VA-ALERT: VCDL Update 8/27/11

Post by **Taggure** » Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:41:12

VA-ALERT: VCDL Update 8/27/11
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1. VCDL picnic in Newport News on Saturday, September 10th!
2. Gun control: Misfire (editorial)
3. RT editorial: Don't read too much into gun data
4. Excellent pro-guns (& women!) program on WAMU
5. Video on largest indoor range being built in Henrico
6. ACTION ITEM: H.R. 1865: Recreational Lands Self-Defense Act of 2011
7. ATF promotes three "Fast and Furious" supervisors
8. Holder requests Fast and Furious docs from Issa, Grassley for 'independent' investigation
9. Supreme Court faces new gun control cases
10. DoJ: Agent Terry is not a crime victim
11. Police alert: Robbery on 14th Street (Charlottesville)
12. Who needs a gun at a restaurant?
13. In defense of women and guns
14. Carjacker shot by CCL holder
15. Victims share horrors of 'Gun Free Zones'
16. Jersey stabbings: 6 murdered
17. Video: When open-carry is your only option
18. CMP Shooter's News 08-17-11
19. MUST WATCH: More video on knife attacks - multiple officers down
20. What's the best way to pack heat while jogging?
21. What anti-gunners don't know about guns
22. Looking for a pro-gun bank? VCDL Welcomes Hometown Bank into the fold!

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1. VCDL picnic in Newport News on Saturday, September 10th!
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The Virginia Citizen's Defense League will be hosting a picnic in the Riverview park in the city of Newport News (bring your scuba gear in case Irene puts the park under water). The picnic will be held on September 10th from 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM. All are invited. The park rules includes the following:

NO alcohol
Pets should be on a leash or under direct control of the owner
Vehicles may not be driven onto the grass

www.opencarry.org has a list of items needed for the picnic. To access the list, click here:

http://tinyurl.com/43cf4fo

100 City Farm Road
Newport News, Virginia 23602
(757) 886-7912
nnparks.com

Thanks to EM and gun show coordinator, Ron Lilly, for setting up this picnic!

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2. Gun control: Misfire (editorial)
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Roy Scherer emailed me this:

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The Times-Dispatch ran an excellent editorial this morning on the results after a year of the change in Virginia law allowing concealed carry inside places that serve alcohol.

You'll be shocked and amazed to lean that the sky has NOT fallen after all . . . you won't be surprised to learn that the hoplophobes are plugging their ears and saying "La-la-la, I can't hear you!"

-- Roy

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch: http://tinyurl.com/3nol5ju

Gun control: Misfire
By: TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF
August 17, 2011

"I don't know if there's anything disproven by those numbers," says state Sen. Donald McEachin, a gun-control advocate who is evidently hoping to become the poster child for confirmation bias. McEachin was referring to Sunday's Times-Dispatch story about Virginia's law allowing concealed-carry permit holders to bring their firearms into bars and restaurants. Contrary to widespread predictions, the measure has not turned the streets into rivers of blood.

In fact, since the measure passed, the number of gun-related crimes in bars and restaurants has fallen. The drop may be mere coincidence. But contrary to McEachin's doubts, it does indeed disprove something: It disproves the dire pronouncements of those who opposed the measure during the years it was being debated.

For instance, chiefs of police from around the state joined Virginia Beach Police Chief Jake Jacocks in calling the bill "a recipe for disaster." Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms agreed, terming it "stupid" and "a fatal mistake." The Virginia Center for Public Safety, a gun-control advocacy group, accused state lawmakers of putting narrow special interests "above the safety of Virginia's families." Salon magazine said Virginia "is permitting residents to carry concealed weapons at pizza joints full of little-league teams where people drink pitchers of beer and get in fights over Redskins games."

If the critics had been right, then gun crimes in bars and restaurants should have skyrocketed. Instead, they fell.

This is not surprising. Time and again, the public has been warned that broadening the scope of gun rights will lead -- automatically, as it were -- to an increasing incidence of bloodshed. It happened when Florida passed its concealed-carry law, and when other states followed suit. It happened when the Supreme Court upheld an individual right to carry firearms, and again when the high court applied that ruling to cities beyond the District of Columbia. Time and time again, the prediction has been proven wrong.

More guns might not lead to less crime; deterrence is a very hard thing to prove. But this much is clear: More guns do not lead to more crime. Virginia's experience with its concealed-carry law fits a long-running pattern. Unfortunately, most gun-control advocates probably will wave away any data that do not support their dubious hypothesis, just as McEachin has. That is a long-running pattern, too.

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3. RT editorial: Don't read too much into gun data
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I have placed an excellent translation done by "Chas" in the snowflakesinhell.com blog below the article. It changes the Roanoke Times anti-gun-speak into normal English!

Dave Hicks emailed me this:

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From the Roanoke Times: http://tinyurl.com/3btrcqh

Editorial: Don't read too much into gun data
A slight decrease in crime since Virginia allowed more guns in bars means little.
August 19, 2011

We're not sure who thought Virginia's bars and restaurants would overflow with blood after lawmakers made the ill-advised decision to mix guns and alcohol. But we are sure no one owes passionate gun advocates an apology based on limited data proffered without context.

It's no secret we opposed changing Virginia law to allow people with concealed carry permits to bring their weapons into bars. Our view was and remains that it is a bad idea to introduce guns into an environment where drunks too often make poor decisions.

