04/27/11 - VCDL Update 4/27/11

[allingeneral]

VCDL's meeting schedule: http://www.vcdl.org/meetings.html
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Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html
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1. Get ahead of the rush. Pre-order your VCDL carry cards
2. Another "puff piece" on Colin Goddard
3. VCDL member on video about open carry
4. Gunman who shot dead 12 at Brazil school praised Virginia Tech killer
5. Randy Forbes discusses pending pro-Second Amendment legislation
6. Crime drops in Fairfax for second straight year
7. Could the ATF's shotgun importation study lead to a ban?
8. Update: Philadelphia open carrier charged with reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct
9. Open letter to UTK faculty, students, and staff in support of CCW on campus
10. The gang that won't shoot straight
11. New Democrat party chief wants more gun control
12. Civilian involved defensive shootings


**************************************************1. Get ahead of the rush. Pre-order your VCDL carry cards**************************************************

The VCDL Carry Cards, identifying where in Virginia carrying of firearms is legal (on the front) and the locations where carry is prohibited (on the back), typically come out in early July, once all of the new laws have gone into affect and we have had a chance to get the new cards printed.

If you would like between 1 and 10 newly revised Carry Cards, as fast as we can get them to you, send a self addressed stamped envelope (SASE) and your most generous donation to:

VCDL Carry CardPO Box 254Garrisonville, VA 22463

Make checks payable to: VCDL

Please enclose a note with:

1) the number of cards desired

2) an email address or phone number in case there are issues, and

3) if you prefer NOT to have a "Guns Save Lives" sticker affixed to your return envelope.

Your SASE with an orange "Guns Save Lives" sticker (unless you opt out of the sticker) and the requested Carry Cards will be sent to you as soon as the cards are available in early July.

**************************************************2. Another "puff piece" on Colin Goddard**************************************************

Goddard had enough time to get down on the floor, get out a cell phone, dial 9-1-1, and have a partial conversation with the dispatcher and yet he wouldn't have had enough time to have drawn a gun and put a bullet in Cho?

So says Goddard and the Brady Campaign whenever the issue of college carry is brought up.

This information shows just how much hooey is being handed out by the anti-freedom fanatics and blindly parroted by the mainstream media.

George H. Foster emailed me this:

--

Philip -

The USAToday did a piece on Goddard's experience at the massacre at Virginia Tech.

What caught my attention in this piece was the following description of the events just before and as Cho entered the classroom:

"He and the other 16 students in room 211 heard a commotion in another part of the building. Their professor, Jocelyne Courture-Norwak, 49, ordered everyone under their desks and told someone to call 911. Goddard dialed his cellphone, whispering as Cho burst into the room. 'The dispatcher was still talking on the phone, and I thought it sounded so loud,' Goddard said."

If this is true, the timing and sequence of events would have permitted an armed person - student or teacher - to be prepared to deal with Cho as the door opens, since drawing and setting up to fire takes less time than dialing 911, waiting for someone to answer, and then explaining everything to the dispatcher.

From USA Today: http://tinyurl.com/3ebeak2

By Melanie EversleyApril 13, 2011

NEW YORK - It's a spring evening in Midtown Manhattan and Colin Goddard is working a reception on the top floor of the HBO building.

Since surviving four gunshot wounds at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, Colin Goddard has remade himself into an advocate for gun control legislation.

Waiters carry trays of hors d'oeuvres through the crowd while Goddard, a 25-year-old who could model for a J.Crew catalog, chats amiably. He doesn't have to move much because people flutter around him. The lights flicker, and the crowd moves to a screening room to watch Gun Fight, a documentary on the nation's firearms debate. The film prominently features Goddard, a survivor of the April 16, 2007, shooting at Virginia Tech.

Scenes like this are typical of Goddard's life since he became assistant director for federal legislation at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a Washington-based group pushing for more gun control. When Goddard visits lawmakers on Capitol Hill or speaks to groups, listeners latch onto his words. Some say they respect how he has turned the trauma of being shot four times into something productive. Before Gun Fight, filmmaker Kevin Breslin made a documentary featuring Goddard called Living for 32, so named for the number of people shot dead by Virginia Tech gunman Seung Hui Cho before he fatally shot himself. That documentary was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

"He looks good, he speaks directly and honestly, he's not programmed, he's not scripted," said Paul Helmke, president and CEO of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "Sometimes, it's not quite what I think he should say," Helmke added , "but, hey, that's him."

