VA-ALERT: VCDL Update 10/13/13

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VA-ALERT: VCDL Update 10/13/13
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Not yet a VCDL member? Join VCDL at: http://www.vcdl.org/join
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VCDL's meeting schedule: http://www.vcdl.org/meetings
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Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html
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Thought for the day: (Referring to the recent Navy Yard shooting in DC) "Why is it we declare all those killed to be heroes after they die but they
can't be trusted to carry guns to prevent such atrocities?" - Mark Levin.

1. A second miscarriage of justice on brandishing? Time to change the law
2. Supper meeting in Vinton this Tuesday!
3. Gabby Gifford's group wants to influence elections in Virginia against gun owners
4. How many must die in gun free zones before we learn?
5. WP Op-Ed: Another mass murder, another conversation
6. WP Op-Ed: The real Navy Yard scandal
7. Miller: New York Times corrects AR-15 Navy Yard story, still misses the mark
8. Two bystanders wounded in police shooting on crowded street in midtown Manhattan
9. Maryland: State Police release confidential application information to other state agencies
10. Democrats split on new gun control push
11. CNN: Gun control is not the answer
12. Gun Control? We don't have the votes, says Reid
13. LTE: Stick to the facts in debate over guns in Va.
14. Virginia's "stand your ground" law in action - or maybe not
15. Who needs a gun in the front yard?
16. Who needs a gun in church?
17. Gun article by Harvard Law Review is not what it seems
18. Maryland's restrictive gun laws drive dealer to Pennsylvania to make a living
19. Weekly gun rights column featured in the Fairfax Free Citizen
20. Chicago: 23 shot, including a 3-year old boy, over 24 hour period
21. Gun crime in the UK?
22. Gun-friendly coffee shop in Midlothian


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1. A second miscarriage of justice on brandishing? Time to change the law
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Unbelievably, a jury of seven people on appeal has convicted member Graham Corry on a charge of brandishing. He was given no jail time, but a fine of $1,500 (on top of court costs, legal costs, and having lost his job over the arrest.)

Graham moved a gun one place to another in his vehicle at a stop light and inserted a magazine in the gun as he was doing so. A private school bus driver saw Graham and claimed to be frightened. So terribly frightened that it took him two days to bother calling the police about it.

For those who want to contribute to help Graham with his legal costs, you can do so by clicking here:

http://tinyurl.com/nwn4vcj

Meanwhile, the VCDL Board has decided it is beyond time to fix Virginia's brandishing statute to prevent this kind of travesty from happening again. We are currently preparing a bill for the General Assembly session in January.

Here is news coverage of the story:

From timesdispatch.com: http://tinyurl.com/oek97th

Gun appeal doesn’t sway Henrico jury
BY BILL McKELWAY Richmond Times-Dispatch

On the evening of April 9, Liverpudlian Graham Corry was headed westbound on Patterson Avenue singing along to a rock version of “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead.”

The Henrico County resident, 46, was on his way to a dinner meeting in Chesterfield County of advocates of open-carry gun laws. Inside the glove box of his Subaru, Corry had a semiautomatic .45 caliber Springfield handgun.

On the witness stand Thursday in Henrico Circuit Court, and in front of a two-man, five-woman jury, Corry testified that his encounter that evening with a Collegiate School athletic bus carrying eight baseball players was not what police or the bus driver thought it was.

A dashboard camera in Corry’s car captured the sound of Corry warbling away, and of him passing the bus on the left with its left turn signal blinking before coming to a stop at the stoplight at Parham Road.

Apologizing to the jury for the sound of his singing voice, Corry, 46, described how at the light he pulled the weapon from the glove box, shifted it to his left hand, and inserted a magazine into the handle.

“To my mind,” he testified in his thick British accent, “I was holding the firearm in front of my body hiding it from view.”

He said he chose to load the gun then because he was alone and no one was watching; he would avoid frightening passers-by in the parking lot at the dinner meeting.

But Collegiate School baseball coach Nathan Goodwyn was watching. He was in the driver’s seat of the team bus and was stunned, he testified, when he came to a stop behind Corry’s Subaru. Corry, he said, glared at him through Corry’s side-view mirror and demonstrably held the weapon in sight, inserted the magazine and then pointed the weapon upward.

Days later, Henrico police arrested Corry for brandishing a firearm, a misdemeanor that involves displaying a weapon in a threatening manner.

Goodwyn testified that he considered Corry’s actions threatening and felt “the whole busload of boys” was potentially in danger. He testified he assumed Corry was upset because the bus was trying to enter the left lane where Corry’s car was, and that Corry had to speed up rather than yield to the bus.

“He was in fear not only for himself but for the eight students on the bus,” prosecutor Timothy Dustan said of Goodwyn. Corry’s lawyer countered that Goodwyn was upset the team had lost a game against St. Christopher’s School that afternoon and was overly frustrated.

Corry was convicted earlier this year of brandishing, and for Thursday’s appeal he was accompanied to court by open-carry advocates.

A daylong trial and an hour’s jury deliberation Thursday produced another guilty verdict and a recommendation of no jail time and a $1,500 fine. A judge, though, agreed to suspend the sentence when Daniel Hawes, Corry’s lawyer, noted an immediate appeal.

Corry, however, will lose his concealed handgun permit.

Hawes said after court that the case should force changes in Virginia law dealing with brandishing a firearm. The law too easily allows someone unreasonably fearful over a weapon’s presence in public to argue that the weapon represents a threat, he said.

And as for Corry’s singalong to the “The Wizard of Oz” tune?

The rock version became a British hit when former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died earlier this year, the day before Corry had his run-in with the school bus.


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2. Supper meeting in Vinton this Tuesday!
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There will be a VCDL supper meeting at:

Famous Anthony's
323 E Virginia Ave
Vinton, VA 24179

The meeting is this Tuesday, October15. Fellowship starts at 6:30 PM--food ordered from the menu at 7 PM.

Speaker to be announced. Meeting is open to all VCDL members; families and guests who may desire to attend. A RSVP is asked to be sure seating and wait staff are available.

RSVP to:

al@vcdl.org

Please include the number in your party.


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3. Gabby Gifford's group wants to influence elections in Virginia against gun owners
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The antis want to make an example out of Virginia. They want to show what next year's elections will be like for the whole country. They are pouring tons of money into Virginia to influence our elections. Their goal is that Virginia will be led by those who hate both guns and their owners.

Elections are in a few short weeks and the stakes for Virginia and the country couldn't be higher. We may not have chosen to be right in the middle of this battle, but here we are and we must fight harder than ever to get the right people elected.

