VA-ALERT: VCDL Update 7/3/09

Contact your Federal or State Representative and Delegates. Send them an email and let them know that you want them to fight for your Second Amendment Rights.
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OakRidgeStars
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VA-ALERT: VCDL Update 7/3/09

Post by OakRidgeStars »

1. Chance to talk to Congressman Cantor's aide on the Republican
Roundup gun-ban.
2. The British have something to say about our gun sales
3. Think your hotel room is safe?
4. Need some Guns Save Lives Bumper Stickers ?
5. Gun control website
6. Virginia AG gone missing on assault-weapon ban
7. Richmond Fuddruckers goes antigun for a moment
8. Cuccinelli Sticks to His Guns in Statewide Race
9. Citizen tools after a police stop
10. Member attacks Roanoke Times logic that Holocaust Museum shooting
means we need more gun control
11. Get ready for guns in bars
12. Gun turn-in nets 2 firearms
13. Why have that gun at breakfast?
14. The press wants continued access to the CHP database
15. MI State University to Allow Guns on Campus
16. Politicizing tragedy: The Holocaust memorial shooting isn't about
gun control
17. An anti-gunner repents
18. And then there were nine, soon to be eight! [states banning
concealed carry in restaurants]
19. Readily accessible guns only would threaten the public
20. PBS: The Silence About Guns
21. . . . and, Why have we stopped talking about car violence?

**************************************************
1. Chance to talk to Congressman Cantor's aide on the Republican
Roundup gun-ban.
**************************************************

Member David Gilmore sent us this item. He wrote, "Below is a copy of
an e-mail that I received about meeting with Eric Cantor's local rep,
this might be a good opportunity to let Cantor know of our displeasure
with the Innsbrook location."

I would encourage those of you who can to attend this event in the
Orange area and ask Eric Cantor's aide some tough questions about the
Roundup:

--

Subject: Cantor Constituent Hours in Orange

Just wanted to let you know that Vanessa Freeman, Eric's Outreach
Coordinator for Orange and surrounding counties, will hold constituent
hours at the Orange County Public Library on Wednesday, July 8 from
3PM to 4PM. This is a great opportunity for constituents to talk with
someone on staff regarding official concerns (VA benefits, passports,
etc). If you know of folks who may benefit please encourage them to
stop by.

Thanks,
Jennifer

Jennifer Nolen
804.306.3323

**************************************************
2. The British have something to say about our gun sales
**************************************************

EM Andrew Amerine and others are front and center in this video.

http://tinyurl.com/lud5sl
[link is to British Sky News video: 2'50" after a 15" commercial]

**************************************************
3. Think your hotel room is safe?
**************************************************

Who needs a gun at a hotel?

A VCDL member sent us this and added, "My friend, cousin of the man
who shot two of the bad guys, told me about this. They had the
misfortune of trying to hold up a CCP holder. He took two shots in
the gut but is supposed to be ok."

Remember, you should have easy access to your gun 24/7 - you never
know when violence could strike unexpectedly:

http://tinyurl.com/nk965n

NORFOLK, Va. - Two men are dead after a gunfight in a Norfolk hotel
room.

A spokeswoman for Sentara Norfolk General Hospital says 20-year-old
Trevor Pauley of Norfolk died Friday morning. Another man, 22-year-old
Dante Cooley of Virginia Beach, was pronounced dead at the scene of
Thursday's shooting.

Police say the gunfire erupted when three men forced their way into a
room occupied by two others. Police spokesman Chris Amos says an
investigation continues, but robbery appeared to be the motive.

**************************************************
4. Need some Guns Save Lives Bumper Stickers ?
**************************************************

Thanks to the number of requests we have been getting for the "Guns
Save Lives" bumper stickers ( http://www.vcdl.org/images/gsl.jpg ), we
have streamlined the process. Send a self addressed stamped envelope
with $.44 postage for 1 to 3 stickers and $.61 postage for 4 to 6
bumper stickers to:

VCDL Fulfillment Center
PO Box 254
Garrisonville, Virginia 22463

Enclose $1 (or more) for each bumper sticker ordered.

This is not to be combined with any other VCDL product or service.

**************************************************
5. Gun control website
**************************************************

Here is a web site on guns that is trying to collect information on
gun control and gun rights for educational purposes:

http://sites.google.com/site/guncontrolstuff/

Robert Johnson has established a website (link above) with the goal as
he states, "collecting as much information as possible on the subjects
of gun control and gun rights. Since the primary purpose of this site
is for use to those writing research papers on the subject the more
information that can be acquired the more help the site will be. If
anyone has any information that is not already on the page, I would
appreciate the link or scanned documents so that I can add them to the
page." His e-mail address is <robertejohnson6 AT msn.com> and the
link to the webpage is above.

**************************************************
6. Virginia AG gone missing on assault-weapon ban
**************************************************

23 State Attorneys General To Attorney General Holder: "No Semi-Auto
Ban" Why wasn't Virginia's Attorney General Bill Mims among them?

If you would like to ask the Attorney General to contact Holder with a
similar letter opposing more gun control, here is General Mims webmail
address:

http://www.vaag.com/ContactUsForm/ContactForm.aspx

The complete letter with signatures is here:

http://tinyurl.com/nh86kc

NRA-ILA News
Friday, June 12, 2009

On June 11, the top law enforcement officials of nearly half the
states signed a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder,
expressing their opposition to reinstatement of the federal ban on
semi-automatic firearms.

"We share the Obama Administration's commitment to reducing illegal
drugs and violent crime within the United States. We also share your
deep concern about drug cartel violence in Mexico. However, we do not
believe that restricting law-abiding Americans' access to certain semi-
automatic firearms will resolve any of these problems," the letter said.

The letter notes congressional opposition to bringing back the ban,
and calls for increasing enforcement of existing laws.

We encourage NRA members to let these state officials know we
appreciate them standing up to the incessant clamor for gun control
that is currently coming from anti-gun groups and their media allies.

The 23 state Attorneys General with their signatures can be seen at
the full letter, link above.

**************************************************
7. Richmond Fuddruckers goes antigun for a moment
**************************************************

We received a report that the Fuddrucker's in Richmond had put up a
"no guns" sign after being robbed a couple of weeks ago.

Gun owners contacted the manager and explained that the sign would
only make the restaurant more likely to be robbed in the future.

The manager, having thought the issue through in more detail, agreed
and has removed the sign.