Gov. Bob McDonnell and the General Assembly changed the law anyway. It has been a year since it took effect.

The Richmond-Times Dispatch figured that was long enough to discern the effects of the change. The newspaper gathered numbers for the year before and the year after the law took effect. It found that the number of gun-related crimes in state bars fell by 5 percent from 153 to 145, evidence that there was nothing to fear.

But it is irresponsible to extrapolate too much from a naive numerical count. Other factors weigh on crime rates. For example, was business down in bars over the same period? If bars had fewer patrons drinking less during the recession, then gun incidents might similarly fall off.

A 5 percent change could be statistical noise. It could reflect a decline from a previous increase. It could be the result of reduced enforcement in the face of less spending on public safety. Without deeper analysis and context, it is unreasonable to conclude any causal connection exists.

Bloodbath was never the real fear. The concern is that tragic individual incidents that occurred rarely, perhaps with decades between them, will occur with greater frequency. A fair assessment of the law's effects therefore requires years of data.

The lack of sound statistical method did not prevent Philip Van Cleave, the head of a Virginia gun rights group, from demanding an apology from all the naysayers. Come back in a few years, Mr. VanCleave, when the numbers will actually mean something.

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Chas's excellent translation of the above into plain English (ROFL!):

“Editorial: Don’t read too much into gun data”
Translation: Ignore those inconvenient truths!

“A slight decrease in crime since Virginia allowed more guns in bars means little.”
Translation: It doesn’t count when we’re wrong.

“We’re not sure who thought Virginia’s bars and restaurants would overflow with blood after lawmakers made the ill-advised decision to mix guns and alcohol.”
Translation: We refuse to be held accountable for what we said, and we won’t admit that we said it.

“But we are sure no one owes passionate gun advocates an apology based on limited data proffered without context.”
Translation: We don’t care about civility, we will not apologize for lying to you because we don’t like you.

“The Richmond-Times Dispatch figured that was long enough to discern the effects of the change.”
Translation: They didn’t wait long enough, until the results were what we wanted them to be.

“But it is irresponsible to extrapolate too much from a naïve numerical count.”
Translation: We didn’t get the numbers we wanted, so the numbers don’t count.

“A 5 percent change could be statistical noise.”
Translation: When reality contradicts our anti-gun ideology, it’s reality that’s wrong.

“Bloodbath was never the real fear.”
Translation: Our strategy of promoting hysteria failed, so it wasn’t our strategy.

“A fair assessment of the law’s effects therefore requires years of data.”
Translation: We will never have to admit that we were wrong.

“The lack of sound statistical method did not prevent Philip Van Cleave, the head of a Virginia gun rights group, from demanding an apology from all the naysayers. Come back in a few years, Mr. VanCleave, when the numbers will actually mean something.”
Translation: Screw you, and your apology too!

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4. Excellent pro-guns (& women!) program on WAMU
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From kget.com: http://tinyurl.com/3ekks53

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5. Video on largest indoor range being built in Henrico
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Smuth Waters emailed me this:

From wtvr.com: http://tinyurl.com/3f2vkuo

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6. ACTION ITEM: H.R. 1865: Recreational Lands Self-Defense Act of 2011
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Here's our chance to open up more federal lands to firearms carry!

Bob Risacher emailed me this:

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Philip,

77 co-sponsors and nary a one from Virginia. I wrote to Robert Hurt some time back on this but he hasn't responded in any way.

From govtrack.us: http://tinyurl.com/3zn9xeq

-

ACTION ITEM:

Let's contact our Congressmen and Congresswomen and ask them to support HR 1865:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd

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7. ATF promotes three "Fast and Furious" supervisors
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What do you do if you're a government agency which has just been caught in gross violation of U.S. law and are under investigation by Congress? Why you promote the people who headed up the illegal activities, of course!

To me it sounds like they are trying to send a message to the alleged wrong-doers: keep you mouths shut, don't implicate anyone above you and we will make sure you keep your new promotion and don't go to jail.

Stalin would be proud of such clever government thinking!

Joe Gherlone emailed me this:

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From the Los Angeles Times: http://tinyurl.com/3wunkcl

ATF promotes supervisors in controversial gun operation
The three, who have been criticized for pushing on with the border weapons sting even as it came apart, receive new management jobs in Washington.
By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau
August 16, 2011

Reporting from Washington-- The ATF has promoted three key supervisors of a controversial sting operation that allowed firearms to be illegally trafficked across the U.S. border into Mexico.

All three have been heavily criticized for pushing the program forward even as it became apparent that it was out of control. At least 2,000 guns were lost and many turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and two at the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona.

FOR THE RECORD:

ATF: An article in the Aug. 16 LATExtra section reported that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had promoted three field supervisors of a controversial gun-trafficking surveillance operation to management positions at ATF headquarters in Washington. The ATF said in a statement Aug. 17 that the three supervisors were "laterally transferred" from operational duties into administrative roles, and were not promoted. --

The three supervisors have been given new management positions at the agency's headquarters in Washington. They are William G. McMahon, who was the ATF's deputy director of operations in the West, where the illegal trafficking program was focused, and William D. Newell and David Voth, both field supervisors who oversaw the program out of the agency's Phoenix office.

Documents: Fast and Furious paper trail

McMahon and Newell have acknowledged making serious mistakes in the program, which was dubbed Operation Fast and Furious.