Let's make sure that Gabby and Bloomberg's money all goes to waste. Every last penny of it. This isn't some stupid game to be played by the rich and the elite - this is OUR liberty and the liberty of our children yet unborn.

From politico.com: http://tinyurl.com/l552hb7

Gabrielle Giffords group to join in Virginia races
By ALEXANDER BURNS | 10/9/13 8:44 PM EDT

The Gabrielle Giffords-backed group Americans for Responsible Solutions will invest heavily in the final weeks of Virginia’s off-year elections and is poised to launch a campaign program targeting the statewide races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, POLITICO has learned.

The gun control advocacy organization — founded by Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman, and her husband Mark Kelly — will spend at least what it takes to counter the half-million-dollar campaign the National Rifle Association has announced in the state, an ARS source said.

The ARS campaign begins this week with a mailer criticizing GOP gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli’s record on guns. The group will send fresh mailers every few days between now and the Nov. 5 election, focusing most heavily on the governor’s race but also going after Republican state Sen. Mark Obenshain, the GOP nominee for attorney general, and lieutenant governor candidate E.W. Jackson.

ARS executive director Pia Carusone said the sustained effort will make sure that Virginians weigh gun issues among the factors deciding their votes.

“When Virginia voters will go the polls in 26 days, they will have a choice between statewide candidates who support common sense measures to reduce gun violence and those who needlessly defend the extreme views of the gun lobby at the expense of public safety,” she said. “ARS is proud to stand with our thousands of VA members in supporting candidates who stand up to wealthy lobby groups and have the courage to do what is right.”

The mailers will vary in content but they will be most directly aimed at independent women voters, and they’ll address topics including the Republican candidates’ opposition to expanded background checks, Cuccinelli’s lack of support for the Violence Against Women Act, and Cuccinelli and Obenshain’s record of voting in the Virginia legislature to remove restrictions on the purchasing and carrying of firearms in locations including bars and restaurants.

Cuccinelli has not shied away from touting his record on guns, and in the most recent debate criticized Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe for receiving an F rating from the NRA. Richard Cullen, a spokesman for the Cuccinelli campaign, gave no ground in response to the new ARS initiative.

“Ken Cuccinelli is proud of his A rating from the National Rifle Association, and while he has supported legislation to make it tougher for criminals and the mentally ill to obtain firearms, he will always stand up for Virginians’ Second Amendment rights,” Cullen said. “Terry McAuliffe, by contrast, is the only statewide candidate in Virginia who has earned an F rating by the NRA.”

An ARS strategist said the decision to focus on Virginia reflected the sharp contrast on gun issues between the candidate slates in both parties, as well as the potential for producing a statewide Democratic sweep for the first time in decades. The group reviewed polling in both Virginia and New Jersey — the other state holding a governor’s race this year — and concluded that Virginia was the better place to invest.

The debut ARS mail piece, shared Wednesday evening with POLITICO, includes a black-and-white photo of a hand gripping a pistol and charges: “Ken Cuccinelli’s stubborn opposition to almost all gun safety laws is allowing criminals, child abusers and the dangerously mentally ill to get their hands on guns.”

This isn’t the first time a major national gun control group has engaged in a Virginia governor’s race: in 2009, the Michael Bloomberg-backed organization Americans United for Safe Streets ran TV ads against now-Gov. Bob McDonnell for his record on guns. McDonnell went on to win his race by a large margin.

In this year’s election, Cuccinelli currently trails McAuliffe in public polling; a POLITICO poll released this week showed McAuliffe leading by 9 points. Of the other two statewide races, the attorney general race between Obenshain and Democratic state Sen. Mark Herring is viewed as far closer than the lieutenant governor election, which has Jackson competing against Democrat Ralph Northam, also a state senator.


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4. How many must die in gun free zones before we learn?
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From The Washington Times: http://tinyurl.com/oa8m72f

By Judson Phillips
September 16, 2013

WASHINGTON. September 16, 2013. - Why in God's name do we make our military people so vulnerable that they have to rely on the DC police today?

Confusion swirled around the shootings at the Washington Naval Yard today. Was it one gunman or was it several? How did this gunman or gunmen get access to a secured military facility? How did one rifle and possibly one shotgun get onto a secured military facility?

Over the next few days these questions will be answered but there is one question that must be answered.

When will we learn from these tragedies?

The early reports about the shooting talked about the police officers that responded to the shooting. At least two cops are among the victims.

Let's think about this for a second.

The United States Navy is one of the most powerful military organizations in the world. The Navy's arsenal could wipe most nations off the face of the earth. It was the Navy that killed Osama Bin Laden.

So why was one of our most important Naval facilities so vulnerable?

It is because it was made a gun free zone.

Like Washington D.C., one of the crime capitols of America, the Washington Navy Yard was a gun free zone. Translation: It was a target rich environment.

The United States Navy is actually made up of two parts. The first is the Navy, the other part is the United States Marine Corps.

The Marines advertise themselves as "The Few, The Proud, The Marines." They have a storied history of fighting incredible battles against overwhelming odds. Before political correctness killed it, the Marines used to refer to themselves as the "Mens' Department of the Navy."

Marines and a lot of sailors are trained to use weapons.

This is Fort Hood all over again.

At Fort Hood, Nidal Hasan burst in on soldiers preparing to deploy. Even though many of these soldiers were combat trained, they were not allowed to carry weapons at Fort Hood.

Hasan was only stopped when he was shot by civilian police officers on the base.

Now we have seen the same tragedy revisited at the Washington Navy Yard.

These tragedies are not simply limited to Fort Hood and the Washington Naval Yard. When a crazy gunman wants to go on a rampage, where do they choose to go on their rampage? They choose a gun free zone. Columbine was a gun free zone. So was Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook.

The problem in America is not too many guns. The problem is we listen to politicians who should not even be entrusted to decide what is for dinner. We have seen this pattern too often.

Politicians, many of whom are protected by armed men, disarm Americans and make us victims.

The cold, hard truth is when Americans are armed they can fight back and shootings like Fort Hood and the Navy Yard would not happen. Our founding fathers understood this.

How many more times are we going to let the politicians be wrong before we the people stand up and tell them no?


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5. WP Op-Ed: Another mass murder, another conversation
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Member Ken Marshall sent me this:

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From The Washington Post: http://tinyurl.com/m4ddyx3

By Kathleen Parker
September 17, 2013

About 30 years ago as a young reporter in Florida, I was assigned a series on gun control in response to gun violence, which had peaked in the United States in 1980.

I began the series with profiles of three gun users: a woman who had killed her would-be rapist, the owner of a sport-shooting club and a convicted murderer on death row at the Florida State Prison in Starke.