**************************************************
8. Cuccinelli Sticks to His Guns in Statewide Race
**************************************************

http://tinyurl.com/n4mour

By Sandhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 12, 2009

Gun rights advocates gathered outside the Virginia state Capitol for a
rally in January, some of them wearing their weapons tucked beneath
their clothes. Among the featured speakers was Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II,
one of the most conservative members of the state legislature and a
fixture in gun rights circles.

Tall and lean, dressed in a black overcoat and buffered against the
wind by an indigo scarf, he noted that his opposition to efforts to
"roll back our right to protect ourselves" is not shared by many of
his Northern Virginia constituents.

"I have a district that votes four-to-one for gun control," he told
the crowd in a speech that was circulated on YouTube. "But I know
defending the Second Amendment is the right thing to do. And so I've
led the charge year in and year out to do just that."

That incongruity has been a hallmark of Cuccinelli's seven years as a
GOP lawmaker from Fairfax County, where by his own admission,
conservatives of his stripe are an "endangered species." The unusual
blend of politics and geography will come into sharp focus, in ways
favorable and not, when he runs statewide this year as the Republican
candidate for attorney general.

Critics and fans of Cuccinelli, 40, say he is a shrewd and hardworking
campaigner with a record of winning in enemy territory and a loyal
following among home-schoolers, antiabortion activists and others in
the conservative wing of the party. That base helped push Cuccinelli
over the top at the recent Republican convention, where he secured the
nomination from among three competitors.

His nomination has buoyed some Democrats who believe that his views
are extreme and will benefit their candidates, particularly Del.
Stephen C. Shannon, their nominee for attorney general. They hope
Cuccinelli will drag down the entire GOP ticket, including Robert F.
McDonnell, who has sought a more centrist path to the governor's
mansion.

Among the more controversial legislation Cuccinelli has introduced is
a bill that would have cut off state funding for Planned Parenthood.
That same session, he proposed a law that would have allowed employers
to fire workers for failing to learn English. He was a champion of the
2006 state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and has said
unequivocally that "homosexuality is wrong."

Shannon, a fellow Fairfax County resident, said: "People want folks
elected to office who really try to work across party lines and who
work on solutions. Ken has a different view, I think. He's very
focused on what I consider hot-button social issues."

The two are not strangers. Their districts overlap, and it is their
custom to have dinner once a year during the legislative session.

"This year he asked for a rain check because he said he was kind of
busy. That's okay, because I think it was my year to pick up the tab,"
Shannon joked.

In the statewide campaign, the first for both candidates, Cuccinelli
said he will call on those who have been charmed by his intelligence
and affability and his unapologetic devotion to his causes, regardless
of political pressure.

"The impression outside the legislature is that he's a rabid partisan
who's hard to get along with and prickly," said Sen. Jill Holtzman
Vogel (R-Winchester). "That could not be farther from the truth. I
think it springs from the fact that he is a champion of the causes he
believes in, and he does it publicly and boldly."

Cuccinelli, who is a devout Catholic and home-schools four of his
seven children, has said he supports abolishing the U.S. Department of
Education. A video clip making the rounds on GOP and Democratic blogs
shows Cuccinelli at a spring campaign event saying that he might not
obtain a Social Security number for his seventh child out of fear that
it "is being used to track you."

In an interview, Cuccinelli said he supports the concept of public
education but also believes in small government. He did end up
obtaining a Social Security number for 2-month-old Max, he said, and
explained that his comments were part of a larger discussion about
privacy and the over-reliance on Social Security numbers for
identification purposes.

He has made a name for himself in less-divisive ways. He was a leader
two years ago in rewriting some of the laws governing the state mental
health system after a mentally disturbed Virginia Tech student killed
32 people and himself in a mass shooting on campus. Although he
supports the death penalty, he has opposed efforts to expand it. He
has also pushed legislation to limit the government's use of eminent
domain to take private property.

He is unapologetic about his views that are less popular close to
home. There's the "finger-in-the-wind style of leadership," he said,
"and then there is what I think the founders had more in mind, which
is a bolder form of leadership in which you do what you think is right
and you are then obligated to turn to your constituency and say, 'This
is why I did what I did.' And you stand for it at the ballot box."

Many of Cuccinelli's critics say his attempt to win statewide office
is an acknowledgment that he would not survive another election cycle
in Northern Virginia. He narrowly beat his last Democratic opponent,
and his Senate district went more than 55 percent for Barack Obama
last fall. Moreover, he could lose some of his base when district
boundaries are redrawn in 2011.

Now that he has a broader pool of voters to choose from, Democrats are
not taking the challenge lightly.

"I think it's easy to underestimate Ken. He has not survived this long
on poor political skills," said Scott Surovell, chairman of the
Fairfax County Democratic Committee.

He said he expects Cuccinelli's open embrace of divisive views to lead
to his political demise. "The one thing I've learned about Ken
Cuccinelli is that Ken rarely hides who he is. He's only going to
accept so much rebranding."

**************************************************
9. Citizen tools after a police stop
**************************************************

Our lead item in the June 12 VA-Alert [see the VA-Alert here: http://tinyurl.com/kk5fec ] regarded a Staunton city police officer
who quizzed a member about the VCDL sticker on her car.

Another member, Russ Troxel, wrote to remind us about tools available
to citizens when faced with such circumstances.

He suggests making a Freedom-of-Information-Act (FOIA) request to the
particular police department asking for dispatch records, in-car text
messages, and any Police Department polices regarding officer conduct
in dealing with the public in those situations.

**************************************************
10. Member attacks Roanoke Times logic that Holocaust Museum shooting
means we need more gun control
**************************************************

http://tinyurl.com/lyq92r
[Sixth item down, third from bottom]

More gun laws won't end tragedies

David de Wolf claims that he would prevent unnecessary firearm deaths
by having better background checks and stricter criteria for gun
ownership ("America needs to be strict on gun control," June 16 letter).

He uses the Holocaust Museum tragedy to illustrate his point. However,
let's look at the facts.

James von Brunn served 6+ years in prison and would not have passed
the current background check and criteria for gun ownership. As a
federal felon, he was not allowed to own or even possess a firearm
under all current laws -- local, state and federal.

Washington, D.C., has some of the strictest criteria for gun ownership
in the nation.

The Holocaust Museum is a weapon-free zone -- with guards, metal
detectors and bag searches.

What more does de Wolf envision?

How does de Wolf think that taking guns away from victims makes either
fewer or safer victims?

