Not yet a VCDL member? Join VCDL at: http://www.vcdl.org/join
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VCDL's meeting schedule: http://www.vcdl.org/meetings
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Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html
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1. VCDL membership meeting TOMORROW (Thursday) in Annandale!
2. Volunteers needed for VCDL table at Louisa County AG Fair
3. Volunteers needed at Chantilly gun show this weekend
4. Proposed shooting range in Ruckersville needs our help!
5. VCDL poll: interest in a VCDL “iCarry” calendar for 2016?
6. Let’s contact Dominos about rescinding their “no guns” policy for their drivers
7. White House petition to allow Military Personnel with CHPs to carry
8. Virginia Congressman Scott Rigell wants military members with CHPs to carry to/from installations
9. Was the Chattanooga recruitment center shooter engaged by two of the military personnel?
10. Landlord breaks lease, NOVA Firearms will not be opening their store in Arlington after all
11. Thanks to volunteers at Richmond Gun Show
12. VCDL quoted in Metro-carry article
13. Police looking for thief in photo from Richmond Gun Show
14. Anti-gun Senator from Connecticut gets FOUR Pinocchios for lies about school shootings
15. What is “reasonable suspicion”? [VIDEO]
16. How to stop gun violence [VIDEO]
17. Ex-CNN anchor and husband alive thanks to a gun
18. DC gun laws stay in place pending appeal
19. Who owns most of the guns? "The Base!"
20. Armed congregants won't allow attackers time to reload
21. [NV] Man killed in Las Vegas home invasion identified
22. If Rihanna open carries her guns, so can you
23. Meet the next generation of gun owners [VIDEO]
24. This is who America's gun owners are
25. 9 of the worst 13 mass public shootings happened outside the U.S.
26. Why comparing the U.S. only to other developed countries is deceitful
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1. VCDL membership meeting TOMORROW (Thursday) in Annandale!
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VCDL will have its monthly membership meeting at the Mason Government Center in Annandale, Thursday, July 23rd. The meeting will be called to order at 8 PM, but fellowship starts at 7:30 PM. The meeting will adjourn to a local restaurant for continued fellowship at 9:30 PM.
We will be discussing recent events affecting gun rights in Virginia, including the shooting at a military recruitment center, thoughts on standing guard at one as a citizen, and much more!
Board member Bruce Jackson will be at the meeting. If you need any supplies such as cards or brochures or desire shirts or mouse pads etc just drop him a line and let him know. His address is bruce@vcdl.org
As with all VCDL membership meetings, it is open to the public, so bring friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors!
For directions, click here:
http://www.vcdl.org/meetings.html
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2. Volunteers needed for VCDL table at Louisa County AG Fair
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EM Brandy Polanowski is looking for members to help with the VCDL table at this year's agricultural fair in Louisa. The approximate fair hours are:
Friday, July 31st from 10am-8pm
Saturday, August 1st from 9am-10pm
The fair is located at the Firemen's Fairgrounds, Fredericksburg Avenue, Louisa. Please contact Brandy at brandy.polanowski@vcdl.org to volunteer with preferred day and whether morning/early afternoon or late afternoon to help.
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3. Volunteers needed at Chantilly gun show this weekend
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We need an extra person or two for the Saturday and Sunday afternoon shifts at this weekend’s Chantilly Gun Show.
If you can help, contact Danny Paulson at gunshows.chantilly@vcdl.org
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4. Proposed shooting range in Ruckersville needs our help!
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Lyle Durrer, who owns the Big Iron Outdoors gun show has decided to open an outdoor rifle/pistol range in Ruckersville because there are no other ranges nearby that are open to the public. He needs our help to get the zoning approval for the range from Greene County.
The shooting range will be a twenty lane facility located on a two acre lot next to the Big Iron Outdoors Gun Shop with room to grow. Ten of the lanes will allow shooting up to twenty five yards and the other ten lanes will be up to fifty yards. The range will have eight-foot-high concrete walls with bullet traps consisting of steel and rubber. Baffles will have ballistic, acoustical rubber and steel plates and will be positioned down range so no projectile can exit the range (known as a “No Blue Sky” range). The firing line will be covered by a structure to shield shooters from the elements. The range will be open to the public with annual memberships and walk-in hourly rates. Lyle's top priority in developing this range is noise mitigation and the safety of its users and especially the safety and comfort of the surrounding communities.