Most dramatic was the woman, who was attacked as she entered her apartment after work one evening. She had just moved in and boxes were stacked floor-to-ceiling, nary a broom nor a pot to use in self-defense.

In her panic, she suddenly remembered the small derringer in her purse, which still hung over her shoulder. Already the man had her pinned against the wall. Reaching into her bag, she grabbed the gun, pressed it to his side and boom! He died instantly. To my question, she replied: "Hell, yes, I'd do it again in a New York minute."

Or words to that effect.

Most chilling was the murderer, whose name I no longer recall. I do remember that his fingertips were oddly flared and he pressed them together, expanding and contracting his hands like a bellows. No doubt aware that I was nervous, he seemed amused by my questions.

"Sure," he chuckled. "I'm all for gun control. Because that means you won't have a gun. And I will always have a gun."

All of which is to say, the conversation we're having today about how to avert the next act of gun violence is nothing new. Yet, we seem always to fall into the same pro-con template when a fresh shooting occurs.

Before we knew the name of the shooter who killed 12 civilians at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday, social media were atwitter with the usual exclamations:

More gun control!

Guns don't kill, people do!

It is easy to become cynical when there's nothing new to say and when, we know, nothing new will come of it. Gun-control activists will push harder for tighter restrictions; Second Amendment champions will push back. The National Rifle Association will prevail.

Hit repeat.

Despite the redundancy of our renditions, there are some differences in gun violence today and that of more than three decades ago. Even though firearm deaths have decreased, the recent rash of spree killings - five incidents this year alone - justifies a heightened level of concern. Nearly 70 mass shootings have occurred since 1982, according to Mother Jones, 28 of them in just the past seven years. Half of the 12 deadliest mass shootings have occurred since 2005.

Even so, for the sake of perspective, these represent a tiny fraction of total gun deaths. They're more horrific, so we take greater notice. But they represent less than 1?percent of all gun deaths between 1980 and 2008, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Indeed, nearly two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides (19,392 of a total of 31,672 in the United States in 2010).

In other words, the reflex to make tougher laws may be missing more important points. This isn't to say we shouldn't consider imposing restrictions on who owns guns, but as my guy in Starke suggested, there's little comfort in forcing law-abiding citizens to submit to tighter controls knowing that criminals will not.

As for the crazies who go on killing sprees, rules rarely apply.

Thus, what we're really fighting about in our national debate about guns is how to stop mentally ill people from wreaking havoc on society. And what are the causes that lead to the breakdowns that lead to the slaughter?

No wonder we'd rather limit magazine sizes.

Much more difficult to process and "fix" are the multitude of factors that lead a sick person to seek company in death. What we know about such people is that they tend to be loners and narcissists (low self-esteem, lacking in empathy, quick to take offense and blame others) who act impulsively and seek attention (and revenge) in dramatic and public ways.

That we have more such characters than we used to - or that they seem more inclined to act on their impulses - may have less to do with guns than with underlying cultural causes. No, I'm not singling out video games or family dissolution or any other single factor, though none should be excluded.

If we don't take a serious look at the environment that spawns these individuals, we'll likely be having this same conversation another 30 years from now.


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6. WP Op-Ed: The real Navy Yard scandal
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Member James Durso sent me this:

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From The Washington Post: http://tinyurl.com/n4l4fxl

By Charles Krauthammer
September 19, 2013

In the liberal remake of "Casablanca," the police captain comes upon the scene of the shooting and orders his men to "round up the usual weapons."

It's always the weapon and never the shooter. Twelve people are murdered in a rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, and before sundown Sen. Dianne Feinstein has called for yet another debate on gun violence. Major opprobrium is heaped on the AR-15, the semiautomatic used in the Newtown massacre.

Turns out no AR-15 was used at the Navy Yard. And the shotgun that was used was obtained legally in Virginia after the buyer, Aaron Alexis, had passed both a state and federal background check.

As was the case in the Tucson shooting - instantly politicized into a gun-control and (fabricated) tea-party-climate-of-violence issue - the origin of this crime lies not in any politically expedient externality but in the nature of the shooter.

On Aug. 7, that same Alexis had called police from a Newport, R.I., Marriott. He was hearing voices. Three people were following him, he told the cops. They were sending microwaves through walls, making his skin vibrate and preventing him from sleeping. He had already twice changed hotels to escape the men, the radiation, the voices.

Delusions, paranoid ideation, auditory (and somatic) hallucinations: the classic symptoms of schizophrenia.

So here is this panic-stricken soul, psychotic and in terrible distress. And what does modern policing do for him? The cops tell him to "stay away from the individuals that are following him." Then they leave.

But the three "individuals" were imaginary, for God's sake. This is how a civilized society deals with a man in such a state of terror?

Had this happened 35 years ago in Boston, Alexis would have been brought to me as the psychiatrist on duty at the emergency room of the Massachusetts General Hospital. Were he as agitated and distressed as in the police report, I probably would have administered an immediate dose of Haldol, the most powerful fast-acting antipsychotic of the time.

This would generally have relieved the hallucinations and delusions, a blessing not only in itself, but also for the lucidity brought on that would have allowed him to give us important diagnostic details - psychiatric history, family history, social history, medical history, etc. If I had thought he could be sufficiently cared for by family or friends to receive regular oral medication, therapy and follow-up, I would have discharged him. Otherwise, I'd have admitted him. And if he refused, I'd have ordered a 14-day involuntary commitment.

Sounds cruel? On the contrary. For many people living on park benches, commitment means a warm bed, shelter and three hot meals a day. For Alexis, it would have meant the beginning of a treatment regimen designed to bring him back to himself before discharging him to a world heretofore madly radioactive.

That's what a compassionate society does. It would no more abandon this man to fend for himself than it would a man suffering a stroke. And as a side effect, that compassion might even extend to potential victims of his psychosis - in the event, remote but real, that he might someday burst into some place of work and kill 12 innocent people.

Instead, what happened? The Newport police sent their report to the local naval station, where it promptly disappeared into the ether. Alexis subsequently twice visited VA hospital ERs, but without any florid symptoms of psychosis and complaining only of sleeplessness, the diagnosis was missed. (He was given a sleep medication.) He fell back through the cracks.

True, psychiatric care is underfunded and often scarce. But Alexis had full access to the VA system. The problem here was not fiscal but political and, yes, even moral.

I know the civil libertarian arguments. I know that involuntary commitment is outright paternalism. But paternalism is essential for children because they don't have a fully developed rational will. Do you think Alexis was in command of his will that night in Newport?

We cannot, of course, be cavalier about commitment. We should have layers of review, albeit rapid. But it's both cruel and reckless to turn loose people as lost and profoundly suffering as Alexis, even apart from any potential dangerousness.