DAVE HICKS DUBLIN

**************************************************
11. Get ready for guns in bars
**************************************************

The anti's always want to mislead people into thinking repealing the
restaurant ban is about carrying in bars and drinking, when all we
want to be able to do is share a meal in peace with our families and
friends.

Wrap your head in duct tape to prevent it blowing into pieces as you
read this article is suggested:

http://tinyurl.com/ncua3c

Dan Casey is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
21 June 2009

It's far too early to take a reasonable guess at who will prevail in
November's likely gubernatorial slugfest between state Sen. Creigh
Deeds and former Attorney General Bob McDonnell.

But one probable victor is the frightening guns-in-bars legislation
that has passed the Virginia House and Senate for the past two years
and was sensibly vetoed each time by Gov. Tim Kaine.

Both Deeds, a Bath County Democrat who voted for the bill, and
McDonnell, a Henrico County Republican, are on the record in favor of
allowing concealed weapons in bars, by permit holders, provided those
handgun hiders do not drink alcohol.

To McDonnell, it's a constitutional issue. If elected, he would sign
it into law.

"Concealed carry permit holders have to pass rigorous background
checks prior to gaining a permit. These are law-abiding individuals
exercising their Second Amendment right to bear arms," says Tucker
Martin, a McDonnell campaign spokesman.

Deeds stands by his vote earlier this year. If elected, he would sign
the bill Kaine vetoed, his campaign said.

"Creigh Deeds supports the Second Amendment and Virginia's current
laws, but believes that guns and alcohol don't mix," Deeds spokesman
Jared Leopold says. "In the state Senate, Creigh Deeds voted to
prevent individuals carrying concealed weapons from drinking alcohol."

That sounds like a fancy way around the fact that the senator voted to
remove the current prohibition on concealed weapons in bars.

I don't quite understand why anyone would want to carry a concealed
weapon into a bar. Open carry/no drinking already is allowed, though
restaurateurs often ask those people to leave. (Maybe that's why gun
owners want to hide them.)

Larry Pratt, president of the Northern Virginia-based Gun Owners of
America, says it's because of the "element of surprise."

"When you're carrying concealed, you retain the element of surprise
much more than if you're carrying openly," Pratt told me. And that
would give you an edge over any attacker, he added.

It's precisely that prospect that frightens the dickens out of two
well-known and experienced Roanoke-area barkeeps.

One is Mike Flanary, co-owner of The Cornerstone Bar & Grill on the
city market and Flanary's Irish Pub on Jefferson Street downtown. He
considers himself a liberal.

The other is Chip Moore, owner of the Brambleton Deli and Annie
Moore's Irish Pub, both in Southwest Roanoke County. He calls himself
a conservative.

"Can you tell me one good thing that could happen from someone who
carried a concealed weapon into a bar? I can't think of one good
thing," Flanary told me. "The fact that they would allow it is mind-
boggling."

Moore asked, "What are they trying to accomplish by having people with
concealed weapons in bars? ... I'm not for stricter guns laws -- but
I'm not crazy, either."

Each raised interesting points on the so-far-failed legislation's fine
print:

* Absent airport-style metal detectors at bars, the proviso that
pistol-hiding diners not drink is laughably unenforceable.

* Bad judgment and alcohol already are regular companions without guns
in the mix. "That upstanding person who has the concealed carry permit
is not the same person after 10 beers," Moore observed.

* Patrons who are too frightened to enter an establishment without a
concealed gun might be better off staying out of it in the first place.

They also both questioned whether an entrance sign barring concealed
weapons would deter people from bringing them in.

One reason both candidates would favor guns in bars lies in the gun
lobby that has fought for this law, its deep constituency in Virginia
and the unquestionable influence it wields over many Virginia
politicians.

Another is this: As of May there were roughly 189,000 active concealed-
carry permit holders in Virginia.

If November's contest is anything like their historically close 2005
race for attorney general, neither Deeds nor McDonnell can risk
alienating any voters.

That's why it's clear concealed-guns-in-bars in Virginia looks like a
pretty good bet for 2010, just like it was this year in neighboring
Tennessee, where it recently passed.

So next year, with burning cigarettes banned from most restaurants,
perhaps the most likely kind of bar smoke we'll see is smoldering
wisps that emerge from hot pistol barrels after some permit-holding,
gun-hiding patrons get into a face-off.

That is insanity, Virginia.

**************************************************
12. Gun turn-in nets 2 firearms
**************************************************

Wow - 2 whole guns turned in and the Lynchburg PD considers that
progress.

Turn in your gun and you get a chance to win a "souped-up police
cruiser." Clearly people were flocking to that deal.

If a criminal did turn in a gun (unlikely) and won the drawing, would
he be driving around in a tricked out police cruiser? I sure hope he
doesn't abuse drugs and alcohol while driving that government issued
"assault" vehicle around Lynchburg.

http://tinyurl.com/l4u72q

By Justin Faulconer
News & Advance, Lynchburg, VA
Published: June 21, 2009

Several hundred people gathered at Miller Park on Sunday evening for a
Father's Day celebration that saw two guns surrendered in an effort to
combat community violence.

The number of firearms matches those yielded at a gun-surrender event
in April, which was the first such event held by Churches United for
Service in partnership with the Lynchburg Police Department.

The Rev. James Coleman said there would be more gun-surrender events
this year and the group would go further into areas struck by
violence. The end goal is for churches to come alive and show their
concern for safety zones within the community, he said.

The group would reach out across racial, denominational and even faith-
based lines where necessary to combat violence, he said.

"We need everybody to make our community safe."

Father's Day was a perfect time to begin an initiative to get men more
involved in the community, said Keith Anderson, pastor of Eighth
Street Baptist Church. The initiative started a year ago on Father's
Day and drew more people this year, he said.

"We are provoking men to get in their rightful places in their
families and communities," said Anderson. "One of the responsibilities
of the man is to help keep the family safe."

Anderson said a young man, whose family attended Anderson's church,
was shot to death in front of his grandmother's house.

"It made me want to be active in getting guns off the street and
finding something we can do with these young men," said Anderson.

Each person who surrendered a gun is eligible to win a souped-up
police cruiser. They will not be prosecuted for illegal possession of
the firearm, should they lack the legal right to carry a gun, or
should the nature of the firearm be illegal, police said last week.

Lynchburg Police Chief Parks Snead attended Sunday's cookout at the
park and said he likes to see the public getting together to talk
about issues. The guns the program is designed to collect are those
that may be forgotten about, he said.