Barbara Kopple, director of Gun Fight, said there was little footage shot of Goddard for the documentary that she didn't use. "He's approached all this with an amazing levelheadedness and a sense of purpose."

"He's just very unique for a young guy," Kevin Breslin said. "He could have collected the insurance policy and taken a walk. A lot of people would have."

Colin Goddard lays in his hospital room in Christiansburg, Va., a few days after he was shot at nearby Virginia Tech.

This new life is all a whirlwind to Goddard, who shows no obvious signs that three bullets remain in his body. When Goddard first arrived at Virginia Tech's campus in Blacksburg, Va., he had plans to become an astronaut. Now, he is working seven days a week for federal legislation to keep felons and people with mental problems from getting guns.

"Sometimes, I'll be going somewhere and I'm like, 'What the hell am I doing? How did I get to be on this plane going to Los Angeles right now to speak to these people,' " Goddard said during an interview at Brady Campaign headquarters in downtown Washington.

April is proving to be a busy month for Goddard, one of 17 survivors wounded in the massacre by a troubled Virginia Tech senior who bought at least one of the two semiautomatic pistols he used in the shooting at a shop. HBO's Gun Fight premieres April 13. There are gruesome anniversaries too. Along with Virginia Tech, there is the April 20, 1999, shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., and the April 3, 2009, shooting at an immigrant services center in Binghamton, N.Y.

At 6'3" and 190 pounds, Goddard looks like a typical, healthy twentysomething. He wears a rubber bracelet on his right wrist in honor of a cousin who died of leukemia. He plays volleyball and he snowboards. His ruddy complexion belies the discomfort his father says he feels daily from the titanium rod in his left leg and bullet pieces throughout his thigh.

"He knows there's something different about his body, no doubt about that," Andrew Goddard said.

Colin Goddard's early life may have prepared him for the chaos of the day of the massacre.

His parents were international development workers -- his father a mechanical engineer for the British government and his mother a Peace Corps volunteer -- who met in northeastern Kenya. Anne Goddard gave birth to her son at a hospital in Nairobi. He was a good baby who rarely cried and who followed his parents to cities in developing countries -- Mogadishu in Somalia, Djakarta in Indonesia and Cairo in Egypt. He saw deep poverty at a young age, his father said. He was self-assured and easily mingled with adults as a toddler.

"That gave him more of an ease which he's carried over into adulthood," said Andrew Goddard, 57.

When Goddard reached college age, he visited Virginia Tech and loved it. He started out as a physics major, but his astronaut career plans were dashed when he learned he was colorblind. Taking part in ROTC gave him second thoughts about the military.

"He said, 'I don't want people to follow me because I frighten them.' He said, 'I want people to follow me because of the example I set,' " Andrew Goddard said.

By 2007, Colin Goddard was rethinking his life. He had recently lost a cousin and a friend, both to car accidents. He had shifted his academic focus to international affairs with an eye toward joining the foreign service.

The morning of April 16 was unusually cool in Blacksburg, a university town of 43,000 in southwest Virginia. Wisps of snow blew around campus, and Goddard was a few minutes late for his French class in Norris Hall. He and the other 16 students in room 211 heard a commotion in another part of the building. Their professor, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, 49, ordered everyone under their desks and told someone to call 911.

Goddard dialed his cellphone, whispering as Cho burst into the room.

"The dispatcher was still talking on the phone, and I thought it sounded so loud," Goddard said.

Goddard felt something kick him in the leg. It was a bullet striking above his left knee. The force knocked his phone out of his hand, but another student covered it with her hair and kept the line open. Three more bullets struck him in the left hip, right shoulder -- the only bullet that exited -- and right hip.

"I was kind of spinning," he said. He felt wetness, blood, slip down his leg. He smelled something like fireworks. "There was no pain and, with that, numbness."

Cho shot everyone in room 211. Eleven students and the professor died. "I have some images that I don't think I'll ever forget of lying on the floor and seeing all the bullet casings. And seeing bodies as well. And getting pulled out of the room and lying in the hallway," he said.

Wide-eyed policemen repeatedly asked him his name and his major. Four of them, one for each limb, picked him up and carried him out of the building.

In the ambulance, he started to hurt. The ride was about a half-hour because the emergency room closest to the school was full.