More than half of those you see sleeping on grates have suffered mental illness. It's a national scandal. It's time we recalibrated the pendulum that today allows the mentally ill to die with their rights on - and, rarely but unforgivably, take a dozen innocents with them.


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7. Miller: New York Times corrects AR-15 Navy Yard story, still misses the mark
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EM John Pierce sent me this:

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From The Washington Times: http://tinyurl.com/o7mklag

By Emily Miller
September 20, 2013

After two days, the New York Times finally corrected its story claiming Virginia state law blocked Aaron Alexis from buying an AR-15 rifle before his rampage at the Navy Yard. The article, however, still is not accurate.

On Tuesday, I wrote that the Times was part of the widespread effort in the liberal media to tie the AR-15 rifle to the mass murder or 12 innocent people in Washington on Monday.

The headline was - and is - "State Law Stopped Gunman From Buying Rifle, Officials Say."

It said that the gunman was stopped from buying an AR-15 "because state law there prohibits the sale of such weapons to out-of-state buyers, according to two senior law enforcement officials."

In fact, there is no residency requirement in federal or state law for purchase of shotguns or rifles.

The New York Times issued a correction on Thursday, but did not change the text of the article, so a reader would have to go all the way to the end to know the whole first paragraph and headline are wrong.

The correction at the end read: "An earlier version of this article, using information from senior law enforcement officials, referred incorrectly to Virginia state gun law. Out-of-state buyers must provide additional forms of identification to purchase a high capacity AR-15 rifle; the laws do not prohibit the sales of all AR-15 rifles to all out-of-state buyers."

This is still not fully accurate: Virginia requires that any buyer of "assault rifles"' - whether residents of the commonwealth or not - show proof of U.S. citizenship.

The bigger issue is that the New York Times continues to give readers the impression that Alexis wanted to buy the rifle, but was only stopped by some type of gun-control law.

The truth is that Alexis never tried to buy a rifle, nor a handgun at Sharpshooters Small Arms range last weekend. He only tried to buy a Remington 870 pump-action shotgun, which he was able to do after passing both the federal and state background checks.

That detail didn't stop most in the liberal media.

From the New York Daily News cover Tuesday saying the Aaron used the AR-15 in the killing to CNN's Piers Morgan repeatedly citing the weapon as the cause of death on Monday night's show, the left-wing media has done everything it could to demonize the weapon in order to build support for a federal "assault weapon" ban.

The public deserves to be given accurate information from journalists so they can decide for themselves if a crazy, evil person is to blame for the Navy Yard tragedy or a specific type of firearm.


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8. Two bystanders wounded in police shooting on crowded street in midtown Manhattan
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Member Bill Watkins sent me this:

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From Fox News: http://tinyurl.com/kv8pe9d

September 15, 2013

NEW YORK - NYPD officers fired three shots on a crowded Manhattan street near Times Square on Saturday night, missing the man they believed had a weapon but striking two bystanders, police said.

The incident happened just before 10 p.m. at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue near the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

Police said officers saw a man on foot weaving erratically through traffic and sometimes blocking vehicles. After approaching him, police said, the man reached into his pocket as if grabbing a weapon, and two officers fired a total of three shots. They missed him but struck a 54-year-old woman in the right knee and a grazed a 35-year-old woman in the buttocks, police said.

The women were taken to hospitals, where they both were listed in stable condition, according to police. Neither had injuries considered life threatening, police said.

The man was taken into custody after a police sergeant subdued him with a Taser. No weapons were found on him.

Police said the 35-year-old suspect was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was in stable condition. They described him as "emotionally disturbed."

Police did not release the names of the women or the man in custody.


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9. Maryland: State Police release confidential application information to other state agencies
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Maryland seems a little lackadaisical about how they handle sensitive information about gun owners. Not surprising for a state that has no respect for gun owners in the first place.


A VCDL member in Maryland sent me this:

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From The Daily Caller / NRA-ILA: http://tinyurl.com/pc376r8

September 9, 2013

As directed by Governor Martin O'Malley (D), the Maryland State Police (MSP) released confidential firearms purchase application information to employees of four other state agencies in a misguided attempt to move forward in clearing the backlog of unprocessed 77R applications this weekend.

On Saturday and Sunday, state employees from the Departments of Human Resources, Health and Mental Hygiene, Transportation and Juvenile Services were given compensatory time off in exchange for entering confidential personal information including name, birth date and, in some cases, social security numbers of potential gun owners in Maryland into a database in an effort to expedite completion of background checks on applicants.

According to the statement released by the MSP on Saturday evening, these employees were asked to sign confidentiality agreements. However, this is hardly reassuring to the persons whose private information was released without their consent. The employees of the MSP licensing division, who typically complete background checks pursuant to a 77R application, undergo extensive background checks prior to hiring, sometimes even rising to the level of polygraph examinations. There is no reason to believe that any of the employees tasked with this database entry action were subject to the same level of scrutiny before being handed the private, personally identifying information of thousands of law-abiding Maryland citizens.

The NRA-ILA will continue to monitor and report on the MSP's actions in this case and the firearms purchase backlog in Maryland as it continues to delay your Second Amendment rights, including your inherent right to self-defense.

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From Maryland State Police: http://tinyurl.com/k73meuo
September 12, 2013

News Release

STATE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS JOINING FORCES TO ASSIST WITH FIREARM PURCHASE APPLICATION INVESTIGATIONS

(PIKESVILLE, MD) - State law enforcement officers are joining with the Maryland State Police to conduct background investigations for firearm purchase applicants, as efforts continue to eliminate the backlog as soon as possible.

The new initiative will begin Monday, September 16th, with a combined team of as many as 20 additional police officers from the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, Natural Resources Police, Maryland Transit Administration Police, and the Maryland Capital Police, who will be joining with members of the Maryland State Police. Their assignment will be to conduct firearm purchase application background investigations. By law, these investigations are required to be conducted by police officers and supervised by the Maryland State Police.

The additional police team will be working out of a Maryland State Police office in Columbia, Md. State Police personnel have equipped the office with additional computer stations and phone lines.

This initiative is part of the ongoing effort by the Maryland State Police to address the backlog of firearm purchase applications. Applicant data for each purchase application has already been converted to electronic form as a result of the assistance provided by data entry personnel from five state agencies earlier this week. This means the additional team of police officers will be able to immediately commence background investigations.

State Police anticipate the assistance of the additional team of officers will be needed until the backlog of firearm purchase applications is eliminated. The goal of this initiative is to eliminate the backlog of purchase applications while doing everything possible to ensure firearms are not obtained by prohibited persons.

