http://www.vcdl.org/static/va-alert.html
You can also select the link below and get to the archives, which also has this alert posted. I post the entire text here for those who don't want to go through another page load.
http://www2.vcdl.org/cgi-bin/wspd_cgi.s ... chive.html
-----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
VCDL's meeting schedule: http://www.vcdl.org/meetings.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
VCDL Update 6/12/09 - Defending your right to defend yourself
1. Staunton city police officer quizzes member about VCDL sticker
2. Campbell County endorses new indoor range near Lynchburg
3. Might donations influence college carry policy?
4. Long term plans -- 2nd Amendment March in DC -- April 2010
5. Police and gun control
6. Sotomayor vs. RKBA
7. Liberals ask how they lost gun, Guantanamo votes
8. Some good dinner roll!
**************************************************
1. Staunton city police officer quizzes member about VCDL sticker
**************************************************
The wife of a VCDL member was pulled over by a Staunton city police officer for speeding.
The first thing the officer asked when cautiously approaching her vehicle was if the VCDL sticker was hers.
Er, uh, no, officer, a Martian must have put it on my bumper when I wasn't looking!
He then asked her if she was a dues paying member or not!
The way the question was asked, along with the officer's attitude, caused the woman to be very concerned.
When he learned of the incident, her husband was quite upset, especially with the government putting out a document last month saying that people who are gun owners or members of gun organizations might be right-wing terrorists.
In a conference call with the Chief of Police and the member, the officer denied ever asking the questions.
Anybody else experiencing this phenomenon? I'd be shocked if this is more than an isolated incident, but I need to ask.
BTW, this is another example of why carrying a voice recorder in your car is a good idea. I would love to have had the audio of this exchange. I told the couple that they might issue a FOIA request for the police video tapes from the patrol car. That video would show whether the question was asked at all and, if so, was it asked in a friendly ("I'm a VCDL member, too!") or more ominous fashion.
**************************************************
2. Campbell County endorses new indoor range near Lynchburg
**************************************************
http://tinyurl.com/lhg6g8
The News Advance Lynchburg
Sarah Watson May 26, 2009
RUSTBURG - Plans for the area's first indoor shooting range moved another step forward as Campbell County planners unanimously recommended approval for the project's special-use permit.
The range, owned by David Warden Builders Inc., would be located near the intersection of Waterlick Road and Sunburst Road, in the Timberlake area. Designs call for 10 indoor bays with 8-inch thick concrete walls that are reinforced with steel, said Amy Seipp, engineering director of Acres of Virginia Inc.
ìMany of the people (Warden) consulted with go to Roanoke, and he thinks there is a demand for this type of project,î Seipp said.
Five people spoke at a public hearing Tuesday night, many concerned about noise and safety.
The building, Seipp said, would be sound-proof and the owner wanted safety and noise ratings to meet or exceed National Rifle Association and government standards. If the plan is approved by the Board of Supervisors after a July 20 public hearing, Seipp said construction would move forward quickly.
Three planners said they felt having an indoor firing range in the county would be a benefit because it would be safer to practice shooting in a controlled environment rather than in the open.
ìThe county doesn't have a range anywhere and unless you live in the country, it is hard to find a place to shoot,î said planning commission chairman Patrick Tweedy. ìI think the people in the county need a place like this. I'd rather have them shooting there than out in the country where a stray bullet can go anywhere.î
**************************************************
3. Might donations influence college carry policy?
**************************************************
Wayne Crews sent us this thought. He wrote:
I was just thinking about our politicians and that we give money to those who support our views. There are a number of us who are alumni of VA Tech and other Virginia undergraduate schools that do not allow students or faculty to carry concealed. It might make them think about it if the alumni quit making donations to the schools until they change their policies. If enough people did it and let them know that is why they are not giving, it may make a difference. VCDL has a large enough membership in the Commonwealth to get it started.
**************************************************
4. Long term plans -- 2nd Amendment March in DC -- April 2010
**************************************************
Member Bill Clark brought this to our attention. Mark your calendars now -- I have. VCDL leadership has not yet decided exactly what the organization's involvement will be:
--
http://tinyurl.com/n3qppe
A march on Washington DC supporting the 2nd Amendment as an individual right is planned for April 19th 2010. We encourage being active in this.