The range will be accessible from Route 33 less than a half mile east from the Route 29 & Route 33 intersection in Ruckersville. It is Lyle's hope that customers will also patronize the other businesses that are located around this intersection when they visit the range. It is also Lyle's intention to build a facility that can accommodate Firearms and Safety Classes for beginning, intermediate, and advanced shooters.
Lyle will be presenting the zoning request at the Greene County Planning Commission on August 19, 2015 at 6:30 pm at the William Monroe High School Performing Arts Center.
Gun owners can help by attending the meeting and showing support for the range. Lyle says he need LOTS of people to attend the meeting, as there is power in numbers!
If you are unable to attend, please contact the Greene County Planning Commission:
Email addresses: jwiller@gcva.us, vschaff@gcva.us, fmorris@gcva.us, eyoung@gcva.us, jmccloskey@gcva.us, dlamb@gcva.us
Suggested subject: Please SUPPORT the proposed shooting range in Ruckersville!
Suggested message:
Please SUPPORT the proposed Big Iron Outdoors shooting range in Ruckersville! Such a range is a valuable asset to the community, giving residents a safe place to enjoy the shooting sports, a place to train on the safe use of firearms, and it will also bring in customers for surrounding businesses.
Sincerely,
[your name]
[if you live in Greene County, your address]
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5. VCDL poll: interest in a VCDL “iCarry” calendar for 2016?
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Member Ken van Wky, who, along with EM Matt Gottshalk, made the VCDL iCarry videos, is looking to do a calendar as a VCDL fundraiser. Here’s the basic idea:
The photos could either be from stills that Matt and Ken take, or possibly as a member submission contest where the best 12 photos are chosen.
Each page of the calendar would feature that month’s carrier (identified by first name and city only), along with a positive statement about Virginians and our right to carry.
The calendar would open with some background on VCDL, Virginia carry laws, etc., and end with a VCDL membership application.
I’m trying to get an idea if this would be something membership would like.
If you would be interested in purchasing such a calendar should it become available later this year for around $10, respond to this email and let me know. (I know, I know, I’m a masochist for asking 26,000 people to potentially respond
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6. Let’s contact Dominos about rescinding their “no guns” policy for their drivers
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Member Dennis Mennerich suggested we contact Dominos Pizza about their ban on employees carrying handguns for self-defense. On June 24th a delivery driver saved his life by having a gun and killing one of two robbers.
Webmail address: https://contactus.dominos.com/web/feedback
Suggested message:
I will no longer be a Dominos customer until such time as Dominos rescinds its policy prohibiting delivery drivers from having lawfully carried handguns for self-defense. Time after time pizza delivery drivers are attacked as easy prey and many are killed or seriously hurt. Your company's policy puts your driver’s lives in unnecessary danger and is unconscionable for that reason. Please rescind the policy and protect the lives of your drivers.
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7. White House petition to allow Military Personnel with CHPs to carry
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If you’d like to send a petition to the White House in support of allowing military personnel with CHPs to carry on military installations, here’s one that has been setup:
http://soldiersystems.net/2015/07/19/wh ... ary-bases/
or
http://tinyurl.com/os3z9lq
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8. Virginia Congressman Scott Rigell wants military members with CHPs to carry to/from installations
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http://wydaily.com/2015/07/19/local-new ... ordinance/
or
http://tinyurl.com/p5c6hjd
**
Rigell Wants Concealed Carry For Military
A Virginia lawmaker whose district includes many naval and military commands
wants the Pentagon to allow personnel in the armed forces to carry concealed
firearms to and from defense installations. Congressman Scott Rigell (R-
Virginia Beach) says, “My gut sense is the American people want to know what
we are doing to give their sons and daughters at least the highest
probability… that they can go to work in uniform and come home safe.”
Rigell believes Congress is not doing enough right now. His district
includes major commands such as the Norfolk Naval Base and the Oceana Naval
Air Station.
**
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9. Was the Chattanooga recruitment center shooter engaged by two of the military personnel?
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One marine, who appears to have been armed in defiance of a federal gun-free-zone law, might have engaged the sneak-attack shooter and was killed in the process. The other is an officer, who might also have been armed, and also engaged the shooter. The actions of these two men might well have made the shooter alter his behavior and possible saved lives.