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From ZDNet.com: http://tinyurl.com/lntf9f8

By Larry Seltzer
September 17, 2013

Securing data can be hard work. It can be complicated. It can be expensive. And then sometimes you see people putting so little effort into it that there's just no excuse.

An example of this was sent to me by a reader. In anticipation of new gun control laws scheduled to take effect October 1, tens of thousands of citizens of Maryland applied for gun permits, which requires a background check.

The Maryland State Police, charged with performing the background checks, don't have the resources to do it soon enough, and, according to the Baltimore Sun, "Gov. Martin O'Malley said ... that the state is mustering all necessary resources" to complete the task in time.

"Mustering all necessary resources" in this case means "cutting corners."

First the state scanned the forms. Then, in order to expand access to the data necessary to perform the background checks to over 200 data entry personnel in non-law enforcement agencies, the state set up a publicly-accessible web site with a single shared username and password.

The data entered in the site included driver's license numbers, social security numbers, addresses and other personally identifying information.

The site is no longer publicly-accessible, but the cat is out of the bag.

The Baltimore Sun article linked to above did not recognize any privacy issue. It focuses only on the problem of the backlog, which is certainly a problem, but it also underscores the lack of general concern for the privacy problem.


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10. Democrats split on new gun control push
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Member James Durso sent me this:

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From The Hill: http://tinyurl.com/n68ro2u

By Alexander Bolton
September 18, 2013

Congressional Democrats are divided on whether to renew their push for gun control in the wake of Monday's deadly shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.

Hours after Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday called for action on gun legislation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he won't seek a new vote.

Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who aggressively pushed his background check bill earlier this year, is skeptical that the upper chamber will revisit his measure.

As reports emerged that a former Navy reservist with a history of mental illness had fatally shot a dozen people, it appeared to give fresh impetus to the move for more gun control.

"It should be a call to action," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), an outspoken advocate of gun control legislation after the mass killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School in his state.

Durbin, who is Reid's top deputy, suggested on Tuesday morning that a measure to expand background checks - which the Senate defeated in April - might have prevented the shooting.

"God forbid this becomes so commonplace we don't stop and reflect and think about how to avoid it in the future," he said. "I hope some members will reconsider their opposition."

Democrats, however, facing tough reelections showed little inclination to shift their positions.

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) said he wants to wait until investigators have finished their work before reevaluating his opposition on background checks.

Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) avoided questions about his stance on gun control legislation.

Pryor and Begich voted against expanding background checks earlier this year. The other two Democrats who voted "no" were Sens. Max Baucus (Mont.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.).

The FBI on Tuesday said that Aaron Alexis, whom police have identified as the sole gunman, entered the Navy Yard with a single shotgun before killing a dozen people. Alexis purchased the gun lawfully in Virginia, the FBI said, adding that there is no information to suggest he had an assault rifle. Alexis was killed soon after he opened fire.

Some Democrats may have been chastened by the results of an election earlier this month in Colorado, where voters recalled two state senators who supported tougher restrictions on firearms. The development was especially alarming for the left because pundits say the state has been trending blue in recent years.

A Senate Democratic aide said some in his party don't want to talk about guns.

"Do vulnerable Democrats want to see this issue on the radar again? Probably not," said the aide.

But the staffer said Pryor and Begich could attempt to spin the issue to their advantage by defying President Obama and the Democratic leadership.

Gun control advocates tried to use Monday's shooting to build fresh political support for their cause.

"Our message to federal and state legislators: Strengthen and expand background checks for gun purchases and ban the military-style assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines so frequently used by mass killers," said the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence in a statement.

Manchin, who co-sponsored a measure earlier this year with Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) to expand background checks, told reporters that he has no plans to rush his bill back to the floor.

He said he did not know whether the Manchin-Toomey proposal would receive another vote during the 113thCongress, and tried to dispel the label that it's a gun control effort.

"It's not gun control," he told reporters. "This is gun sense - nothing to do about gun control."

Manchin said he first wants to be sure it will get 60 votes - enough to overcome a filibuster.

"We just have to have the support for it," he said. nbsp;

It is clear that Democrats in both the House and Senate are focused on fiscal matters at the moment. And Monday's shooting will not affect the legislative calendar.

Toomey issued a statement offering little guidance on the path forward.

"The Senate spoke on this issue and we came up five votes short. It is unclear if [Monday's] tragedy changes the atmosphere sufficiently to yield a different outcome," he said.

Reid signaled Tuesday he is not eager to revive a debate that roiled his caucus five months ago.nbsp;

"We're going to move this up as quickly as we can, but we've got to have the votes first," he told reporters. "We don't have the votes. I hope we get them, but we don't have them now."

Monday's shooting raised speculation that Senate Democrats could attempt to move legislation narrowly tailored to addressing mental illness as a cause of gun violence.But Reid said it is not possible to address mental illness without expanding background checks.

"No you can't, you have to have background checks," he said.

Reid argued Tuesday that Republicans and the gun rights lobby are primarily responsible for the legislative impasse on firearms.

"I've talked to people consistently and the thing that bothers me is the number of Republicans who say, 'Yeah, we know you're right but we can't do anything about it,' " he added, referring to the power of the National Rifle Association and other groups.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the lead sponsor of the assault weapons ban, which received only 40 votes this spring, said she wants to see Reid bring gun violence legislation back up for a vote.

"I'd be happy if he did. I'm not going to tell him he should because I don't want another loss," she said. "If I can find 20 people who want to change their minds, I'm ready to go.


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11. CNN: Gun control is not the answer
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EM Dave Hicks sent me this:

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From CNN: http://tinyurl.com/kdnuy2v

By LZ Granderson
September 18, 2013

(CNN) -- Another day, another mass shooting in America.

More blood, more tears, more knee-jerk rhetoric about finding a solution for a bunch of different problems.

Those who knew Aaron Alexis -- the shooter who killed 12 and injured eight more at the Washington Navy Yard this week -- said he was a quiet, shy man.

At one point he was studying Buddhism and meditated often.

A little more digging, and we find he had several gun-related arrests and a pattern of misconduct in the Navy, but he was honorably discharged.

Pieces of a puzzle we may never fully put together.

But the fact that there is still so much we don't know about Alexis -- or the motive behind the shootings -- won't detour gun-control advocates from lumping his story in with that of Adam Lanza, the man police say is responsible for the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, along with the victims from gang- and drug-related shootings.

This is why after the tears have dried and the blood washes away, little, if anything, will change.

Victim's friend: He was a great man

And because gun-control advocates so often try to cobble together every distinct narrative involving guns into a one-size-fits-all conversation, they are as much to blame for this merry-go-round as the gun lobbyists against whom they fight.

Gun shops are illegal in Chicago.