"I share responsibility for mistakes that were made," McMahon testified to a House committee three weeks ago. "The advantage of hindsight, the benefit of a thorough review of the case, clearly points me to things that I would have done differently."

Three Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesmen did not return phone calls Monday asking about the promotions. But several agents said they found the timing of the promotions surprising, given the turmoil at the agency over the failed program.

McMahon was promoted Sunday to deputy assistant director of the ATF's Office of Professional Responsibility and Security Operations -- the division that investigates misconduct by employees and other problems.

Kenneth E. Melson, the ATF's acting director, said in an agency-wide confidential email announcing the promotion that McMahon was among ATF employees being rewarded because of "the skills and abilities they have demonstrated throughout their careers."

Newell was the special agent in charge of the field office for Arizona and New Mexico, where Fast and Furious was conducted. On Aug. 1, the ATF announced he would become special assistant to the assistant director of the agency's Office of Management in Washington.

Voth was an on-the-ground team supervisor for the operation, and last month he was moved to Washington to become branch chief for the ATF's tobacco division.

The program ran from November 2009 to January 2011, with the aim of identifying Mexican drug cartel leaders by allowing illegal purchases of firearms and then tracking those weapons. Nearly 200 were recovered at crime scenes in Mexico, and in December two semiautomatics were found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's slaying in Arizona.

No cartel leaders were arrested.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, are reviewing the operation.

Steve Martin, an ATF deputy assistant director, said he urged McMahon as far back as January 2010 to end the operation, and was met with silence. "I asked Mr. McMahon, I said, what's your plan?" Martin told the House committee. "Hearing none, I don't know if they had one."

Newell spent a decade on the border. As Operation Fast and Furious was unraveling, he insisted that his agents never allowed guns to "walk."

The statement angered many agents. "Literally, my mouth fell open," said Agent Larry Alt, who worked under Newell. "I am not being figurative about this. I couldn't believe it."

Newell has since acknowledged that "frequent risk assessments would be prudent" for operations like Fast and Furious. He also said the slaying of Terry "is one I will mourn for the rest of my life."

Voth supervised the crew of ATF agents under the operation. As they questioned the wisdom of allowing illegal purchases, he countered that because the weapons were turning up at Mexico crime scenes, cartel leaders had to be involved. He told his crew members they were "watching the right people."

His agents did not buy it.

"Whenever we would get a trace report back," said Agent John Dodson, Voth "was jovial, if not giddy, just delighted about that: Hey, 20 of our guns were recovered with 350 pounds of dope in Mexico last night. ... To them it proved the nexus to the drug cartels. It validated that we're really working a cartel case here."

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8. Holder requests Fast and Furious docs from Issa, Grassley for 'independent' investigation
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And, in another clever move, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) wants the evidence Congress has against them for Operation Fast and Furious so that the DOJ can investigate itself!

Damned, why hadn't anyone else thought of that obvious solution! Who is better suited to investigate the fox that broke into the hen house than the fox himself!

This is why Holder gets the BIG BUCKS.

Bruce Jackson emailed me this:

--

From dailycaller.com: http://tinyurl.com/3rm69su

Holder requests Fast and Furious docs from Issa, Grassley for 'independent' investigation
By Matthew Boyle
08/17/2011

New details about Operation Fast and Furious cast doubt on the ability of the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General to conduct an "independent" and fair investigation, congressional Republican investigators say.

The information comes via a letter Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday. In it, they question a request from Holder for a transcript from a meeting they held in secret on July 4th with Ken Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Holder apparently told Issa and Grassley he was requesting the transcript for the DOJ and for the Office of the Inspector General -- the entity that's supposed to be distinct enough from Holder's office to conduct a fair Operation Fast and Furious investigation.

Holder and other DOJ officials have repeatedly said the DOJ's Inspector General is conducting its own internal investigation into what went wrong with Fast and Furious. Even so, Holder's latest request on behalf of the OIG sparks skepticism from investigators in Congress.

"Since the OIG is supposed to be conducting an independent inquiry, it seems odd that the Department would make a document request on behalf of that office," Grassley and Issa wrote to Holder on Tuesday. "We presume that if the OIG would like to make such a request, it is capable of doing so on its own initiative. However, we have not received any such request from the OIG."

In their Tuesday letter, Grassley and Issa also ask Holder to provide complete and full answers to all of the questions they sent him on July 22. Issa and Grassley say Holder failed to do so in his most recent response.

They say "perhaps the most troubling reply" Holder gave them was that the ATF did not have detailed information available on 11 instances ATF admits being aware of that Fast and Furious weapons were recovered inside the United States in "connection with violent crimes."

"The question specifically asked you to 'describe the date and circumstances of each recovery [in the United States] in detail,'" the top Republican congressional investigators wrote. "However, the reply failed to do so."

Issa and Grassley say Holder failed to provide an "enumerated response" when they asked him if the Deputy Attorney General's office or any other DOJ agency was given a briefing paper outlining Fast and Furious's mission. "Currently, our strategy is to allow the transfer of firearms to continue to take place," the briefing paper read.

Issa and Grassley also point out that Holder's response, that unnamed DOJ officials became aware of that briefing paper once the House Oversight Committee began investigating Operation Fast and Furious, didn't answer their question.

"That may be true and somewhat related to the question, but it falls far short of being responsive," they wrote. "Whether some unnamed DOJ officials may have learned of the briefing paper during the Congressional investigation in 2011 tells us nothing about which other officials at Department components outside ATF may have received the briefing paper in 2010."