I fear that the officer could be prosecuted for having that gun instead of getting a medal for heroism. Such a prosecution would be another low point for the Obama Administration.
Thanks to member Tom Pike for the link:
http://www.navytimes.com/story/military ... /30426817/
or
http://tinyurl.com/owg9mm4
Sources: Navy officer, Marine fought to take out Chattanooga gunman
By David Larter, Staff writer 11:35 p.m. EDT July 21, 2015
A Navy officer and a Marine fired their sidearms hoping to kill or subdue the gunman who murdered five service members last week in Chattanooga, Tennessee, according to multiple military officials familiar with internal reporting on the tragedy.
It remains unclear whether either hit Muhammad Abdulazeez, who was shot and killed on July 16 after he gunned down four Marines and a sailor at the Navy Operational Support Center in Chattanooga. It's also unclear why they were armed, as it is against Defense Department policy for anyone other than military police or law enforcement to carry weapons on federal property.
A report distributed among senior Navy leaders during the shooting's aftermath said Lt. Cmdr. Timothy White, the support center's commanding officer, used his personal firearm to engage Abdulazeez, Navy Times confirmed with four separate sources. A Navy official also confirmed a Washington Post report indicating one of the slain Marines may have been carrying a 9mm Glock and possibly returned fire on the gunman.
Mohammad Youssduf Adbulazeez (Photo: Hamilton County Sheriffs Office via AP)
The various law enforcement agencies investigating the Chattanooga shooting declined to comment. A source close to the investigation said details of the rampage's last few minutes remain unclear, but no information has emerged to contradict the Navy's internal findings.
Authorities will not know whether White or the Marine hit Abdulazeez until an autopsy and ballistics assessment are performed.
Several attempts to contact White were unsuccessful.
The shootings in Chattanooga unfolded on the morning of July 16 when, the FBI said, Abdulazeez pumped dozens of rounds into a strip mall recruiting station before driving across town to the Navy support center. No one was killed inside the recruiting station.
Police responding to the first shooting passed the Navy support center en route, and some were diverted to the scene of the second attack, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
Killed in the attack were Marine Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, Lance Cpl. Squire K. Wells, Staff Sgt. David Wyatt and Sgt. Carson Holmquist. Navy Logistics Specialist 2nd Class Randall Smith died on July 18 from wounds sustained during the shooting.
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10. Landlord breaks lease, NOVA Firearms will not be opening their store in Arlington after all
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Personally, I know I won't patronize either the mall nor the mall-owner’s restaurant across the street (Bistro 29).
https://www.arlnow.com/2015/07/20/break ... herrydale/
or
http://tinyurl.com/nt6l8bv
BREAKING: No Gun Store For Cherrydale
by Heather Mongilio — July 20, 2015 at 1:05 pm
NOVA Firearms will not be moving to Cherrydale after all.
The gun store had leased a space at 2105 N. Pollard Street, causing outcry from members of the community. However, the store’s would-be landlord said today that he has reached an agreement with NOVA Firearms to cancel the lease.
The debate over the gun store heated quickly with County Board candidates speaking out against it and the National Rifle Association coming out in support. Petitions were launched for and against the store, accumulating thousands of signatures. Conservative media outlets ran articles in support of James Gates, the Marine Corps veteran who co-owns the store, drawing national attention.
Community members — and owners of businesses in and around the small shopping center the gun store was to open — took their concerns directly to landlord Kostas Kapasouris.
Kapasouris was open to those concerns, said Bill Hamrock, the co-owner of Bistro 29, which would have been across the street from the gun store. (The restaurant is co-owned by Kapasouris.)
“He knew right away and it wasn’t going to work from the community, but the business owners let him know as well,” Hamrock said.
Kapasouris said that it was all his decision to cancel the lease.
“I don’t want to have a gun store,” he said to ARLnow.com. “I thought it wasn’t a good store.”
Kapasouris said that he decided against having a gun store after the lease was signed and that NOVA Firearms — which has an existing location in McLean — was told of his decision when the store’s owners recently visited the space.
“Listening to the neighbors and the community, the landlord came to an agreement with the proposed gun store and they will not be opening in Cherrydale,” Hamrock said.
Hamrock said other business owners in the area were pleased with the decision to pull the gun store, as just the idea of having such a store was causing them to lose business.