From the web site:
What is the Second Amendment March?
Second Amendment March is a grass-roots organization that is pulling together Second Amendment supporters across the United States for a peaceful march in Washington, D.C, our nation's capital. We welcome ANYONE who supports the right to keep and bear arms, regardless of political leanings, gender, race, religion, etc. We also welcome both gun owners and non-gun owners alike! We have many supporters who have never owned -- and may never own -- a firearm, but they strongly believe in the Consitution and the importance of preserving the Second Amendment as our founding fathers intended.
--
The Virginia coordinator is Leyla Myers, who spoke briefly at the VCDL picnic last week. Leyla sent me this email:
"Skip Coryell, prominent author and Second Amendment Activist, has launched a national movement called the Second Amendment March. The mission of the Second Amendment March is to galvanize the courage and resolve of Americans; to petition our elected officials against establishing anti-gun legislation; and to remind America that the Second Amendment is necessary to maintain our right to self defense. It is the one right that protects all others.
The mission will be accomplished by a peaceful march in Washington DC, the United States Capitol, supported by satellite marches to State Capitols and smaller cities all across America. The founders are currently selecting state coordinators who will organize people in each state. In Virginia, your state coordinator is Leyla Myers, who can be contacted at leyla.myers@secondamendmentmarch.com.
To get involved and support the mission, or just to follow its progress, go to:
http://www.secondamendmentmarch.com
**************************************************
5. Police and gun control
**************************************************
Member Ryan Williams found an interesting article written by the editor in chief of http://www.officer.com a law enforcement website.
http://tinyurl.com/ne6s49
Does Gun Control Benefit LE?
Frank Borelli Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com 21 May 2009
Before we were at war in Iraq and Afghanistan ... before the economy went in the toilet... before our country was consumed by our most recent historical presidential election... BEFORE all that there was gun control. My question today is whether or not gun control laws benefit the law enforcement community?
Gun Control Laws actually have existed for hundreds of years. Of course, in colonial America they were vastly different than they are today. For instance, in colonial Massachusetts, it was required that any citizen traveling more than one mile from home be armed. Get that? It was required that they carry a gun! Can you imagine? In Massachusetts no less?
Today - a couple hundred years and a lot of technological evolution later - the reality of citizens carrying guns isn't embraced quite as strongly by most state governments and usually not by the federal government. And, although we can all be cynical and wonder what's really behind the votes, even our current federal government seems to want to avoid gun control issues... for now. Just recently Congress passed a bill that will allow those with concealed carry permits to carry those weapons in federal parks. While this bill may have passed because it was attached to a Credit Card Reform bill, the separate vote taken indicates suprisingly large support for the carry law.
But let us return to the question at hand: do Gun Control Laws benefit law enforcement?
There are those among us who suggest that it has to be good for law enforcement that it's difficult (at best) for the average citizen to obtain and own a Class III weapon such as a select-fire rifle or a belt-fed machine gun. Depending on which study results you cite, laws controlling the purchase of such weapons either do absolutely no good or, if they prevent sales, the percentage of those sales is so insignificant as to not matter in the real world. As a police veteran of 25+ years, I can honestly say I've never seen a criminal in possession of a Class III weapon. In fact, every gun I ever took in an arrest was either dangerously cheap / ill-maintained, or was fake. My favorite of all time was the .22lr pistol that was packed in mud, in a zip lock bag (the badguy was trying to hide his possession with a bag full of "soil sample"), with the magazine loaded into the pistol backwards, and the bullets loaded into the magazine backward. SO... although the bullets WERE pointed in the right direction, the magazine wouldn't seat fully into the pistol and the slide was so packed with mud that it wouldn't cycle anyway.