"It felt like the driver was driving 100 miles an hour," he said. "That caused me to bounce up and down on the gurney table and I was screaming and hollering at the guy to slow down. I kept telling the police officers, 'This is the craziest thing in my life.' "

That morning, Andrew Goddard was at the home in Richmond, Va., where he and his wife had just moved so Anne Goddard could take a job heading ChildFund International, an organization that helps poor children. The move was so recent that Colin Goddard didn't have his parents' telephone number. He could only tell the emergency staff where his mother worked.

The hospital staff tracked down Anne Goddard, who was leading her first board meeting. A board member offered the couple a private plane for the 220-mile trip to the hospital in Radford, Va. After a harrowing trip through the wind and snow, the couple found their son at the hospital, sitting up on a gurney.

"He had a huge pit crew working on him," Andrew Goddard said. "He turned his head to the surgeon and said, 'Is all this absolutely necessary?' And apparently the surgeon thought that was very funny."

After six days in the hospital, Colin Goddard went back to the apartment in Blacksburg that he shared with three other students. His father camped out on an air mattress to take care of him. Friends came to visit from morning until night.

"My friends who came were like, 'Dude, what was it like? What was it like to get shot? How were the nurses?' "

In three months of physical therapy, Goddard abandoned his wheelchair. By summer, he had gone from a walker to crutches to a cane to nothing. His father said it was lucky that he'd secured a summer internship in Madagascar, because that motivated him to get back on his feet. While in the country off Africa's southeast coast, he met a journalist who'd dealt with trauma victims. The journalist advised him to talk as much as possible about his experience.

So that's what he did, over and over, with friends. It got easier.

While he returned to Virginia Tech for his final year, his father and parents of others who'd been shot began investigating the school's response to the shooting and Cho's background. They learned Cho had been seen by counselors, written morbid essays for classes and had been cited as making classmates uncomfortable, but he was still able to buy a gun at a shop.

The elder Goddard became involved with the Million Mom March, an organization against gun violence, and took over the Richmond chapter. He asked his son to speak publicly about his experiences. Colin Goddard agreed. Afterward, he received an anonymous e-mail that said, "You are a coward for not throwing your chair at the guy who shot you."

"The message I got was like, wow, if I start talking about this, this is what people are going to tell me?" Goddard said.

On April 3, 2009, he heard a television announcer describe the massacre in Binghamton, N.Y. Jiverly Wong, a Vietnamese immigrant, shot and killed 13 people at an immigration services center and wounded four more before killing himself.

"I was so sucked into it because it seemed to me like the same montage of images of people crying and policemen running and yellow tape and flowers and candles," he said.

Goddard said the incident unnerved him so much that he contacted Paul Helmke. He'd met the president of the Brady Center through his father.

Goddard interned with the Brady Campaign that summer, spending a lot of time on Capitol Hill, then went to France to teach English in a program he'd signed up for before Binghamton happened. While there, U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was charged with killing 13 people and wounding 29 at Fort Hood in Texas. That incident solidified Goddard's desire to resume his work with the Brady Campaign.

These days, Goddard divides his time between Capitol Hill, appearances around the country and a sparsely decorated office at the Brady Campaign. He lives with three roommates he met through Craigslist. He likes to read The Economist. He is dating someone. Sometimes, flashes from April 16, 2007, pop up in his mind, and he realizes he could have died.

"People say, 'Well, you're here because God was looking out for you.' But there were good people who were killed in that classroom, and I'm sure he was looking out for them too. People say, 'Oh, well, you're here to do something profound and change the world.' I want to just improve things a little bit," Goddard said.

"I've learned some things that I can't help but share."

**************************************************3. VCDL member on video about open carry**************************************************

From Youtube.com: http://tinyurl.com/62sjnza

Craig Rutherford spent years carrying a gun in the Balkans and in Iraq as a defense contractor. So when he came home to Virginia, he didn't see a reason to put it down. And he isn't alone. The Virginia Citizens Defense League counts 2,500 members. [PVC: Obviously, the reporter is using very old numbers. We have over twice the number of members she claims we have and 15,000 on VA-ALERT.] VCDL organizes public events like this environmental cleanup in Carrollton, Virginia where they openly carry loaded weapons at parks, restaurants and other public spaces in an effort to normalize it. VCDL and OpenCarry.org have opposed every piece of gun control legislation, and their critics say they make the National Rifle Association (NRA) look moderate.