“I had several customers showing me Facebook [posts] that were telling people not to come to the restaurant,” Hamrock said.
Instead of a gun store, Hamrock thinks that the storefront — formerly occupied by Curves fitness studio — could be leased to a small, noncontroversial retail shop or a café.
“It seems perfect for a bakery or small coffee shop,” he said.
Reached via phone, NOVA Firearms co-owner Rachel Dresser declined to comment on the news until she could speak to Gates. Last month, Dresser told ARLnow.com that backing out of the store was “not an option given the money we’ve already invested.”
——
Washington Post coverage:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the ... story.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/qdhwdza
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11. Thanks to volunteers at Richmond Gun Show
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We are working to have a new “Gun Shows” page where we can have information about upcoming gun shows, calls for volunteers, and thanks to the many who help make the shows a success for VCDL.
Our new Richmond Gun Show Coordinator, Mike Wilburt, asked that I post this to thank the volunteers from the last Richmond gun show, as this was his first gun show as a coordinator and he was hoping he’d get enough volunteers. He did and, as I always, I'm proud of VCDL’s membership:
"Thanks to our member volunteers for the time they contributed working the VCDL table at the Richmond Gun Show July 11-12.
"VCDL was very well represented by Doug Kinney, John Pride, Marvin Stalnaker, Larry Hodges, Greg Reid, Daniel Bradshaw and Randall Wachman. Also, Carl Schuler, Denny Hayes and Bonnie Baird stepped up to volunteer should we need additional help.
"Volunteers are the life blood of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Thanks to the entire Richmond crew for their effort and time."
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12. VCDL quoted in Metro-carry article
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http://freebeacon.com/issues/d-c-metro- ... gun-carry/
or
http://tinyurl.com/ngdzkpe
D.C. Metro Says It Follows Local Laws on Gun Carry
BY: Stephen Gutowski
July 20, 2015 5:00 am
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has no internal policy on the carrying of firearms within its system and follows the laws of the jurisdictions it operates in, according to a spokesman.
“We are governed by the laws of each jurisdiction,” said Mike Tolbert, a WMATA spokesman, when asked if the transit authority had its own policy regarding gun carry.
The clarification comes after Chairman Phil Mendelson (D.) of the D.C. city council responded to gun rights groups critical of a recent fatal stabbing on Metro by saying that removing the city’s statutory ban against carry on the public transit system would have no effect on carry within the system.
“The law, as revised last fall, gives property owners the right to prohibit carrying on their premises,” Mendelson said via email. “WMATA contacted the council prior to our action on the legislation last fall to ask that their premises be off-limits to carrying. WMATA (buses, rail, etc.) was then added to the list. If we were to act to remove WMATA from the list, the effect would be unaffected.”
However, the Virginia State Police, the Maryland State Police, and WMATA all confirmed that gun carry in the system is legal within those states so long as the carrier has the proper permit.
Those with gun carry permits recognized by Virginia may carry on metro facilities within Virginia. “Virginia law does not specifically prohibit the carry of a firearm by a concealed permit holder on the metro,” said Corinne Geller, a Virginia State Police official.
The Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) reiterated Geller’s point and emphasized that while metro has not previously publicly commented on gun carry in Virginia, it has long been understood to be legal. “VCDL has long understood that the metro allows local law to control the carry of firearms,” said Philip Van Cleave, VCDL’s president. “For gun owners in Virginia, whose travel will keep them in Virginia and not enter Maryland or D.C., that means they can, and do, carry on the metro.”
Though Maryland issues relatively few permits compared with Virginia, Maryland State Police say that those who do have a Maryland gun carry permit are permitted to carry on the metro within the state. “As long as the permit holder is abiding by the restrictions of the permit, they may do so,” said Elena Russo, a Maryland State Police spokesperson.“It is the holder’s responsibility to know where one is prohibited from carrying a handgun.”
That leaves the District of Columbia, where Jasper Spires stabbed Kevin Joseph Sutherland to death near WMATA’s NoMa-Gallaudet station on July 4, as the only jurisdiction that prohibits gun carry in WMATA facilities, even by those with a permit.
Chairman Mendelson did not return requests for additional comment.