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9. Supreme Court faces new gun control cases
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Bruce Jackson emailed me this:

--

From allheadlinenews.com: http://tinyurl.com/3mp5ksm

Supreme Court faces new gun control cases
By Tom Ramstack
August 18, 2011

The Supreme Court is being asked again to redefine rights to gun ownership in a new petition.

The court is expected to decide whether to hear the case within weeks.

The petition was filed by a Maryland man who was arrested for carrying a handgun in his backpack. He did not have a license for it.

He argues that he should not need a license after the Supreme Court's ruling three years ago in District of Columbia v. Heller.

The court's decision said the Second Amendment gives all law-abiding adult citizens a right to keep guns in their homes.

The ruling upheld a lawsuit by six residents of Washington, D.C., who challenged a local law that allowed only law enforcement officers to own guns.

In the pending case of Williams v. Maryland, Charles F. Williams is trying to overturn his 2008 conviction in Prince George's County, Md., for carrying a firearm in public without a permit.

Williams purchased the gun legally. He was arrested as he returned home from visiting his girlfriend after a police officer saw Williams rummaging in his backpack, then hiding the gun in nearby bushes after being spotted with it.

His attorney argues in the Supreme Court brief that Maryland law is so restrictive on gun ownership that it violates the Second Amendment's "right of the people to keep and bear arms."

The Supreme Court's "analyses and plain statements" in the Heller decision show "the right to bear arms exists outside the home," Williams says in his brief.

He also cited a Supreme Court ruling last year in McDonald v. Chicago that says state and local governments have no right to be more restrictive of gun ownership beyond the limits set by Congress.

The Supreme Court rulings set off a wave of lawsuits to challenge state and local gun laws.

So far, the lower courts have interpreted the laws to be as restrictive as possible.

The anti-gun Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence said in a recent report that "Three years and more than 400 legal challenges later, courts - so far - have held that the Supreme Court's ruling in Heller was narrow and limited, and that the Second Amendment does not interfere with the people's right to enact legislation protecting families and communities from gun violence." [PVC: 400 legal challenges later? In 3 years? More of the Brady Campaign's new math, I guess.]

Williams and others say the lower courts have overstepped their authority.

The Williams case eventually made its way to Maryland's highest court, the Court of Appeals, which upheld his conviction.

"If the Supreme Court ...meant its holding to extend beyond home possession, it will need to say so more plainly," the Maryland Court of Appeals ruling says.

Instead, "the Supreme Court considered a narrow question, namely whether 'the District [of Columbia's] ban on handgun possession in the home violate[d] the Second Amendment,'" the Court of Appeals said. "The [Supreme] Court concluded that, 'nlike possession of a gun for protection within a residence, carrying a concealed firearm presents a recognized threat to public order, and is prohibited as a means of preventing physical harm to persons other than the offender.'"

Similar issues of carrying guns outside the home arose in the case of Sean Masciandaro, a businessman who puts on educational demonstrations with reptiles he owns.

As he drove to his home in Woodbridge, Va., he pulled off the road after a tiring day of work to take a nap in a park.

A police officer stopped to check him out, which included looking in his trunk. He found a handgun that Masciandaro acknowledged was his own.

He was convicted of violating a ban on having a loaded firearm in a vehicle on national parkland.

Masciandaro also filed a recent petition asking the Supreme Court to review his case.

"If there is a Second Amendment right outside the home, it surely applies to law-abiding citizens carrying handguns for self-defense while traveling on public highways," his petition says.

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10. DoJ: Agent Terry is not a crime victim
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Agent Terry's murder does not make him a crime victim, says U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke.

The fact that the gun that was used to murder him was provided illegally by the Government under Operation Fast and Furious is completely and totally irrelevant!

Gee, I wonder how irrelevant it would have been to Burke if you or I passed that same gun off to the cartel? Any bets it wouldn't have been relevant?

From pajamasmedia.com: http://tinyurl.com/3w6vv3j

[SNIP]
U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke argues because the family was not "directly or proximately harmed" by the illegal purchase of the murder weapon, it does not meet the definition of "crime victim" in the Avila case. Burke claims the victim of the Avila's gun purchases, "is not any particular person, but society in general."

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11. Police alert: Robbery on 14th Street (Charlottesville)
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My comments are embedded in this article:

Edward Martin Jr. emailed me this:

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To the University Community:

The Charlottesville Police Department is investigating a robbery that occurred on Aug. 12, 2011 at approximately 11:40 p.m. on 14th Street near Gordon Avenue. Two victims report that they were approached by two suspects, one of whom presented a cutting instrument and demanded the wallet of one of the victims. The suspects fled the area on foot and no one was injured.

The victims described the first suspect as black male between 22 and 27 years of age, 6 feet tall and 250 pounds. At the time of the robbery he was wearing a white button-up shirt and blue jeans.

The second suspect was described as an Hispanic male, 5 feet, 9 inches tall and 180 to 190 pounds. At the time of the incident he was wearing a bandana, a black long-sleeve shirt, blue jeans.

Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 434-977-4000.

The University Police would like to remind students, in particular, to keep personal safety in mind. This is a busy and exciting time for students as they return from summer break and begin to move into residence halls and off-Grounds housing moving into your residence hall, Off-Grounds housing and spend time on the Corner.

