

After he applied for the reinstatement of his law license, the Virginia State Bar listed a litany of Morrissey's misdeeds when it published his petition.
That list included the December 1993 suspension of Morrissey's law license for six months following a complaint from a rape victim in a case he prosecuted. Morrissey, she said, allowed her rapist to plea-bargain his case down to a misdemeanor after his father paid $50,000 - half to the victim and the other half to charities Morrissey chose. She also testified that Morrissey hid the details of the plea-bargain from her.

The bar had already sanctioned Morrissey in June of that year when it learned of his misconduct in a felony drunk-driving case. Without asking the court's permission, Morrissey issued a new arrest warrant with a reduced charge of misdemeanor reckless driving. He was required to write a formal letter of apology to the judge.

By that time, the bar was accustomed to hearing about Morrissey.
It forced him to attend legal ethics training after he represented a criminal defendant in the same case in which he had previously prosecuted him. Another reprimand came for engaging in a fist fight with a defense attorney whose client he was prosecuting.

In 1999, the bar suspended Morrissey's law license again, this time for three years, after he made "public statements about the identity, testimony or credibility of prospective witnesses" in a federal court case.

Morrissey was convicted on two counts of contempt of court in that case, and sentenced to 90 days in jail plus three years of probation. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia also disbarred him, effectively denying him future access to plead cases in federal court.

In a separate case that contributed to that suspension of his law license, Morrissey was cited for contempt in Chesterfield County, Va. after he directed an angry outburst at a judge during a sentencing hearing.

After he was released from jail, Morrissey violated the terms of his probation by "attempting to circumvent the conditions of probation and lying to [his] probation officer," according to the Virginia State Bar. As a result, he spent an additional 90 days in jail and his law license was formally revoked.

The bar issued a recommendation to the Supreme Court of Virginia in May 2011, arguing that Morrissey's petition for reinstatement should be denied. The court disagreed, ruling in December 2011 that he could have his law license back after ten years of disbarment.

Morrissey's AK-47 stunt on Thursday likely pleased at least one man.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported in 2010 that one witness in his license reinstatement hearing was longtime gay-rights activist Guy Kinman, who said he missed Morrissey's headline-grabbing antics.

"When I pick up the Times-Dispatch, generally his name is not there" anymore, Kinman explained.

"Some of the drama is gone. Where are you Joe? Any drama freaks among us would wish the old Joe were here."


**************************************************
7. Virginia gun laws debated [Video]
**************************************************

From NBC Washington: http://tinyurl.com/apdlgwm

By Julie Carey
January 18, 2013

Lawmakers in Virginia discussed several gun control regulations but at the end of the day, voted against most of them. Northern Virginia Bureau Chief Julie Carey reports


**************************************************
8. D.C. man who shot dogs biting boy could face charges
**************************************************

This is what happens when the government is all powerful and you have no right to self-defense.

Walter Jackson emailed me this:

--

From The Washington Times: http://tinyurl.com/b6sck5p

By Andrea Noble
January 23, 2013

D.C. police are investigating whether a man will face criminal charges for shooting a pit bull that was attacking a child in his neighborhood.

The incident unfolded Sunday afternoon, after three pit bulls attacked an 11-year-old boy as he rode his bicycle through the Brightwood neighborhood of Northwest, according to a police report.

When the man, a neighbor, saw the boy being mauled by the dogs, he went inside his home and got a gun. The man killed one of the dogs. The gunfire attracted the attention of a police officer in the area near Eighth and Sheridan streets, where the attack occurred. The officer responded and shot the other two pit bulls as they continued to attack the boy.

The police report, which did not identify any of the people involved, said the boy suffered severe lacerations. The Washington Post, which first reported the details of the shooting, quoted the boy's uncle as saying the boy was also shot in the foot.

Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said Wednesday that the entire case, including whether the man legally owned the gun he used to kill the dog, is under investigation.

While public opinion might be supportive of the man's actions, he could still face significant charges depending on the outcome of the investigation, criminal defense attorney Daniel Gross said.

"I've seen cases where people used weapons in defense of others, but the U.S. attorney's office is not always so understanding," said Mr. Gross, who represents many clients charged with firearms-related crimes in the District. "There are certain defenses one could try, like self-defense or defense of others, but that wouldn't really go to whether they charge you."