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13. Police looking for thief in photo from Richmond Gun Show
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Photo of thief at the last Richmond Gun Show:
http://wric.com/2015/07/20/police-looki ... how-thief/
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14. Anti-gun Senator from Connecticut gets FOUR Pinocchios for lies about school shootings
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fac ... andy-hook/
or
http://tinyurl.com/q5zyse5
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15. What is “reasonable suspicion”? [VIDEO]
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http://www.flexyourrights.org/faqs/what ... suspicion/
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16. How to stop gun violence [VIDEO]
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Member Mark Shinn emailed me this:
http://youtu.be/A1dKdxotIVY
Federal Agent "Tells All" Civil War? How To Stop Gun Violence
by Weapons Education
June 30, 2015
Special Interview With a Pro Gun ATF Agent. Stop Gun Violence Using His Proposals. This Video Is To The President.
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17. Ex-CNN anchor and husband alive thanks to a gun
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From foxnews.com: http://tinyurl.com/pmk4f38
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/07/ ... o-gun.html
Lynne Russell, ex-CNN anchor, and her husband are alive thanks to a gun
By John R. Lott
July 03, 2015
Lynne Russell and her husband, Chuck de Caro, believe they would be dead if she hadn’t been carrying a gun. Late Wednesday night, Russell was forced at gunpoint from a motel parking lot into her room. The robber, not satisfied with merely taking her husband’s briefcase, started shooting at him. Fortunately, Russell had handed de Caro her purse, with her handgun inside it. De Caro shot the attacker, who later died at the hospital.
This story made national news. ABC News, NBC News, Fox News, People Magazine and even such foreign publications as the UK Guardian newspaper mentioned that Russell, a CNN anchor from 1983 to 2001, and de Caro both had concealed handgun permits.
We see these stories every day, some of the heroic actions caught on video and others where the criminal is killed, but you would never know it, because the national media continually ignore them. The case with Russell is an exception because she is a public figure.
To illustrate how common such defense is, consider a few other cases that occurred over the last week where permitted concealed handguns stopped crimes:
We see these stories every day, some of the heroic actions caught on video and others where the criminal is killed, but you would never know it, because the national media continually ignore them. The case with Russell is an exception because she is a public figure.
-- Miami, June 24: A pizza driver was in a parking lot walking to his car at 1 a.m. when two robbers opened fire on him, putting holes in his car windows. The deliveryman killed one robber and wounded the other.
-- Evansville, IN, June 29: Two men looking for a fight confronted a man, Erick Paula, on a remote country road at 3:30 a.m. Paula fired his gun when the men approached him, wounding both of them.
-- Clearwater Beach, Fla., June 29: An Uber driver, a former New York City police officer, was being choked by a passenger. The driver pulled out his gun and shot the passenger in the foot, wounding him.
-- Baton Rouge, La., June 29: A robber walked up to a man and asked if he could borrow a lighter. As the man reached into his pocket, the robber drew his gun and demanded his possessions. The victim had a permitted concealed handgun in his pocket and shot the attacker.
-- Albuquerque, N.M., June 30: A robber had just held up a business before attacking a pizza delivery driver. The driver, a concealed handgun permit holder, shot and critically wounded the robber.
-- Springfield, Mo., June 30: A car owner used his gun to stop a carjacking. The man wounded the criminal, who was captured a few blocks away.
These cases didn’t make national news. Often they got only one local news story. But to get even local news coverage, someone almost always has to be shot.
A recent report from the Violence Policy Center falsely claimed that defensive gun use is extremely rare, with only 258 justifiable homicides with guns in 2012, as opposed to 8,342 criminal homicides. The report received major media attention in such places as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.
It is an old assertion, but there is no support for it. The justifiable homicide number is a useless statistic. Very few police departments record them, and those that do rarely do so in a systematic way. But more importantly, well less than one percent of defensive gun uses involve the attacker being killed or wounded.
Finally, if their claim were right, banning guns would lower murder rates. After all, you would lose only a few defensive gun uses compared to all the murders committed with guns. But, in fact, every single time that guns have been banned, whether in cities or in entire nations, murder rates go up. Gun bans primarily take guns away from law-abiding citizens.
Thank goodness Lynne Russell and Chuck de Caro were able to defend themselves. But Americans would be better informed if it weren’t just the cases involving celebrities who defend themselves that got news coverage.