**************************************************4. Gunman who shot dead 12 at Brazil school praised Virginia Tech killer**************************************************

VCDL Board Member Bruce Jackson emailed me this:

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The anti-gunners finally got their wish. They showed the VaTech shooter so many times they got the copy-cat they were looking for! [PVC: Unfortunately for the antis it was in Brazil and not in America.]

From The Telegraph: http://tinyurl.com/3t32ds4

By Robin YappApril 17, 2011

One of the images shows Wellington Menezes de Oliveira, 23, pointing a gun directly at the camera, while another shows him looking down as he holds a gun in each hand with his arms spread out.

The pictures are reminiscent of those sent to a television news channel by Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people before turning the gun on himself in the Virginia Tech massacre of April 2007, the worst mass shooting in the US.

Menezes de Oliveira, who killed himself after shooting dead 12 pupils at Tasso da Silveira school in Rio de Janeiro on April 7, praised Cho as an "icon in the struggle against the unfaithful" in one of seven videos he recorded before his rampage.

He also talked of God, quoted from the Bible and frequently referred to his "brothers".

However, after studying the videos and letters written by the killer, police have said that he acted alone rather than as part of a terrorist or religious group and closed the case.Related Articles

The video footage indicates that Menezes de Oliveira was motivated by bullying at the school and what he perceived as a lack of action by staff.

"I hope this serves as a lesson, especially to those school officials who stood by with their arms crossed as students were being attacked, humiliated, ridiculed," he said in one video.

"I want to leave very clear that I am not responsible for the deaths that will occur, even though my fingers will be on the trigger."

Eduardo Paes, the mayor of Rio, has announced that the city authorities will compensate the families of those killed but the size of the payouts has not yet been revealed.

The massacre was the first of its type in Brazil and has led to intense political debate about gun control and plans for a referendum later this year on whether to ban the sale of firearms.

Brazil held a similar vote in 2005 but nearly two thirds voted against a ban.

**************************************************5. Randy Forbes discusses pending pro-Second Amendment legislation**************************************************

Joe Alexander emailed me this:

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From forbes.house.gov: http://tinyurl.com/3npr2py

Week of April 11-15, 2011

Second Amendment Rights =09

Reformed the ATF's penalty system. Congressman Forbes worked to reform the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) by cosponsoring H.R.1093 (http://tinyurl.com/3n8xsqz), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Reform Act of 2011. This bill will begin to reduce unnecessary restrictions, correct errors, and codify longstanding congressional policies in the firearms arena. H.R. 1093 totally rewrites the system of administrative penalties for licensed dealers, manufacturers and importers of firearms. Today, for most violations, BATFE can only give a federal firearms license (FFL) holder a warning, or totally revoke his license. H.R. 1093 would allow fines or license suspensions for less serious violations, while still allowing license revocation for the kind of serious violations that would block an investigation or put guns in the hands of criminals. This prevents the all-too-common situations where BATFE has revoked licenses for insignificant technical violations-such as improper use of abbreviations, or filing records in the wrong order.

Fought suppression of Second Amendment Rights. Congressman Forbes is cosponsoring H.R.645 (http://tinyurl.com/3ss8n3d), the Second Amendment Enforcement Act, to eliminate harsh gun control laws imposed by the District of Columbia after the Supreme Court`s decision in D.C. v. Heller. This bill will abolish the city`s intentionally difficult and costly firearm registration requirement, its restrictions on carrying a gun for protection on private property, its post-Heller ban on hundreds of types of semi-automatic firearms designated as "assault weapons," and its ban on standard defensive magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. These measures have been upheld in Federal court in what was known as "Heller 2." Anticipating that the D.C. Council will try to suppress gun ownership by preventing dealers from conducting business in the city, the bill provides for D.C. residents to buy handguns from firearm dealers in Maryland and Virginia, and prescribes reasonable conditions for the lawful transportation of firearms within the city.

**************************************************6. Crime drops in Fairfax for second straight year**************************************************

"The statistics reveal Fairfax to be among the safest counties in the Washington region."

Small wonder since guns are readily available to citizens in Northern Virginia and legal to carry for self-defense.

Maryland and DC's gun laws only bring more danger and misery to their states.

Mark Tremblay emailed me this:

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From The Washington Examiner: http://tinyurl.com/3tnnl8v

By Leah FabelApril 21, 2011

Crime in Fairfax County is down more than 9 percent in 2011, after a 10 percent decline in 2010, according to police statistics that show Fairfax to be one of the safest counties in the Washington area.