The popular argument from pro-2nd-Amendment folks is that since criminals, by definition, don't care about the law, then no law will ever prevent them from procuring the weapon(s) of their choice. Alongside that thought is that law ABIDING citizens DO care about the law and would, therefore, most likely be surrendering weapons or denied weapons if further gun restrictions were put into effect. If a law ABIDING citizen is legally in possession of a firearm, do they represent a threat to the law enforcement community? I don't think so, but plenty of people disagree with me. I know officers who would prefer that no citizen ever have a gun because ANY citizen with a gun represents an increased threat possibility at every encounter. My argument is that we (police) have to treat every unknown-risk encounter with proper tactics anyway - as if the citizen DOES have a gun - so whether or not they do shouldn't matter.
What I think concerns me most - now that I'm retired - is how we law enforcement professionals sometimes tend to lump all "unknowns" into the "criminal" category until we discover differently. This is, obviously, necessary for officer survival especially during the first few minutes of any encounter with an unknown in the course of our duties. However, once the unknown becomes known and is proven to be a law-abiding citizen who supports and respects law enforcement, then why would we even begin to worry about them being legally armed?
I know, I know... it only takes a moment... a thought... and that law abiding armed citizen can turn criminal and then we're dealing with an armed criminal. If that's true, then isn't the reverse also true? It only takes a moment, a thought, for the armed criminal to become a law abiding citizen right?
Obviously we can't work under that assumption, so the former doesn't make sense to me either.
In the end I believe that Gun Control laws are not of much benefit to law enforcement. Bad guys will get guns no matter what. Good guys - those citizens who respect and support us - present no threat in owning or carrying firearms (although I agree they need to be well trained!).
When you stop to think about how many officers are killed with knives, cars, blunt trauma instruments, etc., it's obvious that even if the world had no guns in it at all there would still be a huge threat of violence toward law enforcement. We can't regulate all of those other threats out of existance, so why focus on ONE segment of threat?
I really am interested in your thoughts and opinions on this. I can't help but wonder what the majority of other officers think and feel on this topic.
STAY SAFE!
**************************************************
6. Sotomayor vs. RKBA
**************************************************
http://tinyurl.com/ogbs9c
First off, it must be said that Second Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor appears to have a relatively easy path to confirmation on the U.S. Supreme Court. The likelihood of a filibuster is slim. Democrats control nearly 60, if not 60, seats in the Senate.
That said, conservatives are still going to mount an all out effort to stop her, if only because Supreme Court battles can be fund-raising, list-building manna from heaven. So how will they take on Sotomayor?
Second Amendment. On a case that concerned nunchucks--no joke--Sotomayor ruled that the recent Supreme Court Heller decision, which struck down a District of Columbia gun ban on federal grounds, should not apply to states. The National Rifle Association types did not much like this. "That should be enough to draw the gun rights people," said Levey.
Will any of it work to stop her? The odds are real long. But both liberals and conservatives have a lot to gain by making this a fight. So expect a noisy fight.
**************************************************
7. Liberals ask how they lost gun, Guantanamo votes
**************************************************
Member and VA-Alert co-editor Philip Levy sent us this item. He notes: " 'We'll probably end up passing more gun bills that expand owners' rights than we did during the Republican administration,' said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., a leading gun control advocate. 'That is what surprises me.'
Let's hope so!"
This link wasn't working when I tested it at 10:30 PM, June 10:
http://tinyurl.com/nukxte
Liberals ask how they lost gun, Guantanamo votes
By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON -- Frustrated liberals are asking why a Democratic-controlled Congress and White House can't manage to close the Guantanamo prison or keep new gun-rights laws from passing.
After all, President Barack Obama pledged to shut down the military detention center on Cuba for suspected terrorists. And Democratic control of the government would suggest that any gun legislation leads to tighter controls on weapons, not expanded use.
Even as they grouse, however, liberal lawmakers acknowledge that no one factor explains last week's disappointing back-to-back votes in Congress.
The Obama administration is focused on other priorities, they say. Party leaders don't want to endanger Democratic lawmakers from conservative districts by stressing divisive issues such as gun control.
On Guantanamo, many say, Obama and his allies were caught napping as Republicans stirred public fears about relocating suspected terrorists.
"I think it's one of the few times that he didn't think it all the way out," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., an unabashed admirer of the president.
As for trying to keep loaded guns out of national parks, Cummings said, "I don't think he put a lot of energy into it." Issues such as national security and the distressed economy deserve greater attention, at least for now, he said, adding that the president "picks his fights very carefully."