While Charlottesville remains a relatively safe environment, crimes do occur in our community. The best defense is to be prepared and to take responsibility for your own safety and for that of your friends and fellow students. A few key reminders:

*If you find yourself in a similar situation, turn over your belongings to the suspect and focus on his or her physical characteristics, i.e. clothing description, height and weight, and last known direction of travel. [PVC: So if the "belonging" he wants is your little girl, turn her over to the suspect, but get a good description of his clothing, height, weight and hope the police recover your little girl's body soon. Brilliant plan. Thanks, but no thanks - I'm carrying a gun.]

* Trust your instincts about a person or situation. If you feel uncomfortable, immediately report your concerns to police by calling 911. The police want to emphasize you are not "bothering" them if you call. They definitely want you to call if you see something suspicious.

* If you are on the Grounds and need help, just [PVC: crawl over, trying not to make a big mess with your dripping blood and] pick up one of the blue-light telephones. You automatically will be connected to University Police. [PVC: YES! Now I feel much better!]

* Be aware of your surroundings. Do not let a cell phone conversation or listening to music distract you when crossing the street or in another situation that calls for your full attention.

* Avoid isolated areas and walking alone at night. Use SafeRide (434-242-1122), walk with friends, or take a late-night weekend bus.

* Keep your doors and windows locked.

* Never allow strangers to follow you into a locked building and gain entry by "tailgating" you once you swipe the card reader in a residence hall. Also, never prop open card-reader doors.

* If you see any of the following, immediately call the police at 911: a prowler; someone peeping into a residence; an individual watching, photographing or filming an area; or any other suspicious behavior.

* Work with your neighbors and fellow community members to ensure a safe environment.

{PVC: * Carry a gun]

* For additional safety tips from University Police, please see http://www.virginia.edu/uvapolice.

Michael A. Gibson
University of Virginia Chief of Police

Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Strine approved distribution of this message.

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12. Who needs a gun at a restaurant?
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John Oliver emailed me this:

--

From tampabay.com: http://tinyurl.com/3u8huab

Armed diner shoots robbery suspect outside St. Petersburg Applebee's

By Emily Nipps and Marissa Lang, Times Staff Writers
Tuesday, August 9, 2011

ST. PETERSBURG -- Raven Smith doesn't usually take a gun to Applebee's.

But something made him reconsider Sunday night as he held his .380 caliber weapon in his hand, about to leave it behind as he stepped out of his car to have dinner with his girlfriend, Ashley Tanner.

In a split second, he found himself firing the weapon at a masked stranger who rushed up behind Tanner with what looked like a gun.

"Get down, get down!" Smith yelled to Tanner. She ducked and he fired four shots at the stranger from less than 6 feet away, over the head of his crouched girlfriend.

The would-be robber was Anthony Lawrence Hauser, 17, of 3760 38th Ave. N, police said. He survived and was taken to a local hospital with four gunshot wounds.

Police charged Hauser with attempted armed robbery. Smith, 34, has a concealed weapons permit and will not face any charges. Police said he acted in self-defense.

"I've only had practice doing casual shooting, as a hobby," Smith said Monday. "It's completely different using it in a situation like this."

Smith and Tanner, 27, moved to St. Petersburg two weeks ago from Lake City. An airline mechanic, Smith moved around while working for Delta but decided to settle in St. Petersburg, where he was raised, and brought his girlfriend of six months.

About 10 p.m. Sunday, the couple drove to Applebee's at 4700 Fourth St. N. The restaurant was full so they parked in a dark area north of the building.

As the two got out, Smith pulled his gun from a pocket, considering whether to take it with him. He decided to keep it. In that instant he noticed a dark figure rushing toward Tanner and immediately felt "something wasn't right."

The figure, who was wearing a ski mask, moved as though he planned to grab Tanner's purse and maybe point the gun at her head, Smith said. Facing Tanner, with the would-be robber behind her, he instinctively raised his handgun and told Tanner to hit the ground.

"I saw orange flashes over my head," Tanner said. "And then my ears were ringing."

Smith recalled shooting the robber four times. He fell to the ground, then yelled to Smith: "Don't shoot me anymore!"

The robber pulled off the mask and told Smith his gun was fake. It was later discovered to be a fully loaded and operational .25 caliber automatic.

It all happened so quickly Tanner didn't have time to think -- but is happy Smith was prepared.

"I don't know what would have happened if he hadn't had the gun," Tanner said. "He's my hero."

After the shooting, Smith flagged down a passing police officer. Hauser was taken to Bayfront Medical Center, police said.

Smith and Tanner were questioned at the scene and at the police station, Smith said. They got home after dawn, then woke up to reporters knocking on their door.

They never got around to eating.

This was the second incident of the weekend in which a would-be robber was shot in St. Petersburg.

Almedin Muratovic, 25, ended up at Bayfront Medical Center with serious injuries Friday night after he tried to rob a woman at an ATM, police said.

Anthony Hall of St. Petersburg was sitting in his car with his 5-year-old child near the Regions Bank ATM at 8250 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N when he saw Muratovic approach his girlfriend with a handgun, police said. He ran over and fought Muratovic for the gun, police said.

During the struggle, the weapon fired, hitting Muratovic, police said. Hall and his girlfriend were unharmed. Muratovic faces attempted robbery charges.

Other local business owners took notice of the shootings.