The man could face a host of charges depending on the specifics of the case, including whether the gun used is a registered firearm that the man was legally permitted to own, Mr. Gross said. Possession of an unregistered firearm or ammunition is punishable by up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine, and determining whether the man legally possessed the gun used will likely have greater bearing on the way the case is handled, Mr. Gross said.

Low-level unregistered firearms and ammunitions charges generally are prosecuted by the D.C. office of the attorney general, but additional charges could mean the case is bumped up to the U.S. attorney's office.

"In this case, it would likely be the U.S. attorney's office, and their discretion is sometimes less than local prosecutors," Mr. Gross said.

Also to be taken into consideration is whether the man was within his property line when he fired the weapon ˘ a small but significant distinction. Mr. Gross said it could mean the difference in whether he could be charged with carrying a pistol without a license.


**************************************************
9. Student uses AR-15 to stop home invasion robbery [Video]
**************************************************

Louis JK sent me this:

--

From Youtube: http://tinyurl.com/bfyk23n


**************************************************
10. Feinstein, self-defense, and armed home invasions
**************************************************

Charles Winkler emailed me this:

--

From SFist.com: http://tinyurl.com/b85w289

By Andrew Dalton
January 3, 2013

Just before 3 a.m. Thursday morning, five armed men broke in and raided a home in the quiet Outer Richmond District. The residence on 40th Avenue near Geary Boulevard was apparently home to five college-aged kids and their three visitors, KTVU reports. The suspects entered the home brandishing handguns and started knocking down doors before assaulting residents and dragging them out into the living room.

According to the residents, the suspects were five black men in their twenties all wearing baggy clothing and hoods, although their faces weren't concealed. Residents believe they were looking for weed, but the suspects made off with several iPhones, iPads, an Xbox console, laptops and some photography equipment instead. One suspect grabbed a knife from the kitchen, which was later recovered in front of the apartment building. Two of the burglars reportedly carried handguns, but none of the residents reported any major injuries.

All five suspects took off on foot and had not been arrested as of this morning. No word yet on whether police believe the home was targeted, but the residents have only lived in the home for less than a year and believe it may have been a grow house in the past. According to KTVU's crime scene report this morning, residents also said they occasionally leave the front door open and the lock on the security gate "tends to stick." So, let this be a good reason to double check your locks, folks.


**************************************************
11. States' crime rates show scant linkage to gun laws
**************************************************

Monty Oakes emailed me this:

--

From The Washington Times: http://tinyurl.com/a29xnzd

By David Sherfinski
January 24, 2013

President Obama has called for stricter federal gun laws to combat recent shooting rampages, but a review of recent state laws by The Washington Times shows no discernible correlation between stricter rules and lower gun-crime rates in the states.

States that ranked high in terms of making records available to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System also tended to have tighter gun laws ˘ but their gun-crime rates ranged widely. The same was true for states that ranked poorly on disclosure and were deemed to have much less stringent gun-possession laws.

For example, New York, even before it approved the strictest gun-control measures in the country last week, was ranked fourth among the states in strength of gun laws by the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence, but was also in the top 10 in firearm homicide rates in 2011, according to the FBI.

Meanwhile, North Dakota was near the bottom in its firearm homicide, firearm robbery and firearm assault rates, but also had some of the loosest gun laws and worst compliance with turning over mental health records to the background check system.

Analysts said the data underscore that there are no simple or easy broad answers to combating gun violence, which is a complex equation involving gun-ownership rates, how ready authorities are to prosecute gun crimes and how widely they ban ownership.

Gary Kleck, a criminology professor at Florida State University, said in an email that a simple comparison between states' strength of gun laws and gun-crime rates doesn't say much about the effects of the laws because the exercise fails to control for other factors such as gun-ownership rates.

In an exhaustive analysis with data from 170 U.S. cities that did control for such factors, Mr. Kleck and fellow researcher E. Britt Patterson concluded that there was no general impact of gun-control laws on crime rates ˘ with a few notable exceptions.

"There do appear to be some gun controls which work, all of them relatively moderate, popular and inexpensive," the researchers wrote. "Thus, there is support for a gun-control policy organized around gun-owner licensing or purchase permits (or some other form of gun-buyer screening); stricter local dealer licensing; bans on possession of guns by criminals and mentally ill people; stronger controls over illegal carrying; and possibly discretionary add-on penalties for committing felonies with a gun.