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18. DC gun laws stay in place pending appeal
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Member Montford Oakes emailed me this:
From patriotpost.us: https://patriotpost.us/posts/36111
DC Gun Laws Stay in Place Pending Appeal
By Dan Gilmore
June 30, 2015
There’s another twist in the journey on the District of Columbia’s path to Second Amendment Liberty. After the city was ordered to allow its citizens the right to gun ownership, DC made the right contingent on a stringent application process, essentially making the right to bear arms only applicable in the privacy of a very few DC residents' homes. After a judge ruled against the city’s practices, a federal appeals court issued a stay on that decision, saying the city’s rules stay in place pending the outcome of the court decision. While keeping the city’s laws is an indication that the judge is sympathetic to the District’s arguments, the Second Amendment Foundation, the group challenging the city’s gun laws, said it’s happy with the ruling, as it also expedites the appeal process. Founder of SAF Alan Gottlieb said,“We expected the Court to issue a stay pending appeal. The good news is they also ordered an expedited appeal as well. I am sure the City would have liked to drag the appeal out and now they can’t.” Despite a clear Second Amendment, the swamp along the Potomac is continuing to fight tooth and nail to prevent its citizens from exercising one of their inherent rights.
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19. Who owns most of the guns? "The Base!"
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A classic case of someone who doesn’t trust himself or his judgement, projecting that personality flaw on everyone else. He actually envisions himself shooting HUNDREDS of rounds from an AK-47 at a car trespassing on his property at night. And his comment that gun owners lose most elections? I guess he hasn’t looked at the makeup of the General Assembly in the last 20 years. I can’t help but wonder if Mr Kilgore thinks that the Earth is flat, too.
Member Montford Oakes emailed me this:
From washingtonmonthly.com: http://tinyurl.com/ooksbac
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/politi ... 056336.php
Who Owns Most of the Guns? “The Base!”
By Ed Kilgore
June 30, 2015
It’s a research finding that is startling but not really surprising (per a report from NBC’s Maggie Fox):
A new study aimed at figuring out who owns gun in the United States and why suggests that about a third of Americans have at least one.
Most are white males over the age of 55, and a “gun culture” is closely linked with ownership, the team at Columbia University reports.
The study, published in the journal Injury Prevention, is one of several trying to pin down the number of gun owners in the United States. No agency keeps statistics on gun ownership and many pro-gun activists advocate keeping gun ownership private because of fears about potential future laws that might take guns away.
Yeah, well, if you really buy into the idea that good people like us need to stockpile weapons in case we need to overthrow a tyrannical socialist regime supported by those people, then I guess you want to present a moving target, eh? But I digress. The study also even less surprisingly shows a geographical gulf in gun ownership:
[Gun ownership percentages ranged] from 5.2 percent in Delaware to 61.7 percent in Alaska,” they wrote in their report. “Gun ownership was 2.25 times greater among those reporting social gun culture than those who did not,” they added.
In the Northeast, gun ownership rates ranged from 5.8 percent in Rhode Island to 28.8 percent in Vermont.
In the Midwest, rates ranged from 19.6 percent in Ohio to 47.9 percent in North Dakota. In the South and mid-Atlantic, rates ranged from 5.2 percent in Delaware to 57.9 percent in Arkansas. And in the West, California had the lowest rate of gun ownership at 20 percent, while nearly 62 percent of Alaskans said they had a gun.
Now this rural habit of disproportionate gun ownership is often related to the opportunity for and interest in hunting, and of a “gun culture” (to use the Columbia report’s terminology) in which social life revolves around gun-related activities. Both these factors are undoubtedly important. But there is something more basic than that: isolation. The first time in my life I really thought about owning a gun was one night when I was awakened at 2:00 AM in my central Virginia home at the end of a two-mile dirt road by approaching—and then extinguished—headlights. At that moment, I wasn’t real confident in the safety offered by a baseball bat, a Bichon Frise, and police officers who were at least 30 minutes away.
On the other hand, even then I didn’t really want an assault rifle, and I would have probably regretted firing hundreds of rounds at that parked car which in the end probably contained teenagers messing around or smoking pot.