"We don't know what the explanation might be," said police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell. "We hope it's effective policing and excellent community participation, but it's very hard to answer that question."

Regardless of why Fairfax residents are behaving better than in years past, Caldwell said the declines mirror trends nationally. In 2009, homicides fell by more than 7 percent throughout the United States, according to the FBI.

Fairfax recorded 74 rapes in 2010, down from 105 in 2009. Murder saw a slight increase to 16 in 2010, from 14 one year earlier.

The number of crimes dropped for a second straight year even though county police changed the way they collect the data to a system that should have increased the number of crimes overall. Under the previous system, police reported only the most serious crime even if multiple crimes occurred. If a victim was shot and his car was stolen, only the shooting showed up in the statistics. The new system includes the shooting and the car theft.

Still, personal property thefts fell to about 14,300 from 15,600 in 2009. There were about 960 car thefts, compared with at least 1,100 in 2009.

The statistics reveal Fairfax to be among the safest counties in the Washington region.

While murder and rape rates were about the same as in neighboring Montgomery County, Fairfax had only 390 robberies and 450 aggravated assaults in 2010, compared with 990 robberies and 900 aggravated assaults in Montgomery in 2009, the most recent available figures show.

**************************************************7. Could the ATF's shotgun importation study lead to a ban?**************************************************

Marc Montoni emailed me this:

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From The New American: http://tinyurl.com/3zgq5gu

By Raven ClaboughApril 19, 2011

Americans continue to watch their Second Amendment rights diminish, this time as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (still known as ATF) launches a campaign to change the definition of shotgun. According to the blog Beregond's Bar, a recently released study by the Bureau will ultimately make shotguns illegal, and may also have negative implications for all guns.

The ATF states that the purpose of the study is to establish criteria that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives will use to determine the importability of certain shotguns under the provisions of the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) [which] generally [prohibit] the importation of firearms into the United States.

The study focuses specifically on the sporting purposes of shotguns, just as the ATF 1998 survey provided guidelines for determining the sporting purposes of rifles.

Beregond's Bar notes, Sporting is one of the three main thrusts of gun control efforts in America. The other two are racism and those who openly advocate complete bans except for military and police.

Providing background on how sporting criteria is often utilized to advance gun control, Beregond's Bar explains:

Sporting use was how the original distinction was made about what weapons would be subject to a special tax in the National Firearms Act (NFA) in 1934, and again in Title II of the Gun Control Act of 1968. The congressional power to tax was used selectively to make ownership of weapons the government didn't like burdensome and expensive. This was gun control via the back door, as even the ATF admits. As would become the pattern, politicians found that actually dealing with crime and criminals was difficult and expensive. Blaming guns and passing a law to look like they were doing something about it was much simpler.

Declaring that activities that were generally recognized as legitimate sporting purposes in previous studies are not necessarily the same as those activities that are generally recognized as sporting purposes in the modern era, the study outlines a number of features of shotguns wherein sporting use cannot apply, many of which are common in hunting and self-defense:

* Folding, telescoping, or collapsible stocks;

* bayonet lugs;

* flash suppressors;

* magazines over 5 rounds, or a drum magazine;

* grenade-launcher mounts;

* integrated rail systems (other than on top of the receiver or barrel);

* light enhancing devices;

* excessive weight (greater than 10 pounds for 12 gauge or smaller);

* excessive bulk (greater than 3 inches in width and/or greater than 4 inches in depth);

* forward pistol grips or other protruding parts designed or used for gripping the shotgun with the shooter's extended hand.

The study concludes that there should be a limited exception to the general prohibition on the importation of firearms without placing any undue or unnecessary Federal restrictions of burdens on law-abiding citizens with respect to the acquisition, possession, or use of firearms. Though the ATF contends that its determinations will have no impact on true sporting shotguns, it admits that they will =ECcertainly prevent the importation of certain shotguns.

The study also recommends that sporting determinations for shotguns not specifically addressed by this study be reviewed by a panel pursuant to ATF orders, policies and procedures, as appropriate.

According to Beregond's Bar, however, the intentions are far more sinister than the study purports: The Obama administration is seeking once again to do via regulation what they would never be able to do via legislation.