The city has bans on both assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. And yet each week people continue to die in the streets from gunshot wounds.

This conundrum is just one example why making note that more Americans have died from gun violence here at home since Newtown than in the nine years fighting a war in Iraq is the kind of factoid that grabs our attention but undermines the true goal: curtailing the violence.

Not all deaths involving guns are the same -- therefore trying to address each incident from the same point of view is futile. Until we learn more about Alexis -- the events leading up to the shootings and the motive -- the tragedy in Washington should not be used as catalyst for a conversation about gun control.

Instead, we should mourn and wait for more information.

Far too often assumptions surrounding the details of tragedies such as the one in Washington are made, and well-intentioned stances fall apart when additional facts come to light.

The guns James Holmes was charged with using in Aurora were purchased legally. Beyond the presence of a gun, the crimes committed in the movie theater are not at all similar to what happens in the streets of our large cities. And each time a politician or gun-control advocate tries to use these two very different examples interchangeably, the entire conversation and argument are compromised.

This happened after Newtown.

It happened after Aurora.

And it will keep continue to happen until the advocates accept that ridding the country of guns is a hopeless -- and unconstitutional mission -- and that the real goal should be addressing the factors that lead to the various forms of gun violence: factors such as poverty, mental health and failing schools.

Last month the nation breathed a sigh of relief after Antoinette Tuff, a bookkeeper in an elementary school in suburban Atlanta, prevented a man with an AK-47-type weapon and nearly 500 rounds of ammunition from hurting anyone.

It was not the time to talk generally about gun violence in this country. It was the time to discuss specifics such as cuts to mental health and its impact on services, given that the suspect, 20-year-old Michael Brandon Hill, has a long history of mental disorders. Hill's storyline is similar to that of Lanza, and there are questions whether Holmes, the admitted shooter in the Aurora movie theater, is insane.
The folks spraying our cities with bullets are not NRA members or even legal gun owners.

Public debates with Wayne LaPierre and attacks on the National Rifle Association have proven to be an ineffective way to prevent gun violence. In the wake of the Washington Navy Yard killings, perhaps a new strategy, one that doesn't involve playing on the nation's emotions or challenging the relevance of the Second Amendment, should be employed. That's not saying the NRA has won -- in fact, I think LaPierre should step down because each time he opens his mouth, he steps in it -- but at the end of the day the organization is more of an agitator than the enemy.

There is no one enemy.

Thus there is no one solution.

Because like it or not, the folks spraying our cities with bullets are not NRA members or legal gun owners. And despite the tendency to tie it all together, they have nothing to do with the Adam Lanzas of the world.

And it's too early to know how Alexis fits in the conversation.

According to a count by USA Today, more than 900 people have been killed in mass shootings since 2006. The thousands of other victims of gun violence over the past seven years died from many different circumstances, requiring different conversations.

This is why gun-control advocates need to abandon the routine of using mass shootings to turn law-abiding citizens into social pariahs and instead focus on something that could work.


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12. Gun Control? We don't have the votes, says Reid
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From examiner.com: http://tinyurl.com/mw9wxm3

By Steven H Ahle
September 19, 2013

Harry Reid has vowed to continue working on extended background checks for gun owners, but concedes that he doesn't have the votes to pass it. But Vice President Joe Biden claimed that several republicans told him they had changed their mind. Where are they. In the wake of the Washington Naval Yard shootings, many democrats were hopeful to pass new gun legislation.

Reid told the press that in the light of the recent shootings, he was moving ahead with drafting antigun legislation, but quickly added that he would not bring it to the floor until he had 60 votes. Reid says he is not close. No one really believes the Joe Biden story about republicans wanting to change their vote, but it's not hard to imagine that many democrats have.

The Colorado recall elections were a wake up call for democrats favoring more and more gun control. Especially the vote in Pueblo County, where democrats outnumber republicans 2-1 but democrat Angela Giron lost by 12 points. And with the 2014 elections quickly approaching, it's doubtful that any legislation could be passed.

In April, the senate failed to pass a far reaching bill on gun control. It would have provided for more background checks and would have banned 157 different weapons, but specifically exempted the Remington shotgun used by the Naval Yard shooter.

Reid claims that many republicans have told him that they know passing the legislation is the right thing to do, but they cannot do it politically. That comment has to be taken with a grain of salt, considering the outright lies he constantly feeds the press. Remember, he said that Romney paid no taxes for 10 years. He refused to name his source.


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13. LTE: Stick to the facts in debate over guns in Va.
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Member Max Padon had this LTE printed in defense of Delegate Barbara Comstock's support for repealing the restaurant ban:

From Sun Gazette: http://tinyurl.com/kejqk3z

September 2, 2013

Editor: In the Aug. 22 edition of the Sun Gazette, a letter from Haidah McGovern made numerous claims concerning the voting record of Del. Barbara Comstock (R-34th).

Without addressing all of those claims, I would like to point out the inaccuracy of one of Ms McGovern's statements, to wit ". . . she voted for the guns-in-bars bill."

By law, the state government does not license public bars. Any establishment serving alcohol must derive sufficient income from the sale of food to qualify as a restaurant. In simpler terms, Virginia does not have bars.

Virginians long have had the right to openly carry firearms, a right that was reaffirmed in 2004 court cases. There has not been a prohibition against openly carrying firearms into an establishment serving alcohol, and even drinking (not a good idea), if the establishment will serve you. The simple version: guns already were permitted where alcohol was served.

People possessing a permit to carry a concealed handgun, however, were prohibited from carrying concealed into a restaurant that served alcohol, even if they did not consume alcohol.

So, Virginia law permitted open carry of firearms while drinking, but prohibited concealed carry even though the carrier was not drinking. That seems rather silly to me. Apparently Del. Comstock and a lot of other delegates and senators (and the governor) agreed.

What Del. Comstock voted for was legislation to allow armed permit holders to visit restaurants as long as they do not consume alcohol.

Some may not agree with the legislation, and may not agree with Del. Comstock's support of it, but they should form their opinion based on facts.

Permit holders wishing to dine with family in a nice restaurant that serves alcohol no longer are faced with the choice of traveling unarmed or locking their firearm in a car outside the restaurant. Firearm owners want to know their firearms are secure, and most think that their firearm is a lot more secure on the hip than it is locked in a car.

By the way, if Ms McGovern disagrees with this legislation, which became effective July 1, maybe she should research the number of incidents involving conceal-carry-permit holders since that time. In the first year, violence in restaurants decreased more 5 percent, and no permit holder drew a gun where alcohol was served.

When concealed-carry was first approved, there were predictions of blood in the streets; when this legislation was approved, there were predictions of bullets flying in restaurants, and families being slaughtered. Didn't happen in the streets; hasn't happened in the restaurants.