"It might not be kept in a safe place," said Snead. "A gun like that
is a liability."

After evaluating recent years, Snead said 2008 "formed something of a
plateau" for violent crimes.

"We had a modest but steady rise over several years," said Snead.
"Now, on the other side of the ledger, I've been very pleased that in
the last several months we've had more reductions month by month than
we've had spikes in violent crimes. It's a mixed bag -- it depends on
how you look at it."

Snead said he views the gun-surrender program as progress. The police
department was glad to get on board with it, he said.

"This is better than where we were at before these initiatives
started. We hope to do several more events and we plan to get more
guns. Ö I'm hoping the public gets behind us."

**************************************************
13. Why have that gun at breakfast?
**************************************************

Member Dale Welch wrote, "I've often thought the question was not
where do you need a gun but when.

At 9:30 AM on a Saturday morning while eating breakfast, the
unforgiveable happens and are you prepared?"

http://tinyurl.com/m4p5t5

USA TODAY 6/21/2009

Waitress dead after gunmen attempt Denny's takeover ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (AP) -- Two suspects have been jailed on
suspicion of murder after a restaurant employee was fatally shot
during a robbery at a packed Denny's Restaurant, police said.

The names of suspects, who were booked Saturday night, were not
immediately released.

Witnesses said as many as four masked men armed with rifles and
handguns rushed into the northwest Albuquerque Denny's restaurant
around 9:30 a.m. Saturday and demanded money. As many as 100 people
reportedly were in the restaurant at the time.

The victim was a female employee. Witnesses told police she was shot
after she ran to the back of the restaurant. Her identity was not
immediately released.

One restaurant employee told police a manager was forced to open the
cash register and the robbers took an undetermined amount of cash
before fleeing.

Police, who were in the area because of a recent string of robberies,
arrived at the scene within minutes of the robbery and took one
suspect into custody while another was arrested after a getaway car
was followed to a nearby trailer park.

A police tactical team surrounded an Albuquerque home where other
possible suspects were believed to have fled but the house was later
found to be empty.

Authorities were still searching for additional suspects late Saturday
night, police spokeswoman Nadine Hamby said.

**************************************************
14. The press wants continued access to the CHP database
**************************************************

Local CHP lists from courthouses are still being abused in Virginia
(Chatham Star Tribune published some permit holder information a few
days ago and does so every month) and we plan on getting the CHP list
locked away from the press accordingly next year.

Both Delegate Nutter and Senator Houck put the press's interests above
permit holders this year and that is unacceptable.

http://tinyurl.com/mofga3

The right to bare arms data
The News Media & The Law Spring 2009 (Vol. 33, No. 2)

Around the country, as news outlets publish gun permit information,
lawmakers are leaping to respond by sealing it from public view.

It's tough to call it a trend, exactly, when lawmakers in various
states have long set their sights on sealing concealed-weapon permit
data. But their efforts seem to be paying off more than ever: Since
the beginning of 2008, at least seven states have considered
legislation yanking permit-holder information from public files. Only
one such battle looks to have yielded a complete win -- for now -- for
open governance.

Newspapers from Oregon to Virginia, meanwhile, have inserted
themselves or been thrust into the center of fiercely polarized
debates over privacy, personal safety and the constitution. It was the
Medford Mail Tribune's 2007 request for the Jackson County, Ore.,
sheriff's roster of local permit-holders that touched off a statewide
rift between law enforcement and transparency advocates. It culminated
in a legislative measure generally sealing the permits.

On the other side of the country, Ginger Stanley of the Virginia Press
Association says lawmakers moved to seal their state database after
the Roanoke Times published it, in its entirety, on the paper's Web
site. The weekly Arkansas Times posted that state's database earlier
this year; media lobbyist Tres Williams said the reaction was swift.

"Unfortunately, the newspaper published that list of Arkansas licenses
during the Legislative session," he said. "We almost immediately saw a
bill" sealing the permit data.

In fact, Stanley said most legislative bids to scuttle away some piece
of the public record can be traced back, she said, to a newspaper's
use of it, and a lawmaker's piqued outrage. But that's no reason for a
media outlet to be weak-kneed in its reporting on controversy or to
shy from in-depth coverage of public safety -- for which permit
databases are key.

These days, fewer than 20 states openly provide access to those records.

Even as gun groups have notched wins on the issue in a smattering of
statehouses, they've also had to scale back their requests and settle
for compromise bills that transparency advocates found at least
palatable. In West Virginia, a state where the Second Amendment
carries great weight, the open government side has twice fought back
bids to shield permit information.

Lobbyist Philip Reale, who represented the West Virginia Press
Association in its opposition to the measure, said his side found
critical support in the sheriff of the state's biggest county,
Kanawha. The sheriff testified before lawmakers that, contrary to the
gun-advocates' arguments, in 20 years of policing he'd never heard of
a suspect using the permit information to commit a crime.

"I think it'll come back" in the next legislative session, Reale said.
But for now, "this is a good victory."

Parsing the fight

At heart, the debate over concealed-weapon permit data pits a personal
privacy argument against the broader public interest in monitoring
government. Proponents on both sides have pointed to safety interests:
In state after state, gun rights advocates have warned that permit-
holders might be targeted for home burglaries or even violent attack
if their names and addresses are kept public.

But that risk is speculative, transparency advocates reply. In decades
of keeping the databases available, sheriffs have struggled to point
to actual cases where crimes against permit-holders can be traced back
to the public record.

What has happened is that time and again journalists and watchdogs
have been able to inform the public when permitting -- a process run
by a government agency -- faltered, at great risk to the community.

"A permit is an exercise of state power and discretion, and is a
privilege, not a right," said Charles Davis, executive director of the
National Freedom of Information Coalition. "Thus the granting of a
permit and its recipient should be a matter of public record. How else
can we scrutinize the permit process?"

Movements pop up in statehouses

In many states, if not most, the roster of permit holders' names and
addresses was public from the very inception of the concealed weapons
program. But what gun groups have done, transparency advocates say, is
to upend that presumption of openness by framing the issue as a thumb
in the eye of Second Amendment rights.

"I think it was a Freedom of Information Act issue and a personal
privacy issue," Williams, who is director of communications for the
Arkansas Press Association, said of the fight over the database that
unfolded this year. "It was not a gun issue, but that's what it turned
into" -- and an emotional one, at that.

