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1. Bloomberg threw a party and no one showed up
2. VCDL President to be on WRVA (Richmond AM 1140) today (Friday)
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1. Bloomberg threw a party and no one showed up
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The hapless Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, held his "No More Names" bus tour in several cities in Virginia over the last few days: Roanoke, Tidewater, and Richmond. The tour is very secretive, keeping its location and times under tight wraps until about 36 hours before an event.
Why the secrecy? Bloomberg hates the First Amendment almost as much as he hates the Second Amendment. He knows that if we show up with logic and reason, his side sounds stupid. So he tries to lock us out by giving us very little notice of his events.
At all three recent stops in Virginia, the turnout was minuscule - from two people to a maximum of around 15. The press helped out Bloomberg by doing very tight shots of the antis and NOT panning the nonexistent "crowd."
No one is buying what Bloomberg is selling, but he continues to throw money at this farce. He's determined to go after our guns and VCDL is determined that he will fail.
In Richmond today, with almost no notice, eight gun owners showed up to give our side of the story to the media (I had a doctor's appointment, but did email a statement to Channel 6, per their request.)
VCDL Member Paul Henick was interviewed by Channel 12 and had two short, but good, sound bites. Board member Dale Welch was standing behind Henick during the interview, but didn't speak.
It appears that Bloomberg's bus will now slink out of Virginia and head to some other unfortunate state.
Oh, and a new poll shows that Bloomberg is unpopular in Virginia and that he should leave Virginia's gun laws alone. What a surprise!
Channel 12 coverage [VIDEO]:
http://tinyurl.com/lj5f5zl
or
http://www.nbc12.com/story/23232731/fat ... n-richmond
--
Survey with bad news for Bloomberg:
http://tinyurl.com/jwhuucs
or
http://www.630wpro.com/common/more.php? ... 40A&mode=2
Virginia to NY Mayor Bloomberg: Stay Out of It
(WASHINGTON) -- Most Virginians think New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg should keep his comments on gun control to himself, according to a new poll.
Bloomberg, one of the nations most outspoken (and wealthiest) advocates for gun control, last month cited Virginia as a leading source of crime guns in New York. In 2011, 90 percent of the 2,433 traceable guns used in New York City crimes came from outside of New York State, Bloomberg and city officials said.
A minor, Virginia vs. New York City spat ensued.
Republican Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnells office responded by claiming lower crime rates in Virginia than in New York City, the New York Daily News reported.
We wish the mayor well as he attempts to address these issues within his home state and we hope he wont hesitate to call on us if our law enforcement agencies can be of assistance in ensuring public safety in New York City, McDonnell spokeswoman Taylor Kenney told the newspapers Dan Friedman.
Most Virginian respondents told Quinnipiac University that Bloomberg should stay out of their states issues.
According to Quinnipiacs Aug. 14-19 poll of Virginians, 52 percent said Mayor Bloomberg should not get involved in Virginia issues, while 43 percent said the Virginia legislature should try to address this issue, when given the choice of which more closely reflected their views.
Unsurprisingly, most Democrats (67 percent) sided with Bloomberg, while most GOP respondents (74 percent) sided against him. [PVC: Odd that so many Democrats like Bloomberg - he left the Democrat Party years ago.]
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Times-Dispatch coverage:
http://tinyurl.com/msoufhx
or
http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/local ... a8900.html
In Richmond, father of Newtown victim urges universal background checks
BY MARK BOWES Richmond Times-Dispatch
The father of a young boy fatally shot in the Newtown massacre last year stopped in Richmond on Thursday as part of a No More Names national bus tour to drum up support for universal background checks for gun purchases. [PVC: Which would have made NO difference in the Newtown incident where his son was killed.]
Its something that shouldnt have happened, said Neil Heslin, whose 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, was one of 20 students and six adults fatally shot at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Its something that cant happen again. Its something thats got to be changed, and we can help prevent that. [PVC: Arming faculty and staff would have probably saved his son, though.]
Speaking to a sparse crowd perhaps 15 local supporters Heslin said one of the simplest things that could be done to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands is for Congress to pass legislation that would expand background checks for all firearm transactions, including private sales.
Background checks are not something thats treading on anybodys Second Amendment rights, he added. It has nothing to do with taking guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.