Michael Chan, owner of Hiro's Tokyo Steakhouse & Sushi Bar at 5250 Fourth St. N, learned about the Applebee's incident Sunday night after his wife passed by and saw police cars surrounding the restaurant.

Like Applebee's, Hiro's keeps late hours.

"We always keep an eye out for customers," Chan said. The parking lot is well-lit and security cameras surround the building, he said.

But Chan said there's only so much a restaurateur can do. He said his employees know to leave the building in groups at night after closing. But the key ultimately is just to try to be aware of your surroundings and take reasonable safety precautions.

"You never know," he said.

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13. In defense of women and guns
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James Durso emailed me this:

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From statesman.com: http://tinyurl.com/3cdth6d

In defense of women and guns
Among women, the fastest-growing group of concealed handgun license owners in Texas is African American
By Joshunda Sanders
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011

My first encounter with a gun was when I was 6 years old. It was December 1984, and as my mother and I walked across a bridge from Harlem to the Bronx in New York City, two men came up behind us intending to take the faux mink coat she was wearing, which looked unfortunately real under the dull orange streetlights. One of them put a gun to my head and threatened to kill me if she didn't turn over the coat. I can still remember the quarters clanging on the concrete beneath our feet as they snatched the coat, let me go and took off into the night.

That sense of vulnerability and fear followed me into adulthood, when I found myself, as an African American single woman, working as a reporter in Beaumont in 2001.

In addition to the pressures of learning how to be a reporter, learning Texas and being far from home, I was warned in the newsroom about active clusters of Ku Klux Klan activity. It had only been a few years since James Byrd Jr., a black man, had been beaten by white men and dragged to his death in nearby Jasper.

It wasn't until the recent debates over concealed handgun licenses on campuses and my own curiosity about learning how to shoot that I decided it was time to apply for my own license. After a trip to Ladies' Day at Red's Indoor Range in Pflugerville, I almost reconsidered. Then a LivingSocial coupon for a Gunfighter's Clinic course showed up in my inbox, and I decided to go for it.

It surprised me to discover that I was part of a larger trend in Texas. Applications for concealed carry permits began rising in the state before the 2008 elections, an increase some attributed to concerns that anti-gun politicians would be voted in . Of the total number of licenses granted, women made up 21.9 percent in 2010, up from 17.7 percent in 2001, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. For reasons that are unclear, black women are the fastest-growing group of women being issued licenses for concealed handguns in the state.

Academics, experts and gun safety instructors have disagreed for decades about how popular guns are with women. Part of the ongoing dispute reflects what The Atlantic wisely noted in its September issue as an ongoing and unresolved battle in American culture between gun control and gun rights activists. Nationwide, the National Shooting Sports Foundation reported that in 2009, the number of women buying guns for personal defense was up 83 percent.

University of Richmond professor Laura Browder, author of "Her Best Shot: Women and Guns in America" says that the visibility of female hunters such as Sarah Palin in popular culture has lifted some of the stigma of gun ownership for most women - whether they use those guns for personal defense or for hunting. "Palin has brought women's gun ownership back into the public sphere in a way that it hasn't been," Browder said.

But since the 1980s, professors across the country have argued that the media and gun industry have enlarged the scenario of unmarried women fearing for their safety in urban environments earning their licenses for protection against violent crime. Browder said in her 2006 book that women earning licenses "as a defense against anonymous violence" was in part because the gun industry uses the fear of violence to scare women into buying guns.

But my fear is grounded not just in my personal history, but in a collective one.

Adam Winkler, author of the forthcoming book, "Gunfight: The Battle Over The Right to Bear Arms in America," traced the birth of the modern gun rights movement to the Black Panthers in the September issue of The Atlantic. In it was a fact of history that I'd never heard: "Martin Luther King Jr. applied for a permit to carry a concealed firearm in 1956, after his house was bombed. His application was denied," Winkler wrote. "But from then on, armed supporters guarded his home."

Closer to my demographic was the historian Danielle McGuire's book, "At the Dark End of the Street," which fills out commonly told stories about Rosa Parks and other women of the civil rights movement who were subjected not just to racial intimidation but also sexual violence. Among the most jarring stories of black women attacked in the South, sometimes by police officers, was the story of Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old mother and sharecropper who in 1944, as she walked home after attending church at the Rock Hill Holiness Church in Abbeville, Ala., was snatched from the street by seven white men armed with knives and shotguns. They raped her and left her for dead. It was Rosa Parks, the president of the local NAACP branch office, who was sent to investigate Taylor's case.

Sure, both the robbery from my childhood and the rape of Taylor were decades ago. But as a homeowner who lives in the South and aspires to travel unfettered to places where I might be viewed more as a target than a benevolent visitor, earning a concealed handgun license seemed the best way to quell my personal fear.

And in order to get that license, I needed to spend at least 10 hours with Mathew Williams, an instructor with Austin-based Gunfighter's Clinic, and pass a state background check.

Part of Williams' class is a 200-slide presentation explaining Texas gun-ownership laws. There were four other women in the class. Among them was a thin blond woman named Chris, who asked me not to use her last name. She said she came to the class with her husband, Bruce, and their adult daughter mainly out of curiosity, after Bruce's pastor took the Boston native out hunting and got him thinking about applying for his concealed handgun license.

Chris and her daughter decided to join Bruce for the class.