Putting aside for a moment geography or the objective advisability of owning some sort of gun for self-protection, there is something fundamentally disquieting about the fact that the Americans most likely to own guns are also the Americans most likely to embrace a political rationale for gun ownership and most likely to believe they’re getting outvoted by people who don’t share their values. Somewhere in these overlapping circles is a hard core of dangerous folks who are being told constantly by Republican politicians that they are losing or have already lost their most fundamental rights. And this is why political extremism is a bad thing even if its devotees lose most elections.
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20. Armed congregants won't allow attackers time to reload
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Member Rick Evans emailed me this:
Ira Combs,Bishop at Greater Bible Way Temple in Jackson, Michigan, said various congregants in his church are armed and that any would-be attackers would not given the chance to reload if they began shooting.
IMHO, in today's world, this approach should be universally practiced at all houses of worship, along with active surveillance of the parking lot, perimeter, and all entrances.
From breitbart.com: http://tinyurl.com/or7zjt5
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government ... to-reload/
BLACK PASTOR: ARMED CONGREGANTS WON’T ALLOW ATTACKERS TIME TO RELOAD
by AWR Hawkins
July 1, 2015
On June 28 Bishop Ira Combs said various congregants in his church are armed and that any would-be attackers would not given the chance to reload if they began shooting.
Combs is Bishop at Greater Bible Way Temple in Jackson, Michigan.
According to Reuters, Combs said, “All of us here are not going to turn the other cheek while you shoot us.” He said these things both in response to the heinous attack on the A.M.E. Church in Charleston and as a way of explaining his church’s security policy.
Responding to reports that alleged Charleston gunman Dylann Roof reloaded five times during his attack, Combs said, “If they had security, the assailant would not have been able to reload.” He went to say, “We aren’t looking to engage people in violence, but we are going to practice law enforcement…and we are going to interdict if someone comes in with a weapon.”
Combs has various people who carry concealed weapons in his church, so would-be attackers never know who may be watching and ready to respond.
In Flint, pastor Theron Wiggins takes a similar approach with one caveat — he himself is armed. He is a former police detective and believes the passive view held by many Christians is part of the “mindset” that has to change.
Regarding his congregants, Wiggins said, “They believe the angels will protect us. Well, I’m one of the angels.”
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21. [NV] Man killed in Las Vegas home invasion identified
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You and your partner break into a gun owner’s home, threaten his family, both of you get shot, one of you goes to the morgue and the other to hospital before eventually heading to jail.
From reviewjournal.com: https://tinyurl.com/ntayful
http://m.reviewjournal.com/news/las-veg ... identified
MAN KILLED IN NORTHEAST LAS VEGAS HOME INVASION IDENTIFIED
By Colton Lochhead, LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
July 2, 2015
A man who was killed during a home invasion Tuesday has been identified by the Clark County coroner’s office as Willie M. Pro, 33, address unknown.
Pro, who had a long criminal record that included convictions for robbery and burglary, died at North Vista Hospital after being shot in the buttocks, the coroner’s office said.
According to Metro police, Pro and Tarneshia Harris, 29, also known as Tiffany Carter, initially attempted a ruse to gain entry into a house in the 3800 block of King Palm Avenue, near Alexander and Pecos roads, Tuesday morning. Harris knocked on the door and told the 12-year-old boy who answered that her car broke down and asked if she could use his phone.
But as the boy began to shut the door, Harris pushed through and put the boy and his friend into a headlock, according to Harris’ arrest report.
Pro, armed with a .22-caliber handgun that had been reported stolen in California, followed Harris inside. He pointed the handgun at the 12-year-old and told him to be quiet.
Pro then kicked in a bedroom door where the boy’s 23-year-old brother was sleeping.
Startled by Pro, the brother grabbed the .40-caliber pistol he keeps next to his bed, and the two exchanged fire.
Pro was hit and retreated out of the room while the 23-year-old gave chase, according to the report.
The 23-year-old, who was not wounded, told police he could hear his mother and brother screaming and saw the man, still with gun in hand, standing at the front door. So he shot at him again. This time the intruder dropped his gun and ran out of the house, the report said.
When he saw Harris, who was fighting with his mother, he fired again, hitting her and forcing her to run out the front door, according to police.
As the family called the police, the brother followed Harris outside, where he found her lying on the ground, wounded.
He later told police he asked Harris why they broke into his home, and she told him she “was trying to protect the kids.” It’s unclear from the police report what Harris meant. The family told police they didn’t know her or the other intruder.