Beregond's Bar notes that while there are a number of objections to be raised over the study, including its method of determining true sporting shotguns, the greatest objection is how the criteria measure up to the Constitution:

But there is a far more basic objection that must be raised to this new attempt at regulatory gun ban Nowhere in the constitution of the United States is there anything about a sporting purpose. The second amendment says:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Like all rights of Americans, the rights exist because you are a person. The Constitution is a contract we have with the central government to protect those rights against all enemies, foreign and domestic. One of the enumerated rights is the right to keep and bear arms. Nary a =ECsporting purpose=EE in sight in the entire document. So where did it come from?

A sporting requirement certainly seemed to be the last thing on the mind of George Mason, co-author of the Second Amendment, who observed, I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best way and most effectual way to enslave them.

While Second Amendment rights are already at risk from this study, as shotguns may be banned as a result of its determinations, Beregond's Bar contends that the =ECsporting use=EE definition found in the study could eventually be applied to all guns:

One factor that jumps out from the current ATF study is that it differs from the Clinton gun ban in a critical way. The Clinton ban looked at [a gun] and said if it could accept a high capacity magazine and had any 2 other characteristics then it was banned. Thus you could have a magazine and a pistol grip, or a magazine and night sights, and still be legal. Few people missed having a bayonet lug, and grenade launchers and grenades had essentially been banned from civilian hands since the NFA became law in 1934. The current study says that if any ONE item is on a list, including a magazine that holds more than five rounds or a place to attach a flashlight so you can see the burglar in your home, then the gun is banned.

So the problem doesn't end with shotguns.

It seems that proponents of gun control lack a fundamental

understanding of the Second Amendment and the dignity it provides the American people as it affirms their last line of defense against tyranny. George Washington emphasized the importance of firearms and their assurance of liberty when he said, Firearms stand next in importance to the constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence from the hour the Pilgrims landed to the present day, events, occurrences and tendencies prove that to ensure peace security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable =D6 the very atmosphere of firearms anywhere restrains evil interference they deserve a place of honor with all that's good."

The variety of "acceptable" firearms, however, continues to decline via federal government regulation.

**************************************************8. Update: Philadelphia open carrier charged with reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct**************************************************

Ben Piper emailed me this:

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Mark Fiorino, the Philadelphia open carrier who was drawn down on, cursed at, and lectured by Philadelphia PD officers before they checked the law and realized he was obeying it (VCDL Update 4/4/11 "12. Shocking audio: Philadelphia police violate rights of open carrier at gunpoint"), has now been charged with reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct for that same incident. He wasn't charged until after he posted the audio recording of the stop to YouTube.

From copblock.org: http://tinyurl.com/43xw3bl

April 21, 2011

In March I blogged about Mark Fiorino who was detained, after nearly being shot, by police while open carrying in Philadelphia. His friend, Andrew Shemo, sent in this update. It seems Mark has turned himself after the police issued a warrant for his arrest.

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On 4/20/11, The Philadelphia Police Department put out an arrest for Mark Fiorino with the charges being disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment all due, at least from what we know, to his prior open carry incident and audio recording of police officers while he was peacefully walking to auto zone to get a part for his Mother's vehicle. 5 police officers showed up at his work to serve the warrant, but he wasn't in the office when they arrived. After Mark found out that he had a warrant out for his arrest, he retained a lawyer and turned himself in today, 4/21/11, at the Northeast Detective Division at 2831 Levick Street which also serves as the headquarters for the 2nd and 15th district of Philadelphia.

Mark informed a fellow gun owner that there was an arrest warrant issued for him which was then posted online to keep all of us updated:

http://forum.pafoa.org/1570257-post-1015.html

Mark updates us all here:

http://forum.pafoa.org/open-carry-144/1 ... ryone.html

Mark also started a fundraising thread to bring a suit against the Philadelphia Police Department:

http://tinyurl.com/3gqcu6d

After calling and speaking to one of the officers at the police station, they informed us that Mark will be held for at least another 12 to 24 hours so he can have a pretrial and speak to the bail commission so they can set his bail.

Everyone is encouraged to contact the police station and ask why an innocent man is behind held for doing nothing illegal. The phone number to the make contact with the police department is 215-686-3150.

Walking down the street when a firearm openly carried in a holster is not illegal in the State of Pennsylvania and also not illegal in the City of Philadelphia. Philadelphia has been notified multiple times both through MPOETC training and internal directives that open carry in the City is perfectly legal.