"On the other hand, popular favorites such as waiting periods and gun registration do not appear to affect violence rates," he said.

No state patterns

The Times analysis looked at the Brady Campaign's rankings for strength of each state's gun laws and at Mayors Against Illegal Guns' rankings for how states perform in disclosing mental health data to the background check system. That information was then matched against the FBI's 2011 gun-crime rankings for homicides, robberies and assaults.

The results showed no correlation among the strength of laws and disclosure and the crime rates.

For example, Maryland and New Jersey ˘ both of them populous states with large metropolitan areas ˘ have tight gun laws but poor mental health disclosure. But New Jersey's gun-crime rate was in the middle of the pack, while Maryland ranked sixth-highest in homicides involving guns and second-highest in robberies with guns.

Delaware and Virginia, which both ranked high in mental health disclosure and ranked 18th and 19th in the Brady tally of tough gun laws, also had divergent crime rates.

Delaware ranked among the top 10 in number of gun robberies and gun assaults, while Virginia was in the middle of the pack on its measures.

Statistical anomalies were found between rural states such as Louisiana and Vermont. The former state has lax gun laws and has high gun-crime rates on all three measures. Although Vermont also is a rural state with a strong tradition of gun ownership ˘ the Brady Campaign ranks it 26th in terms of strength of gun laws ˘ it has low gun-crime rates. For further head-scratching, Vermont ranks among the nation's worst in turning over mental health records to the background check system.

State law details

John Lott, who has conducted extensive research on the link between gun laws and crime rates, said he has examined 13 kinds of gun-control laws, but one that stands out as reducing crime is concealed-carry.

"What you see is the states that issue the most [concealed-carry] permits have the most drops in violent crime," he said. "When states pass carry laws, some criminals stop committing crimes, some criminals switch to other types of crimes and some criminals move out of the area."

He said that a deep dive into data is essential to understanding why different regions of the country see different results. Mr. Lott pointed to Texas and Pennsylvania, both of which are right-to-carry states, but he explained that the permitting process is much more expensive in Texas.

"If I have a $140 fee versus a $20 fee, I'm more likely to get suburban white males," he said. However, he noted, "poor blacks in high-crime areas benefit the most from carrying a gun."

"Those differences make a huge difference in how many people go through the process to get the permit," he concluded.

Still, the two large states had mixed results in crime rates in 2011. According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, Pennsylvania had higher rates of robberies and homicides committed with firearms than Texas, while the Lone Star State had nearly half again as many gun assaults per 100,000 population.

Changing patterns

The Brady Campaign declined a request for comment, but David Chipman, a former agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who now works with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said that linking gun laws and background check compliance with crime rates is risky ˘ particularly since 40 percent of gun transactions are private sales that don't require background checks.

"Requiring a criminal background check for every gun in every circumstance is something not yet tried," he said. "How do you measure prevention? It's tough to do a double-blind test."

Mr. Chipman also pointed to Virginia's first-of-its-kind 1989 law creating an instant check system ˘ the Virginia Firearms Transaction Program ˘ as an example of a law that had a tangible effect on criminal behavior and the gun market.

"When Virginia passed that law, all of the New Yorkers who used to come down ˘ they never came back and tried to buy the guns themselves in the store," he said. "They were forced to use straw purchasers, and many of them went to other states.

"Did it immediately prevent all gun trafficking? Of course not. But it sure changed it," he said.

In 1991, the ATF reported that 40 percent of more than 1,200 guns recovered at crime scenes in New York were traced to Virginia, though gun rights advocates dispute the data. In 2011, 407 guns out of almost 9,000 guns recovered and traced in New York came from Virginia, according to the agency ˘ about 5 percent.

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, co-chairman of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, also argues that some specific changes can lower crime rates. He told the U.S. Conference of Mayors last week that after Colorado closed its loophole allowing private dealers to sell guns without conducting background checks, fewer Colorado-sold guns turned up at crime scenes.

He also said that in states that require background checks on all sales, 38 percent less women are fatally shot by their boyfriends and husbands.

He also cited a recent Duke University study that showed once a severely mentally ill person's records are turned over to the background check system, that person is 31 percent less likely to be convicted of a violent crime.