"People threatened to kill me, they threatened to harm my family, and
they threatened to harm my business," said Max Brantley, editor of the
Arkansas Times. "It's a bad situation where gun rights trump law."

Lawmakers in Little Rock were so incensed after the Times posted the
database that they first tried to explicitly ban future publication of
it. No criminal penalties were spelled out, and the sponsor backed off
that provision after Williams pointed out it could be an
unconstitutional prior restraint.

Even so, transparency advocates had an uphill battle to fight. The
governor signed a bill sealing much of the data this spring. "We felt
like it was going to be very difficult, once it sort of turned into
the larger gun issue, for us to prevail," Williams said. The final
version of the bill "was about as good as we could do, and better than
other states had managed."

So the database question in Arkansas came up and was resolved months
later with a new law.

But in Tennessee, open government advocates have been fighting for
years to keep permit data public. This legislative session, lawmakers
in Nashville also toyed with the idea of outlawing publication of
information from a gun permit file, according to Frank Gibson of the
state's Coalition for Open Government. When the attorney general
weighed in with an opinion saying the proposed misdemeanor penalties
for publication might run afoul of the constitution, the idea was
dropped.

But beyond that, Gibson said in late April, "We don't have a lot of
hope for stopping" the measure, which would bar the release of gun
permit data unless it comes up in a court proceeding.

And what a loss: Gibson pointed to local news reports in recent years
that have plumbed the database to illuminate public safety issues. For
instance, news stories reported that domestic violence perpetrators
kept their concealed weapon permits because of a communications
failure in the county-court reporting system; and that convicted
felons were obtaining and renewing permits during an 18-month period
in which the state lost access to the FBI's criminal database.

Two years ago, Gibson said, The Tennessean newspaper posted the permit
database on its Web site and quickly pulled it down, the wave of
public outrage over it having been so strong.

But nobody seemed to notice at first in December when the Memphis
Commercial Appeal did the same thing. It wasn't until one particular
shooting made the news, and a reader posted a comment on the paper's
Web site asking if the alleged perpetrator had a concealed weapons
permit, and a newspaper staffer wrote back pointing the reader to the
posted database, that the whole issue flared up again.

Soon after, no fewer than 14 different bills were proposed to seal the
gun permit data. "We proposed a csompromise to restrict use of the
database but keep individual records open" and allow access to the
full roster in certain cases, Gibson said. "Only we had no takers.
Neither the Senate sponsor nor the House sponsor would agree to that."

Often in these fights, for all the rhetoric and debate over the rights
and responsibilities of newspapers to publish public records, the
legislative outcome has come down, naturally, to politics. In
Tennessee, Gibson said the gun advocates pushed the bill through a
different committee than the one that had considered it before, hoping
to find a friendlier reception this time.

And in West Virginia, having one key legislative ally proved pivotal
for transparency advocates: Reale worked closely with the chairwoman
of the House judiciary committee to craft a bill bringing reciprocity
in recognition of other states' gun permits, which the gun lobby badly
wanted, but barring a provision sealing the database.

It worked this time around, Reale said -- the gun groups faced letting
the database issue drop in favor of something they wanted more. But he
said the public was never quite enlisted to rally around the Second
Amendment argument, as happened in other states: "It didn't take place
here," he said, "but it likely will."

One lesson learned, Williams said, is that a paper might want to wait
until the legislative session ends before wading into the fray by
posting an entire permit database rather than merely using it for
reporting.

"I think newspapers, if they have the right to publish the list," he
said, "they can do whatever they want. I would just say be prepared to
pay the consequences. I know of only two instances where a metro
newspaper published a list" -- and in both cases the database issue
was soon before lawmakers.

Reaching for compromise

To Stanley of the Virginia Press Association, there is a strong public
interest in keeping permit information available to journalists and
other watchdogs. The issue first came up in Virginia a couple years
ago when the Roanoke Times posted the database on the paper's Web site.

"That created quite a stir," she recalled, "and although they took it
down in less than 24 hours, it still infuriated the citizens in the
Roanoke Valley area."

So a state delegate, Dave Nutter, brought it up with the state Freedom
of Information Advisory Council, a statewide advisory coalition, and a
task force was put together to study public access to the database.
Stanley's group participated.

Her hope was to at least keep permit information available in local
courthouses, if the state police was barred from releasing its
complete roster. With the attorney general having released an opinion
saying the state police could choose to withhold the roster, she said,
it was clear the courthouse compromise was the best likely outcome.

The governor recently signed that very compromise into law: the
database is sealed, but regional permits are available in the local
courthouses.

Since then, Stanley said she has fielded phone calls from South
Carolina and Tennessee, among other places, and offered her success
story in blocking an outright ban.

Stanley said the gun permit records represent key information for
public safety.

Considering "this whole issue concerning guns and ammunition, and the
availability and how easy it is to get guns -- especially in our
state," she said, "I think the public needs to be able to see this
type of information."

**************************************************
15. MI State University to Allow Guns on Campus
**************************************************

Guns are still not allowed in dorms or classes, but it's a start.

http://tinyurl.com/ngkf6a

By Brittany Shammas
The State News (East Lansing, MI)
Published: June 21, 2009

Although guns remain prohibited from MSU campus buildings, those with
concealed weapons permits now can carry a firearm through campus,
following a MSU Board of Trustees vote Friday.

MSU's rules prior to the board meeting, which completely banned guns
from campus, were changed to match those of the county and state, MSU
spokesman Kent Cassella said.

"The policy we have and the rules we have are not changing, just that
one narrow portion, to better align with county and state law," he said.

The trustees voted 7-1 to make the exception, with Trustee Colleen
McNamara voting against it because of a concern the state was
interfering with MSU's independence. The state Legislature contradicts
a prior decision made by the Board of Trustees to create an ordinance
banning guns from campus, she said.

McNamara said MSU police were torn between enforcing the state law and
enforcing the campus ordinance. She said the Board of Trustees does
not want to fight state law over the issue and her vote was intended
to be symbolic.

"I want to hold the thought. We did have an ordinance that said no
guns on campus and maybe someday we will have a similar ordinance,"
she said.

Although some students said they were uncomfortable with the change,
others, such as apparel and textile design junior Jessica Stevens,
said they supported the right to self-defense.

"I don't really feel too great about guns in general, but I feel like
people have a right to defend themselves, especially women, so
whatever makes them feel safe is OK," she said.

But human nutrition senior Eric Gurzelo questioned whether the change
would make a difference.