MPOETC training guide:

"http://tinyurl.com/3kuwv3j

Philadelphia internal directive:

http://andrewshemo.com/pafoa/philadelph ... ective.pdf

**************************************************9. Open letter to UTK faculty, students, and staff in support ofCCW on campus**************************************************

UTK = University of Tennessee Knoxville

Ben Piper emailed me this:

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Good letter. Plus, there's a poll:)

From Pajamas Media: http://tinyurl.com/3qb5mey

April 18, 2011

[SNIP]

ANTI-GUNS-ON-CAMPUS BLOWBACK: You know, I raised this issue with a Faculty Senate colleague and was dismissed, but here it is: "Gun owners should remember this vote when UT comes whining back to legislature to beg, cajole and whine for more money." I think too many faculty have their backs up over budget issues - and the legislature going Republican - and have chosen this as an issue to push back with. If gun owners care, that will be a big mistake. if they don't care, well. . . that's a bad sign in a different way...

**************************************************10. The gang that won't shoot straight**************************************************

Mark Hile emailed me this:

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From Townhall.com: http://tinyurl.com/3gvqxbj

By Janet M LaRueApril 16, 2011

Hollywood and Washington are rife with elites opposed to the right to bear arms for folks in flyover country "who cling to guns or religion," as their champion in the White House described us.

Some notable exceptions include Tom Selleck, who supports the Second Amendment. He stars in the Jesse Stone film series. Selleck snuffing bad guys-what's not to like? Jesse's advice: "In a fight-front sight."

In the premiere episode, Jesse's weakness, besides drinking too much, is for a liberal city attorney who sounds like the only bar exam she passed was for mixing martinis. She looks at a photo of a shortstop diving to catch a line drive, and asks, "That would be baseball?" But the clincher is when she asks Jesse if he's ever killed anyone. His affirmative answer prompts her to ask why he couldn't just shoot to wound. She gets Jesse's "Shooting for Dummies" lecture:

"He had a machete."

It may have been his appearance on Rosie O'Donnell's TV show in 1999 that prepared Selleck to play opposite an anti-gun twit so well. He was on the show to plug his latest movie, but O'Donnell ambushed him about his association with the NRA and big, bad guns.

First of all, no straight woman I know would sit next to Tom Selleck and deliberately annoy him. Secondly, I don't know any woman who rails against the Second Amendment while employing armed guards to protect her home and her children.

O'Donnell is included among Handgun Control, Inc. members George Lucas, Jerry Seinfeld, Harrison Ford and Ed Asner, according to Robert Ito, writing for Los Angeles Magazine (Aug. 1999, p. 30). Ted Szajer, co-owner of L.A. Guns "and arms dealer to some of Hollywood's most famous shooters," told Ito:

"I've had many [celebrities] in my store buying guns from me that have been very vocally anti-gun in the past."

"A quick scan of police reports," according to Ito, "turns up Christian Slater, Al Pacino, Harry Connick, Jr. (concealed weapons charges), Martin Lawrence and James Caan."

Sharon Stone, according to Ito, "got the LAPD to make a highly publicized house call to dispose of her cache of firearms." If a woman in Texas did that, the cops would take her in for a mental health evaluation. In Texas, if you ask women if they enjoy shooting, they don't hyperventilate or call the cops. You're more likely to hear about the handgun/ rifle/shotgun range on their property and their conceal/carry license.

Hollywood elites, who fly in private jets, ride in chauffeured limos, own numerous palatial estates, hire armed guards, carry guns and tell the rest of us to go green and turn our Glocks into plowshares, support congressional elites like Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who hasn't met a gun control law she doesn't love.

According to a leading expert on guns and violence, John R. Stott:

=07Among celebrities who hold concealed-handgun permits are Bill Cosby, Cybil Shepherd, U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, Howard Stern, Donald Trump, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger of The New York Times. (More Guns Less Crime, John R. Lott, Jr. p. 15.)

=07When asked by the media "how it looks for a senator to be packing heat," Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell answered, "You'd be surprised how many senators have guns." (More Guns Less Crime, p. 15.)

During her testimony before U.S. Senate hearings on terrorism held in Washington, D.C. on April 27, 1995, Feinstein said:

"I know the urge to arm yourself because that's what I did. I was trained in firearms. I'd walk to the hospital when my husband was sick. I carried a concealed weapon. I made the determination that if somebody was going to try to take me out, I was going to take them with me."