H. M. Padon, Great Falls


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14. Virginia's "stand your ground" law in action - or maybe not
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EM Daniel Hawes and defense attorney sent me this in response to VCDL Update 9/15/13 item #10 "Roanoke police release name of man killed during home invasion attempt":

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"Virginia's stand-your-ground law in action - gun owner who shot home invader not going to be charged. ..."

In Virginia, the feature of the "perfect" self defense rule that other people call "stand your ground" is called "the true man doctrine". I don't think that part matters. However, this case did not involve that doctrine at all, because it didn't matter whether there was a self-defense issue. This was an instance of "defense of habitation", a branch of the "castle doctrine."


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15. Who needs a gun in the front yard?
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Member David Custer sent me this:

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

September 20, 203

SUFFOLK, Va. (AP) - Police say a Suffolk man shot an aggressive pit bull, which was later euthanized.

Diana Klink of the Suffolk Police Department tells WAVY (http://bit.ly/1duIae8 ) that a man was playing with his two young children in his fenced-in yard Wednesday evening when two pit bulls began fighting and tried to break through the fence.

The dogs knocked a board loose in the fence and the man tried spraying the dogs away with a hose. When the pit bulls continued to act aggressively, the man shot one of them.

Klink says a police investigation determined the shooting was justified.


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16. Who needs a gun in church?
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Member Tom Pike sent me this:

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From Fox News: http://tinyurl.com/lu2buag

September 16, 2013

HOLYOKE, Mass. Holyoke police are looking for a man they say interrupted a church service and robbed several members of the congregation at gunpoint.

Lt. James Albert says the masked suspect entered the Pentecostal church at about 2 p.m. Sunday, announced the robbery, and took personal items, including cellphones, from several of the roughly 20 worshippers.

One of the congregants called police after the robber ran off.

The suspect was described as a thin, Latino man wearing a black T-shirt, pants and hat.

Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call police.


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17. Gun article by Harvard Law Review is not what it seems
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Member Mike Moses sent me this in response to VCDL Update 9/5/13 item #10, "Here's some devastating news for gun grabbers!":

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Item #10 on the list is a bit misleading, stating that a study by Harvard was performed - when in fact what the writer is ultimately citing is a Law Review article by Don Kates that was written in 2007. Therefore statistics that are being quoted up through 2011 are NOT from the Law Review article.

If you follow the chain of linked articles it leads you to the following article: http://tinyurl.com/psebrq5

ONLY item #2 is quoting the Law Review Article which is not a Harvard sponsored study. Which leads to yet another linked article: http://tinyurl.com/9ku2mo6

the actual Law Review article is here: http://tinyurl.com/yobqcz

The information in the Law Article is a great source of accurate information, but all the articles that are linked that cite this law review are misleading and that is the last thing we would want for any 2nd Amendment supporter.

The other information and data points that are being quoted come from various other sources that I have not personally vetted.


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18. Maryland's restrictive gun laws drive dealer to Pennsylvania to make a living
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Member Bill Hine sent me this:

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From The Washington Times: http://tinyurl.com/l4ucjfj

By Meredith Somers
September 15, 2013

Jim Greer stood beside his desk in the small back office of Angus MacGregor's Trading Post in Waldorf, Md., and rifled through several papers at the top of a file box.

In two weeks, he will be shuttering his firearms business and reopening in Pennsylvania, a state he said is much more welcoming to a firearms dealer than Maryland.

Wearing khaki camouflage pants and a green shirt that offsets his salt-and-pepper goatee, Mr. Greer held up three thick papers. They are expired Maryland firearms dealer licenses and are useless in Waldorf, but Mr. Greer has plans for them in Pennsylvania.

"I'll use these for target practice," he said.

Leaving the town he has called home for 24 years wasn't always in the cards for the 55-year-old businessman, but it became a reality this year when he saw the direction state lawmakers wanted to take on gun control.

The Firearm Safety Act of 2013, passed by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly in April, is one of the most sweeping gun control packages in the country. The legislative package adds 45 guns to a list of banned assault weapons, limits handgun magazines to 10 rounds, and requires gun buyers to submit their fingerprints and obtain handgun qualification licenses.

The laws take effect Oct. 1, which is also the cutoff date for grandfathering firearms applications and purchases.

Mr. Greer trails off when he considers the impact of the laws and the resulting rush for gun purchases caused by the new rules.

"Not every store is in the same situation I am, but for a small-business guy like me. Once the bill went through the House and Senate and looked like it was actually going to pass, I saw that it was going to be impossible to make a living."

For the past four years, Angus MacGregor's Trading Post has kept a steady business selling firearms, accessories and ammunition from a two-story reconverted home in Waldorf. Until Saturday, the last day to buy guns from Mr. Greer's Maryland store, the store's gun room displayed an array of rifles and handguns.

On the opposite side of the house is a much smaller collection of model-train supplies, remnants of Mr. Greer's original idea for a hobby store which opened 11 years ago.

"I did surprisingly well," he said, adding that the tanking economy also brought bad times to the hobby market.

Forced to look for another source of income, Mr. Greer drew from a childhood interest. While growing up in Ithaca, N.Y., he collected guns from the Ithaca Gun Co. and knew there was room for another dealer in the Waldorf firearms market.

"I thought if I got my federal firearms license, it might help the business," Mr. Greer said. "It worked. People were so happy to have another choice in town to buy guns. It was a welcome addition to the town."

Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, proposed the firearms act in January after the mass shooting a month earlier at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

"I couldn't even believe they were even thinking about doing stuff like this," Mr. Greer said. "The gun laws in Maryland are already extremely restrictive."

Current law requires a purchase application, which is forwarded to the licensing division of the Maryland State Police. Officers check a series of 16 databases to make sure the prospective buyer is not prohibited from owning a gun. Once that process is complete, the application is verified, the gun dealer is notified and the buyer may pick up the gun.

The state police have a seven-day window to perform the background check and deny the application if necessary. The dealer then can release the gun, though doing so "is much more complicated," Mr. Greer said. "I don't want guns going into the hands of the wrong people. We are the final checkpoint before sending guns out in the public."

Since the Oct. 1 deadline was set, Maryland State Police have been overwhelmed by what officials said are unprecedented numbers of firearm purchase applications.

As of Sept. 6, the licensing division received 88,884 applications and processed 48,934 of them, police said. Up to 200 state employees were recruited this month to help enter confidential information into computers to help speed up the process. That move has touched off a wave of criticism from firearms advocates claiming privacy violations, and at least one formal complaint by a Maryland delegate to the state's attorney general.