"Looking at the Virginia Tech massacre, the first person shot was a
professor who had a concealed weapon in his car," he said.

The issue came up for vote because under MSU's former ordinance, a
person with a concealed weapons permit, which legally allows them to
carry a weapon, would be issued a citation, Cassella said.

"Even though I might only have done a traffic violation, the police
will have to write me another citation, even though I have a permit
and did nothing wrong," he said. "It's kind of a catch-22."

At the University of Michigan, guns still are completely banned, with
the county prosecutor enforcing the ban, McNamara said. She said the
prosecutor who handles crime on MSU's campus did not prosecute people
who violated MSU's ordinance, instead siding with state law and
prompting the board's vote to change policy.

**************************************************
16. Politicizing tragedy: The Holocaust memorial shooting isn't about
gun control
**************************************************

http://tinyurl.com/msccko

The Washington Times
14 June 2009

Capitalizing on Tragedy: Politics overwhelmed common sense in the
aftermath of Wednesday's shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum. Less than two hours after the attack, gun-control groups were
lobbying for strict new gun regulations to avoid more such tragedies.
Gun control is not the solution and would not have prevented last
week's carnage. A few facts are useful to dispel some gun-control
myths. The District already bans civilians from carrying guns in
public places. Wednesday's shooter, James W. von Brunn, is a convicted
felon who spent more than five years in prison for, among other
charges, attempted armed kidnapping of federal officials. Because he
was a felon, it would be illegal for him to own a gun even if ordinary
law-abiding citizens could. Mr. von Brunn broke numerous laws in the
course of his rampage. Current gun regulations didn't stop the attack,
and neither would new ones.

**************************************************
17. An anti-gunner repents
**************************************************

A previously anti-gun woman decides that guns are not "bad" and that
getting a gun might even be a good idea.
Worth the read as she tries to explain her previous position and
understands why she now cannot explain it.

http://tinyurl.com/mpyf38

Why Do Liberals Bleed?
American Thinker
Robin of Berkeley 17 June 2009

I've been thinking about learning how to fire a gun, maybe even buying
one. Now if you are a lifelong conservative, Red State dweller, and
NRA member, you might be thinking, "Big yawn. What's next? She'll be
telling us what she had for breakfast?"

So let me try to convey to you the enormousness, the Alice in
Wonderland quality of my even posing the question, something I've
never, ever considered in my life. No one I know owns a gun. I've
never seen a gun (well on a holster of a police officer but I never
wanted to get up close and personal with it). I have given lots of
good money over the years for gun control. Learning to fire a gun
seems as ludicrous as deciding to take up brain surgery.

But, I am rethinking absolutely everything. There is not a single
thing that I believed, that I held absolute and holy, that is not up
for grabs. My brain is in a tizzy 24/7 and I don't know if up is
down, or if east is west.

And the thought about a gun just came to me last week when I was
listening to talk radio. A caller related how an armed citizen in the
South stopped a take over robbery in a fast food restaurant. A light
went on in my head. Suddenly I realized that the Red States may be on
to something: the police are strongly supported, the citizens have
guns, and, therefore, the gangsters may be a little reluctant to take
over the local Burger King.

Contrast that to the Blue States where few liberals own guns and the
police are being emasculated. You may have heard of the horrendous
case in Oakland where four cops were killed by a known felon, on a
parole violation for child rape. But the powers that be in Oakland
sent out the message to the police to make nice and not scare the
populace, so the officers never drew their guns when approaching this
felon. (Anyone else notice how the Left is slowly but surely
disarming the police and military, situation-by-situation?) When I
expressed my heartfelt grief to a friend about the deaths of these
brave officers, he said, "The man who shot them was a human being too."

(I'd like to say that, as a psychotherapist, I responded in a
sophisticated and psychologically crafty manner. No such luck. I
almost blew a gasket, turned bright red, and said with barely
contained anger, "He lost his claim to be human when he raped a
child." To the friend's credit -- and perhaps some fear on his part
-- he shut up.)

So what I realized during the talk show is that in places like
Berkeley, only the criminals have the power. Not only do they have
the power of guns, they are supported by several thousand brainwashed
zombies who give the green light to criminals because they are the
victims of someone else's "privilege" and "supremacy" and
"imperialism." (Although I was a leftist until recently, I was the
rare exception: I never excused crime because of the bad guy's race,
creed, age, sex, or daddy being a meanie.)

I recall vividly what a Berkeley police officer once told me:

"Berkeley is a city of victims. You try to understand the street
people and the criminals and sit down and talk to them and then they
hit you on the head and steal your purse. The police come and then
you refuse to press charges. The criminals know this and prey on you."


And he's right: almost everyone I know has been a victim of some
awful crime, from being in restaurants during takeover robberies (not
uncommon here), to being robbed at gunpoint, to being assaulted for no
other reason except a thrill for the assailants. A neighbor, who had
lived all over the world, once said to me, "Berkeley is the most
dangerous place I've ever lived." Her husband was robbed at gunpoint
as were almost all her friends. She couldn't wait to get out of here.

I wish I could say I'm an exception to the victim rule. But several
years ago I was coming out of a restaurant in a decent area and was
mugged. As Gavin de Becker states in his seminal book, The Gift of
Fear, (which I, unfortunately, read after the fact), victims generally
sense when they're about to be victimized but ignore the signs in
order to be nice and not judgmental. This was my situation exactly.
I could tell right away that the guy looked sinister. But it was a
major street, at high noon, and I didn't want to seem racist, so I
turned the corner a few feet to reach my car, and a minute later, had
my purse stolen as well as all my feelings of being safe in the world.

I'll spare you (and me) the horrible details, but the incident ended
with my having a broken nose and two black eyes, and needing surgery
for the nose several days later. People wrote bad checks and stole
rental cars in my name for a year afterwards. I developed a fear not
only of people, but of the phone and the mail, as every day was
another reminder of what happened.

Witness the response of a left wing friend, Judy, when I told her I
was mugged. She said, and I quote, "I don't think what you went
through was so bad. And anyway he was a victim too." (Maybe it's a
good thing I wasn't armed back then.)

So I'm asking myself whether I should become armed, and I'm also
wondering why so many "educated" people (I might have just answered my
own question) put up with crime infested streets? Why are the
biggest protests against the cops? Why are the innocent viewed as
guilty, and the guilty innocent? Why is no one up in arms about
liberals literally bleeding?