"I'm not a very big woman myself," Chris said. "And so, if something happens to Bruce, I want to be able to protect my home. And because I'm not very big, a man could do whatever he wanted with me. A gun seems like it would level the playing field."

Williams, who seemed to regard less lethal methods of self-defense with a lot of skepticism, said that he had a 30 percent increase in the number of women showing up in his classes, which meet the state's public safety requirements for concealed handgun licensing. Generally, the courses cost upward of $100, and the application for the concealed handgun course is about $140, not including fingerprinting fees and the cost of passport photos. Williams' class, which is combined with a legal response program that includes information about what to do if you have to shoot someone, costs about $400, though it was $198 with the coupon.

Williams, a gunsmith, insomniac and father of two teaches the 10-hour training course four times a week, he said.

"Chivalry is dead," he said. "Male criminals think nothing nowadays of shooting a woman." At home, his two daughters are well-versed in marksmanship - the 7-year-old has a rifle and a handgun and his 5-year-old will soon have her own rifle, he said. It was the first time I had heard anyone mention children owning guns, but he says in the class that the best way to prevent children's injury with firearms is to educate them about how to use them. (And to keep them in locked cases.)

There are other things to consider. The personal injury rates for firearms in homicide and suicide in this country are higher than they are in any other industrialized nation. And violent crimes in America dropped significantly in 2010, to what appears to be the lowest rate in nearly 40 years.

While Chris and I, her daughter and Bruce braved the 106-degree heat with our other classmates in Hays County, a man starting to shoot his required 50 rounds cut his hand on one of the gun slides, and blood started dripping down his hand.

My heart racing, and sweat trickling into my eyes, I stood in a line behind a blue barrel and tried to focus when it came time for me to take the test. If I end up earning my license, I can only hope the shots fired there will be the last ones I ever shoot under that kind of pressure - or worse.

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14. Carjacker shot by CCL holder
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Wesley Thomas emailed me this:

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Who needs a gun at the gas station? Love (NRA Board member) Ted Nugent's background music too!

From YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/4329x92

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15. Victims share horrors of 'Gun Free Zones'
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David Codrea pulls no punches on Collin Goddard. To me, Goddard started off on the wrong foot by immediately whining about the attendees at the Students For Concealed Carry on Campus conference in DC last week when he was speaking there. The large chip on his shoulder was quite palpable, as was his condescension toward the audience.

Goddard also loves to claim that while he had plenty of time to take out his cellphone, dial 9-1-1, wait for an answer, and then tell the dispatcher what was happening, no one could have possibly drawn a gun and shot Cho in a similar amount of time.

What can you say to someone who claims such a thing?

From the Gun Rights Examiner: http://tinyurl.com/42m4gb2

[SNIP]
Collins told a story of being raped on campus--less than 300 ft. from the campus police station!-- that was made all the more horrible when we learn she had a concealed carry permit but obeyed the law--and made absolutely unconscionable when we learn her attacker went on to rape two other women, killing one of them.

That, evidently, is just the way Colin Goddard wants things to be. It's almost like the guy won't be satisfied until everyone else is a helpless victim--it's almost like the prospect of forcing that fate on people who wish to protect themselves empowers him. Women raped, Colin. Men and women killed, Colin. And you find talk of armed defense offensive.

You know what I find offensive? Predator enablers who try to impose their will on the rest of us under force of state arms.

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16. Jersey stabbings: 6 murdered
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Mass murders can only be done with guns?

Baloney. In an unarmed society, it is quite easy with a knife.

Bill Hine emailed me this:

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From bbc.co.uk: http://tinyurl.com/3mnj8c6

[SNIP]
A special Mass has been held for the Polish community after six people were killed in a knife attack in Jersey.

A 30-year-old Polish man, named locally as Damian Rzeszowski, was arrested over the deaths.

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17. Video: When open-carry is your only option
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EM Matt Gottshalk emailed me this:

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Reason TV takes a close look at the issue of handgun rights and carry permits in California, one of the few "may-issue" states left in the nation. County sheriffs may issue or deny permits at their discretion, and as the video states, they don't usually approve applications from most law-abiding citizens. That forces people like Sam Wolanyk to carry unloaded weapons openly, which has the state legislature in a lather -- and people debating the nature of the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms, or in this case, barearms.

Matt Gottshalk

From YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/3gpe3jd

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18. CMP Shooter's News 08-17-11
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Michael Irvin emailed me this:

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The latest CMP news release (08-17-11) available at:

From odcmp.org: http://tinyurl.com/4xcfxty

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19. MUST WATCH: More video on knife attacks - multiple officers down
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This is another eye-opener and a MUST watch for those who may not appreciate the seriousness of a knife-wielding criminal.

Clark Welsh emailed me this:

From YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/4yy6xnq

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20. What's the best way to pack heat while jogging?
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Bruce Jackson emailed me this:

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From slate.com: http://tinyurl.com/43plotj

[SNIP]
Reporters asked newly announced presidential candidate Rick Perry on Monday whether he carries a gun while campaigning. Perry refused to answer, but he does seem to carry guns in unexpected places. He shot a coyote while jogging in 2010, for example. What's the safest way to carry a gun while running?

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21. What anti-gunners don't know about guns
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I would say a better title for Ann Coulter's article would be "What anti-gunners don't know about guns". I know pro-gun liberals who are big-time gun owners and some anti-gun conservatives that don't know which way the bullet comes out of a gun.