Such explanations provide small comfort to left-leaning Democrats after eight years of George W. Bush's presidency and nearly a dozen years of Republican control of Congress.
"We'll probably end up passing more gun bills" that expand owners' rights "than we did during the Republican administration," said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., a leading gun control advocate. "That is what surprises me."
She placed less blame on the White House than on ordinary Americans and advocacy groups that are consistently outflanked by gun owners' groups, especially the National Rifle Association.
"Until the American people say enough is enough, and get active in it," Democratic control of Congress and the White House will not be enough to turn the tide, said McCarthy, whose husband was killed by a gunman in 1993.
Two votes in Congress last Wednesday dismayed many liberals and exposed the limits of their influence even with Obama as president and Democrats holding solid majorities in both houses.
The Senate voted 90-6 to join the House in blocking the transfer of any prisoners from Guantanamo. Harsh treatment and indefinite detention of suspects there have sparked worldwide criticisms of the U.S. government and helped al-Qaida recruit volunteers, said Obama, who pledges to close the prison early next year. Lawmakers say they want more details on where detainees will be sent.
Also Wednesday, the House voted overwhelmingly to join the Senate in letting people carry loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges. More than 100 House Democrats and 174 Republicans voted for the gun measure, which was attached to an Obama-backed bill imposing new restrictions on credit card companies.
Earlier this year, gun-rights supporters derailed a bill to give the District of Columbia voting rights in Congress by adding a provision that would repeal the city's strict gun regulations.
The gun votes were less surprising to many Democrats than were the Guantanamo developments. The NRA remains among the most powerful lobbies, and many lawmakers take care to stay off its political enemies list.
"People do not want to be on the wrong side of this particular cultural divide," said Rep. David Price, D-N.C., who supports tougher gun controls. "It's too bad there's not a more responsible national organization" to counteract the NRA, he said.
In some ways, the gun-control lobby is choking on Democratic success in congressional races. "The seats we're picking up come disproportionately from those more conservative areas," Price said, where linking the Democratic Party to gun control can be dangerous at re-election time.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey of California is another Democrat frustrated by the gun debate. When she asks colleagues why they don't support tougher restrictions, she said, they reply, "You just don't get it, Woolsey. You don't have our districts."
"It has to do with being afraid they'll lose their election if they stand up against guns," she said.
Guantananamo is a more pressing issue for the administration.
For months, congressional Republicans and conservative commentators said Obama's plan to close the prison would place terrorists on U.S. soil, even though the locations presumably would be prisons. By the time the administration offered more details and reassurances, congressional Democrats were backpedalling, voting to block funds to relocate detainees.
"I'm not sure they realized the opposition they were going to come up against," Woolsey said.
Many Democratic lawmakers predicted that Obama will resolve the Guantanamo problem and eventually turn to gun issues, where he has advocated ownership rights with "common sense" regulations.
"I do believe that down the road the president will start working on some of the gun violence issues," said McCarthy, the New York Democrat. "But let's face it," she said. "We've got an awful lot of issues on our plate right now."
**************************************************
8. Some good dinner roll!
**************************************************
If she had successfully shot her father, the antis would be screaming for more gun control. But since she only stabbed him to death, that's OK:
http://tinyurl.com/m89zo3
Woman accused of stabbing father over dinner roll
ASSOCIATED PRESS May 28, 2009
MELVINDALE, Mich. -- Prosecutors say a woman in a Detroit suburb has been accused of fatally stabbing her father after an argument over a dinner roll.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy yesterday charged 42-year-old Ava Maria Gordon of Melvindale with second-degree murder in the death of Gordon's 62-year-old father.
Police say Gordon told investigators she ate a dinner roll that her father had been saving even though it had a note telling her not to do so. Prosecutors say Gordon stabbed her father after an argument.
Police say she also fired a gun but apparently didn't hit her father. [PVC: The press had to throw that in, even though it had nothing to do with the father's murder.]
-------------------------------------------
***************************************************************************
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.
Emtpy holsters means just that - empty holsters.