Echoing a repeated complaint from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose Mayors Against Illegal Guns organization is sponsoring the 25-state national bus tour, Heslin said many guns that show up on the streets of New York and are used in crimes come from Virginia and North Carolina. Background checks would help cut down on that, he said. [PVC: NO, it would not. Most of those guns are either stolen or bought using a straw purchase.]
In a news release distributed at a rally in Byrd Park, Mayors Against Illegal Guns citing ATF data said the number of guns sold by Virginia firearms dealers in 2009 that were trafficked to other states and recovered at crime scenes was 130 percent more than the national average and 422 percent more than in states that require background checks for private handgun sales. The number of firearms was not provided. [PVC: I'm not buying their statistics. The whole things smacks of "cherry picking" the data.]
Eleven people, nine from the Richmond area, stood behind Heslin as a show of support and held signs that read, Guns kill our children, Demand Action to End gun violence, and An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
The group then began reading a long list of names of people killed with firearms since the Dec. 14, 2012, Newtown killings.
The reading of victims names has drawn some criticism nationally. At one of the earlier stops in New Hampshire this year, the name of slain Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaevs name was read out, prompting several protesters to shout, Hes a terrorist!
The Washington Examiner, a conservative publication, reported in mid-June that one in 12 of the shooting victims on the list were killed by police or armed citizens in self-defense. A review of 617 killings found that 50 were suspects in crimes ranging from assault to murder, the Examiner reported.
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 to 15 percent of the names that they are reading off are people who were killed while committing a crime with the use of a handgun, said Paul Henick, a member of the Virginia Citizens Defense League and one of about eight gun-rights supporters who attended the event. These were people who put others in harms way and the only way to stop them was by use of lethal force.
Henick said hes not opposed to background checks. But he believes their expansion wouldnt have saved more than a very small handful of all the people theyre talking about including the domestic violence and homicides with guns that were mentioned. [PVC: And I believe that Henick is being very generous.]
Thursdays rally in Richmond coincidentally fell on the same day that a new Quinnipiac University poll was released that showed a majority of Virginia voters dont like the New York mayor getting involved in Virginia issues related to guns.
Quinnipiac asked voters about Bloombergs claim that many of the guns used in crimes in that city come from Virginia. The poll asked whether the Virginia legislature should try to address the issue or if Bloomberg should stay out of Virginia issues.
Fifty-two percent said Bloomberg should not get involved in Virginia issues, while 43 percent said the state legislature should try to address Bloombergs guns claim.
The sizable splits on this question across political, racial and gender lines largely reflect the division of opinion in Virginia and the country on gun-control matters, said Peter A. Brown, director of The Quinnipiac Polling Institute.
Jim Bennett of Richmond, who showed up at the rally in support of tighter gun regulations, said hes not opposed to people having or using guns.
Im opposed to the stupidity that ensues when almost anybody can walk around with a gun at any time, he said. [PVC: Sounds like he doesn't have a high opinion of police, who walk around with guns any time and anywhere.] And Im opposed to a lack of response by our legislators. I think theyve given in too easily to the NRA lobby.
Bennett said the existing background-check system needs to be overhauled. There should be much more oversight of gun transfers selling between people, he said. The right to own a gun doesnt trump everybody elses right to be safe.
The Rev. David Knight, an Episcopal priest whose 21-year-old son was slain with a gun 16 years ago during a botched robbery at a Friendlys restaurant in Henrico County, agrees.
Were not trying to take peoples guns away, Knight said at the rally. I think we can be united as a country in preventing gun violence. Its not about gun control, its more about commonsense gun-safety legislation.
But Knight wasnt sure whether the proposed measures would have saved his sons life.
Its a hard question to answer, he said. Jamies shooter bought his gun illegally in a 7-Eleven parking lot out of the trunk of somebodys car. [PVC: It's actually easy to answer - universal background checks won't save lives, but will make it harder for the law-abiding to sell their guns.]
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2. VCDL President to be on WRVA (Richmond AM 1140) today (Friday)
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I've been invited to be on WRVA today during the Lee Brothers Show. Their show runs from 3 PM until 6 PM. I don't know yet what time I'll be on.
It's always fun being on the air with those two guys. I'm looking forward to it.
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VA-ALERT is a project of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc.
(VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization
dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to
Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.
VCDL web page: http://www.vcdl.org [http://www.vcdl.org/]
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