Then it occurred to me: Stockholm Syndrome, the same brainwashing
that turned Berkeley resident Patty Hearst into Tania the bank
robber. She was tortured, sexually abused, and kept in isolation by
the far left group, the Symbionese Liberation Army (kissing cousins of
Bill and Bernadine's Weather Underground). Successfully brainwashed,
she joined their twisted and sick "army."

In the real Stockholm, the hostages were locked in a vault for days,
came to "love" their captors in that perverted way that an abused
woman loves her husband, and refused to testify against them in
court. One even became engaged to her captor.

SS (good acronym, huh?) is rooted in a basic, primordial instinct for
self protection in the wake of extraordinary trauma and terror. To
survive, the victim identifies with the captors and merges
psychologically with them. But SS takes on a life of its own when
victims stop seeing their own humanity and want only to serve the
abuser.

Living in places like Berkeley, being force fed propaganda, with
police afraid to protect you, your friends unsympathetic, and no one
armed, SS can spread like a virus. What starts out as compassion
morphs into complicity. Occasionally there may be someone, like me,
who snaps out of the trance they've been in for decades. After all,
Tania woke up and became Patty Hearst again and, interestingly,
married her bodyguard. (I bet that they own a whole lot of weapons.)
But she had to leave Berkeley for a leafy, sheltered life elsewhere to
do this.

But then again, I never bought into the notion of collective guilt,
that groups of people are guilty because of the color of their skin,
and individuals are exonerated because of some protected victim
status. I'm the rare bird. In Berkeley, most people are so over
identified with their ideology, that their logical, questioning minds
have flown the coop along with a God-given knowledge, possessed by
every 5 year old, of right and wrong.

As a good, loyal liberal, I always expected others to take care of
me. If I gave my unqualified loyalty to the system, I could sleep
well at night. But now, with victims left bleeding, a dangerously
naive government, and sheep like masses, I see the absurdity of my
thinking.

I heard a philosopher once say that one of the biggest existential
tasks of life is giving up the fantasy of the ultimate rescuer.
Liberalism reinforced this fantasy for me, as it does for so many
others. Now I see the truth: We come into this world alone, and we
will leave it alone. When we live our lives in the back seat of the
car expecting Daddy to drive us, we only have a child's view of the
world.

On that very dark day in November years ago when I became an object of
someone's evil and inhumanity, I glimpsed a truth I never wanted to
see: that there really is no protection, not in the way I had always
thought, not by other flawed humans. I didn't know what to do with
this insight until 1 1/2 years ago when I discovered that there were
others out there like me, that there was something called
conservatism, and now slowly but surely the pieces are coming together
for me, one by one.

As I continue on the path to independence and personal responsibility,
perhaps looking to myself for protection is another step on my journey.

A frequent AT contributor, Robin is a psychotherapist marooned in
Berkeley.

**************************************************
18. And then there were nine, soon to be eight! [states banning
concealed carry in restaurants]
**************************************************

VCDL Executive member & DC Gun Rights Examiner Mike Stollenwerk
celebrates today's repeal of Tennessee's ban on concealed handgun
carry in alcohol serving restaurants. There are only 9 states left
still banning concealed carry in restaurants serving alcohol.
Arizona's repeal now awaits their governor's signature.

Enjoy!

http://tinyurl.com/n879zh


**************************************************
19. Readily accessible guns only would threaten the public
**************************************************

"However, I am being denied my Fourth Amendment right to feel safe in
my own person." Talk about just making up stuff as you go along!

There is so much wrong with the LTE below, that it's hard to know
where to begin. But - and this is important - wrap you head in about
2 inches of duct tape before reading her LTE or you will absolutely
regret it.

If you can wade through it, my comments are imbedded below:

http://tinyurl.com/l8guzd

wiscnews.com 17 June 2009

Virginia Tech. Columbine. A church in Kansas. A Holocaust Museum in
Washington D.C. A school in Weston. I think that is personal enough.

Mrs. Dainty, I respect your right to free speech, however I still do
not agree with your letter from last week's Sauk Prairie Eagle, "Guns
provide self-defense and aren't allowed in bars."

When I think about the gun issue, I am thinking about the greater good
of all people and not just the good of my family or myself. My family
hasn't had to deal with gun violence, thank God. Much of that is
because I grew up knowing you look but don't touch when it came to the
family guns.

I also had respect for my elders and the police officers of this town.
I thought that an individual carrying a loaded weapon, waiting to take
justice into their own hands was called vigilantism and was against
the law. [PVC: So police are vigilantes now? Remember that if a
police officer has to defend his life and kills a suspect, then that
suspect has not been to court yet. The truth is that when a criminal
attempts to take someone's life, he has waved his day in court, and
that is the law.]

No one wants to take away anyone's guns, so you aren't being denied
your Second Amendment right to bear arms. However, I am being denied
my Fourth Amendment right to feel safe in my own person. [PVC: Oh,
please show me that in the Constitution!]

Do my rights mean nothing? The Constitution that was written in 1787
was written as a guideline for our country to follow on the road to
becoming a civilized nation. We are a nation that does not allow any
one individual to be "judge, jury and executioner." [PVC: So if a
violent criminal grabs her child and is walking away, she would just
let the criminal leave unchallenged and go look for a phone to call
the police? Unbelievable - I feel sorry for her kids.]

If I wanted my child growing up feeling safe only if she carried a
weapon I would move to a third world country. That is the difference
between The United States of America and many other countries: we are
supposed to be civilized. [PVC: Then there is the REAL world, Renee.]

Open carry laws will make it so much harder for police to determine a
potential criminal. I choose to trust my police department and the
training and knowledge of the law they have, instead of thinking that
my opinions of emminent danger are the same as everyone else's. I
believe the majority of citizens of this great town are smarter than
this. [PVC: Trust me on this, when someone is trying to kill you,
you will be able to figure it out without special training.]

We need to focus on the greater good. There is loss, absolutely, and
I'm sorry that anyone has to feel that. However, only thinking of
yourself and your own safety is selfish, and not the American way.
[PVC: So, thinking only of Renee's right to feel safe in her own
person is the American way?]

I choose to focus on the good in people and not the bad and not play
on people's fears of what might happen. [PVC: Renee can admire the
rapist's nice eyes as he is violating her? Or the nice clothes that
the child molester is wearing who just abducted her child?]