Feinstein was one of 16 Democrats in 2006 who voted against legislation that prohibited confiscation of guns during an emergency or major disaster, which is what happened during Hurricane Katrina when New Orleans officials "pursued a policy of seizing lawfully- possessed firearms from law-abiding residents."

Feinstein was highly critical of the Supreme Court's 2008 ruling in Heller v. District of Columbia upholding the right of an individual to keep and bear arms as secured by the Second Amendment. According to The Democrat Daily, a progressive Web site. Feinstein said:

"I guess I didn't really think that they would do this. I think it opens this nation to a dramatic lack of safety. ... And I happen to believe that [the] Second Amendment does relate to the keeping of a militia. And I happen to believe that this is now going to open the door to litigation against every gun safety law that states have passed - assault weapons bans, trigger locks, and all the rest of it."

According to a Zogby poll taken after the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and 19 others in Tucson, Ariz., "60 percent of those surveyed said the shootings should not lead to stronger gun control laws, and 71% doubt stricter laws will be enacted."

As usual, Feinstein disagrees and said she "was exploring the idea of reviving a law to limit the size of ammunition clips," according to Lott's Web site, Jan. 16, 2011. On Feb. 1, Feinstein asked "the President to tighten restrictions on semi-automatic rifles," according to the NRA.

That brings us to H.R. 822, "The National Right to Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, co-sponsored by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.). It would enable millions of conceal/carry permit holders to exercise their right to self-defense while traveling outside their home states. The bill has 163 co-sponsors in the House.

A survey taken by the National Association of Chiefs of Police (NACOP) in 2006 "shows that the nation's top law enforcement officers believe that average citizens can be trusted to responsibly own firearms; that criminals ignore gun control laws; and that concealed carry laws reduce crime."

If integrity, public safety, and the Constitution mattered, Feinstein would be chief sponsor of a Senate version of H.R. 822.

**************************************************11. New Democrat party chief wants more gun control**************************************************

Dave Workman emailed me this:

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From Examiner.com: http://tinyurl.com/3ulg6w6

By Dave WorkmanApril 19, 2011

[SNIP]

New DNC chief reaffirms hers is "the party of gun control"

A Florida Democrat, just named to head the Democratic National Committee, wasted no time yesterday reaffirming the notion that Democrats are "the party of gun control," and the 15,000 members of the Washington Arms Collectors (WAC) will not be happy, because her plans could directly impact their monthly gun shows in Puyallup and Monroe.

**************************************************12. Civilian involved defensive shootings**************************************************

Mark Anderson emailed me this:

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Philip,

Came across this article in American COP magazine. It starts on page 36 and is written by attorney Steven M. Harris. I'm not a lawyer, but the article looked good to me. Remember, the intended audience for this magazine is basically cops and law enforcement. Attorney Harris makes a couple of very good points:

"Civilians usually have no standing legal immunity, and no agency, union or other support network in place. It behooves police not to needlessly add to those burdens." Calling for objectivity during the course of an investigation, the author states, "The agendas of police management, elected officials and the media should be ignored."

The author continues and politely advises that civilians often practice more, have better training and a better understanding of the law than law enforcement. (Civilians are often) "...active in defensive and competitive shooting disciplines... (and may) shoot hundreds or thousands of rounds monthly".

Civilians may attend "...training academies and classes and are worthy of respect in their own right, not held in disdain..."

"Firearms owners often know the law on par with, or better, than law enforcement."

As far as following the law, "...officers should heed the dictates of any specific state statutes before affecting an arrest... (Wrongly arresting the civilian defender) .. may result in substantial liability for civil damages to the improperly arrested intended victim."

Sure wish the Manassas police had been as respectful of the Tony's 7 as Mr. Harris recommends in this article. [PVC: This refers to seven gun owners who were shamefully harassed by the Manassas Police back in 2007 while eating at a restaurant. The police pressured the restaurant owner to kick out the gun owners, which caused a huge uproar in the gun rights community. VCDL had one of its largest protests ever when over 300 gun owners showed up at the Manassas City Council meeting a few weeks later. Video here: http://www.vcdl.org/Tonys/VCDL_Manassas.wmv ]

Mark A

From American Cop Magazine: http://tinyurl.com/3rsccg8

By Steven M. Harris, Esq.

Article begins on page 36.





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