Regardless of other philosophies, anti-gunners all share some common traits.

Monty Oakes emailed me this:

--

From anncoulter.com: http://tinyurl.com/3l7z2gq

WHAT LIBERALS DON'T KNOW ABOUT GUNS, CHAPTER 217
February 2, 2011

Fresh off of blaming Jared Loughner's killing spree in the Tucson mall on Sarah Palin, liberals are now blaming it on high-capacity magazines. They might as well imprison everyone named "Jared" to prevent a crime like this from ever happening again.

During the presidential campaign, Obama said: "I don't know of any self-respecting hunter that needs 19 rounds of anything. You don't shoot 19 rounds at a deer, and if you do, you shouldn't be hunting." It would have been more accurate for him to end that sentence after the word "hunter."

It's so adorable when people who wouldn't know a high-capacity magazine from Vanity Fair start telling gun owners what they should want and need.

In fact, high-capacity mags put a predator like Loughner at a disadvantage because they are so long, unwieldy and difficult to conceal. This may be why the Tucson shooting appears to be the first spree killing involving a high-capacity magazine. It would have been easier for Loughner to bring two guns.

On the other hand, for a homeowner who is a poor marksman, a large-capacity clip could be a lifesaver.

But after every multiple murder, liberals come up with some crackpot idea to "do something" that invariably involves infringing on some aspect of our Second Amendment rights.

The ACLU won't let us put nuts in mental hospitals and Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik wouldn't lock up Loughner even after he had broken the law several times.

In an open society that includes Sheriff Dumbnik and the ACLU, deranged individuals may explode into murder and mayhem now and then. The best we can do is enact policies that will reduce the death toll when these acts of carnage occur.

There's only one policy of any kind that has ever been shown to deter mass murder: concealed-carry laws. In a comprehensive study of all public, multiple-shooting incidents in America between 1977 and 1999, the highly regarded economists John Lott and Bill Landes found that concealed-carry laws were the only laws that had any beneficial effect.

And the effect was not small. States that allowed citizens to carry concealed handguns reduced multiple-shooting attacks by 60 percent and reduced the death and injury from these attacks by nearly 80 percent.

When there are no armed citizens to stop mass murderers, the killers are able to shoot unabated, even pausing to reload their weapons, until they get bored and stop. Some stop only when their trigger fingers develop carpal tunnel syndrome.

Consider just the school shootings -- popular sites for mass murder because so many schools are "gun-free zones." Or, as mass murderers call them, "free-fire zones."

At Columbine High School, two students killed 13 people before ending the carnage themselves by committing suicide. They didn't need high-capacity magazines because they were able to stop and reload.

At the Amish school shooting in 2006 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the deranged killer murdered five little girls and then committed suicide.

In 1998, two students in Craighead County, Arkansas, killed five people, including four little girls, before the killers decided to stop and attempt an escape.

And in 2007, a deranged student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech -- 30 of them in a very short period of time in one building. He didn't need high-capacity magazines because he had two guns and reloaded.

There was no one to stop him.

School shootings that have been halted were almost always stopped by the happenstance of an armed citizen on school property.

In 2002, an immigrant in Virginia started shooting his classmates at the Appalachian Law School in Grundy. Two of his classmates retrieved guns from their cars, forcing the killer to drop his weapon and allowing a third classmate to tackle him.

Three dead.

In Santee, Calif., in 2001, when a student began shooting his classmates, the school activated its "safe school plan" -- as the principal later told CNN -- by sending a "trained campus supervisor" to stop the killer.

Possibly not realizing that he was in a gun-free zone, the killer responded by shooting the trained campus supervisor three times. Fortunately, an armed off-duty San Diego policeman happened to be bringing his daughter to school that day. With a gun, he stopped the killer and held him at bay until more police could arrive.

Two dead.

In 1997, a student at Pearl High School in Pearl, Miss., had already shot several people at his high school and was headed for the junior high school when assistant principal Joel Myrick retrieved a .45 pistol from his car and pointed it at the gunman's head, ending the slaughter.

Two dead.

In 1998, a student attending a junior high school dance at a restaurant in Edinboro, Pa., started shooting, whereupon the restaurant owner pulled out his shotgun, chased the gunman from the restaurant and captured him for the police.

One dead.

See the pattern?

In response to Columbine, schools adopted "anti-bullying" policies; in response to Virginia Tech, eBay ceased selling magazines online; in response to the Tucson shooting, liberals want to ban the particular magazine Loughner used.

And then the next killer will come along with a different arsenal and a different motive, and the only way to stop him will be with an armed citizen with a gun.

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22. Looking for a pro-gun bank? VCDL Welcomes Hometown Bank into the fold!
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Initially after the Virginia Tech massacre, Hometown Bank, in what was simply a gut-reaction, banned guns.

VCDL member John Wilburn liked the bank and in email exchanges back and forth with Alwyn Harper, a branch manager, got the bank to reconsider their policy using logic and reason instead of emotion.

To their credit, Hometown realized that their "no guns" policy did not make their bank any safer and rescinded the policy. VCDL is glad to see Hometown added to the list of banks that respect the right of their customers to be able to protect themselves from violent crime.

For more information on Hometown, click here:

https://www.hometownbankva.com/

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VA-ALERT is a project of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc.
(VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization
dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to
Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.

VCDL web page: http://www.vcdl.org [http://www.vcdl.org/]