Everyone has both good and bad in them and sometimes the only
difference is not having a gun. [PVC: Sheesh, Renee - few people are
so bad that they would murder or seriously hurt someone else. So the
presence of a gun in the hands of a law abiding citizen is only
dangerous to criminals.]

Lastly, to Mrs. Dainty's point that cars are also dangerous: Of course
they are dangerous. However that is not their purpose for being. Guns,
on the other hand, have only two purposes: To harm life, and target
shooting. Isn't there enough violence already? [PVC: The fact that
far more people lose their lives in cars than than they do from being
shot is not important because, in Renee's opinion, guns are designed
to kill and cars aren't? Tell that to the people who have lost family
members to drunk drivers. BTW, guns have one main purpose which cars
don't: to save innocent lives.]

Renee Wilson, Prairie du Sac

**************************************************
20. PBS: The Silence About Guns
**************************************************

Ah, a couple of erudite members of the press, who consider themselves
so knowledgeable, but who are totally clueless about the roots of
violence.

Who are so simple-minded that they believe that banning a piece of
metal can make everyone live in harmony.

How can they be human and yet not understand that guns are nothing
more than a tool to a criminal? Could a carpenter still build a table
without a hammer? You bet he could, he would just use something else,
a steel rod perhaps, to achieve the same goal.

All I see of interest in the article below is just how many crocodile
tears that gun haters can shed as they watch impotently as the
American People pass them and their bigotry by:

http://tinyurl.com/l5hq49

By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship June 13, 2009


Editor's Note: One impact of slick 30-second attack ads and demagogic
political talk shows is that certain issues have been virtually
banished from serious consideration in Washington, for instance,
debates about the need to raise taxes to pay for worthy programs - or
the value of some common-sense gun control.

On the issue of gun control, there is political cowering and silence
even while politically motivated violence spreads dangerously across
America, as Bill Moyers and Michael Winship note in this guest essay:

You know by now that in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, an elderly white
supremacist and anti-Semite named James W. von Brunn allegedly walked
into the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with a .22-caliber
rifle and killed a security guard before being brought down himself.

He's 88 years old, with a long record of hatred and paranoid fantasies
about the Illuminati and a Global Zionist state. How bitter the bile
that has curdled for so many decades.

You will know, too, of the recent killing, while ushering at his local
church, of Dr. George Tiller, one of the few doctors in the country
still performing late-term abortions. Sadly, this case was proof that
fatal violence works. His family has announced that his Wichita,
Kansas, clinic will not be reopened.

You may be less familiar with the June 1st shootings in an army
recruiting office in Little Rock that killed one soldier and wounded
another. The suspect in question is an African-American Muslim convert
who says he acted in retaliation for U.S. military activity in the
Middle East.

Soon, however, these terrible deeds will be forgotten, as are already
the three policemen killed by an assault weapon in Pittsburgh; the
four policemen killed in Oakland, California; the 13 people gunned
down in Binghamton, New York; the 10 in an Alabama shooting spree;
five in Santa Clara, California; the eight dead in a North Carolina,
nursing home. All during this year alone.

There is much talk about hate talk; hate crimes against blacks,
whites, immigrants, Muslims, Jews; about violence committed in the
name of bigotry or religion. But why don't we talk about guns?

We're arming ourselves to death. Even as gunshots ricocheted around
the country, an amendment allowing concealed weapons in national parks
snuck into the popular credit card reform bill. Another victory for
the gun lobby, to sounds of silence from the White House.

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence,
wrote - just days before the Holocaust Museum incident - that "rather
than propose concrete action that makes it harder for dangerous people
to get firearms - while still respecting the Second Amendment rights
of law-abiding gun owners - all Washington can seem to muster after
high-profile shootings are 'thoughts and prayers' for the victims and
their families.

"For his part, the President has also included sincere expressions of
'deep sadness' at these tragic losses - though without any call to
change any of our policies to prevent those losses."

Yet, as a presidential candidate, Obama pledged "our determination to
do whatever it takes to eradicate this violence from our streets, from
our schools, from our neighborhoods and our cities. That is our duty
as Americans." The fact is, neither party will stand up to the
National Rifle Association, the best known front group for the arms
merchants.

In Virginia, just across the Potomac River from the Holocaust Museum,
this week's Democratic primary for governor was won by state
legislator R. Creigh Deeds, a man who supports allowing concealed
weapons in restaurants that serve alcohol and opposes limiting handgun
purchases to one a month.

After Wednesday's shooting, a conservative organization immediately
offered those of us in the media a chance to interview the founder of
"Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership," whose expertise, it
was said, is in helping people understand why gun control doesn't
belong in a civilized society.

The e-mail went on to say, "Your audience will appreciate [his] non
nonsense common sense talk that will make them wonder why anyone wants
to ban guns in the first place."

Thanks, but no thanks. And no thanks to his counterparts among
Christians and Muslims who use every violent shedding of blood to try
to promote the worship of guns. Guns don't kill people, they say.
People kill people. True. People kill people - with guns.

So let the faithful of every persuasion keep their guns for hunting
and skeet, for trap and target practice, for collecting. They can even
have a permit for a gun to protect their business or home, even though
it's 22 times more likely to shoot a member of the family (including
suicides) than an intruder.

But please, there are already some 200 million, privately owned
firearms in America. Every year there are 30,000 gun deaths and in
some years more than 400,000 non-fatal, gun-related assaults. The next
time someone wades through a pool of blood to sidle up and champion
the preservation of firearms, can't we just say, no thanks?

Enough's enough.

Bill Moyers is managing editor and Michael Winship is senior writer of
the weekly public affairs program "Bill Moyers Journal," which airs
Friday night on PBS. Check local airtimes or comment at The Moyers
Blog at http://www.pbs.org/moyers.

**************************************************
21. . . . and, Why have we stopped talking about car violence?
**************************************************

Examiner.com column by VCDL Executive member and DC Gun Rights
Examiner Mike Stollenwerk employs argument by analogy to highlight the
hypocrisy of PBS's Bill Moyers' recent attack on Americans' gun rights
after the Holocaust museum murder by a crazy man.

If only gun control and logic mixed, but they don't:

http://tinyurl.com/n7ylo6
OakRidgeStars
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Posts: 14108
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Re: VA-ALERT: VCDL Update 7/3/09

Post by OakRidgeStars »

The following text was omitted from the post above due to the posting limitations. All rights reserved. Void where prohibited. :roll:

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VCDL's meeting schedule: http://www.vcdl.org/meetings.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------
***************************************************************************
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
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