State police said it plans to start conducting background checks Monday with the help of 20 additional police officers from the Maryland Transportation Authority, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Maryland Transit Administration, and Maryland Capital Police. By law, background checks must be conducted by police officers under the supervision of the state police.

Mr. Greer's office has been receiving state police checks on applications from as far back as May, and that is without the laws requiring fingerprinting and a handgun license.

As of Oct. 1, anyone looking to buy a gun must get a handgun qualifying license, which includes four hours of handgun training taught by a certified instructor and time spent firing at a range.

Just what that course entails, or what is on the application for a license, is anyone's guess, Mr. Greer said.

"No one really knows what's on the application," Mr. Greer said. "There's not enough ranges to handle this."

State police said an application process that complies with the laws has been developed by the state police information technology department and is scheduled to be implemented Oct. 1.

Police will have a 30-day window to process the application, Mr. Greer said, "so at best you can't purchase or pick up your gun for a minimum of 30 days."

"They're already behind on applications because of the buying frenzy," Mr. Greer said, suggesting that the most realistic scenario could be 60 or 90 days before an application is approved.

"Ninety percent of my store's sales are handguns," he said. "I can't survive for a month. A business needs its cash flow."

For the rest of this month, Mr. Greer will spend half of the week in Waldorf packing up the office, and the other half settling into his home and office, which is minutes from the Seven Springs ski resort and about an hour southeast of Pittsburgh.

"I'm getting a little piece of heaven," he said. "I get to keep my business. I can start selling guns tomorrow out of there. It's a very gun-friendly state ˘ for now."


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19. Weekly gun rights column featured in the Fairfax Free Citizen
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Member Chad Green sent me this:

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I want to point out a new weekly gun right column in the Fairfax Free Citizen on-line new site.

http://tinyurl.com/kadpfne


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20. Chicago: 23 shot, including a 3-year old boy, over 24 hour period
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If the anti-liberty crowd get their way with gun-contrtol, Virginia, too, would have headlines like the one below "23 shot, 3 of them fatally, in attacks across city."

Member Arch Jones sent me this:

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From The Virginia Gazette: http://tinyurl.com/mgvsdxa

23 shot, 3 of them fatally, in attacks across city

September 20, 2013

At least 23 people were shot, including three fatally, in attacks in Chicago early this morning and Thursday night, authorities said.

During a single shooting Thursday night about 10:15 p.m. in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, 13 people, including a 3-year-old boy, were shot at Cornell Square Park, authorities said.

Killed in shootings include a 29-year-old woman who was shot at 79th and Wood streets and who was pronounced dead at 4:18 a.m. at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. The woman's name was not being released immediately, according to the medical examiner's office.

About 11:55 p.m., the woman was standing outside in a group when shots were fired from a silver vehicle and she was hit in the abdomen and chest, according to police News Affairs Officer Michael Sullivan.

No arrests have been made in the slaying, Sullivan said.

Chicago Fire Department spokesman Will Knight said paramedics responded at 11:54 p.m. Thursday to that scene.

In another fatal shooting, a 36-year-old man identified by the medical examiner's office as Johnny Tinsey, was shot near 77th Street and Sangamon Avenue about 6:56 p.m. Thursday, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Daniel O'Brien.

Tinsey, of the 7700 block of South Sangamon Street, was pronounced dead at 7:37 p.m. Thursday at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital, according to the medical examiner's office.

Early Friday, about 12:45 a.m. in the 3600 block of West Augusta Boulevard, a man was shot in the chest, police said. The victim, Rubin Austin, 25, of the 1100 block of North Ridgeway Avenue, was pronounced dead at 1:38 a.m. at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, according to the medical examiner's office.

In others shootings, seven people were wounded.

In the first, a teenage boy was shot in the foot in the 700 block of West 72nd Street in the Englewood neighborhood about 6:35 p.m., said O'Brien. The victim, who told police he had heard shots, then felt pain, but otherwise gave little information about the shooting, was in good condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

About 7:52 p.m. in the 3800 block of West 57th Place in the West Elsdon neighborhood, two men in their 20s were shot, O'Brien said. One was shot in the stomach, and the other suffered a graze wound to the thigh, and both had had their conditions stabilized at Christ Medical Center.

About 7 p.m., a 28-year-old man was shot in the stomach in the 6100 block of South Normal Boulevard, according to police. The shooting originally had been reported as happening a few blocks away, on Aberdeen Street.

About 10:30 p.m. Thursday, a 21-year-old man was shot in both legs in the 5500 block of West North Avenue in the Austin neighborhood. The victim was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, police said An attacker came up to the man and shot him, then fled north on Luna Avenue, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Ronald Gaines.

About 2 a.m. Friday a 23-year-od man was shot in the side at 75th Street and Michigan Avenue and taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said.

Also about 2 a.m. but in the 6300 block of South Eberhart Avenue, a male was shot in the leg, according to police, who had no further details on this shooting.


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21. Gun crime in the UK?
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Member David Custer sent me this:

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How could this happen when they've outlawed guns? [PVC: How could it NOT happen?]


From NBC News: http://tinyurl.com/kyg7eux

By Henry Austin
September 19, 2013

LONDON -- The daughter of British former Prime Minister Tony Blair was held at gunpoint in a failed robbery attempt as she walked her dog with her boyfriend, according to police.

Two armed men, one holding a gun, demanded jewelry and cash from Kathryn Blair, 25, at around 8:30 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. ET) on Monday near her home in London's posh Marylebone neighborhood.

"A firearm was seen but not used -- no shots were fired," London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement. "None of the victims were injured and nothing was stolen."

Kathryn Blair had just returned from her brother Euan's weekend wedding to Suzanne Ashman.

"Kathryn was with a group of friends. No one was hurt and nothing was stolen," a spokesman for the Blair family said.

Officials would not elaborate on how the robbery was foiled, but did say they thought it was linked to an attempted burglary in the same area about 30 minutes earlier.

The first attempted robbery involved a female victim and a male suspect.
"Officers from Westminster borough are investigating both incidents," police said.

Kathryn Blair followed her parents into the legal profession last year.

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From The Daily Express: http://tinyurl.com/kgdqnj3


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22. Gun-friendly coffee shop in Midlothian
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Member Floyd Bayne sent me this:

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I just talked to Steve Opilla, owner of Carytown Coffee here in Midlothian, VA, and he told me that he is a hunter and firearms owner and that he has no problem with legally armed citizens doing business in his establishment. Please be sure to spend some of your money with his company.

Carytown Coffee
2425 Colony Crossing Place
Midlothian, VA 23112
(804) 639-9953

Hours:
Monday - Friday | 6am -6pm
Weekends | 7am - 2pm





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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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