Returning to his room, the brother grabbed an AK-47-style rifle and went back outside. He told detectives he fired a single rifle shot at the intruders’ gold Oldsmobile as they were driving away, hoping to hit a rear tire and prevent them from leaving. It’s unclear whether the shot hit the car.
Police said Pro and Harris drove themselves to North Vista Hospital. Harris was taken to University Medical Center, where she was in critical condition.
Harris was booked in absentia at the Clark County Detention Center on charges of attempted murder, robbery, kidnapping, home invasion, conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to commit home invasion, police said.
Like Pro, Harris has a lengthy criminal history that includes convictions for several burglaries and robberies, attempted grand larceny, petit larceny and malicious destruction of property, court records show.
Police said they do not anticipate any charges being filed against the resident of the house who shot the intruders.
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22. If Rihanna open carries her guns, so can you
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From townhall.com: http://tinyurl.com/oa9694x
http://townhall.com/columnists/katiekie ... u-n2018636
If Rihanna Open Carries Her Guns, So Can You
by Katie Kieffer
June 29, 2015
Editor's Note: This column had the wrong byline when it was originally published. Of course, the column featured below is all Ms. Kieffer's work. This was a dreadful uploading mistake, and we apologize for the error. (Matt)
Black pop star Rihanna wins awards and makes millions for wearing guns in public while everyday black Americans risk losing their jobs if they dare to exercise their 2nd Amendment right.
Are you growing tired of seeing wealthy black Americans get by with things that cause middle class black Americans to lose their jobs or go to prison? Things like carrying firearms, flying the Confederate flag or doing drugs.
I know I am.
If you’re a middle class black or Hispanic cop and you use your firearm to defend yourself and your partners against a mad gunman who happens to also be black, you can lose your job (best case scenario) or be convicted of murder.
But if you’re rich and famous like Rihanna, you will be rewarded for flaunting your fetish for firearms in public. If you’re rolling in it like Rih Rih, there are zero repercussions if you leak a new fashion line called $chool Kills within days of the Charleston mass shooting (her insiders actually did this); carry a black purse in public that is shaped to look like a gun; flash your gun tattoo for the paparazzi; refer to your fans as your “Navy;” or weave weaponry and drugs into your lyrics (think her hit songs “G4L” and “Diamonds”).
Stanzas from G4L: Revenge is sweet…/Load it, reload it, and let’s go…/Guns in the air…/Gangster for life…
Stanzas from Diamonds: Palms rise to the universe/ As we moonshine and molly/ Feel the warmth, we’ll never die/ We’re like diamonds in the sky [Note: “molly” is a reference to the drug MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine).]
The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) awarded Rihanna “Style Icon of 2014”—despite the fact that her fashion glamorizes drugs and guns. CFDA said Rih Rih was the perfect recipient for its prestigious award because: “of her impact on the industry as fashion’s most exciting ambassador in recent memory.”
The CFDA may as well have said: “While we would support suspending a middle class 8th grader for wearing an NRA t-shirt, we consider Rih Rih’s purses that look like or are bedazzled with firearms to be ‘fashion risks.’ Why? Because she’s rich, famous and glamorous.”
Likewise, a wealthy and renowned black rapper with an affluent and famous wife (Kim Kardashian) like Kanye West can flaunt the Confederate flag on his arm and call it “my flag.” But if a middle class black business owner in the south hangs the same flag because—to him—it broadly represents southern culture of hospitality, charm and sweet tea, he’ll be called an “Uncle Tom.” How is that fair?
Last week, Uber, a popular rideshare company, announced that it is banning its drivers and their riders from carrying guns. Basically Uber said: “Hey, drivers with concealed carry permits! If you dare to protect yourself against strangers riding in your own car with your own weapon that you’re trained and permitted to carry—you will lose your job as an Uber driver.”
It was close to midnight on April 17, 2015 when a 22-year-old madman named Everardo Custodio pulled out his gun and began spraying bullets at innocent pedestrians in Logan Square, on the northwest side of downtown Chicago.
An Uber driver with a valid concealed-carry permit fired at Custodio six times, wounding him and ending his deranged shooting spree. Despite this success story, Uber is more concerned about its public image than protecting its drivers or riders.
As comedian Bill Maher says at the end of every show, “New Rules!” As Bill Maher would not say: “If Rihanna Open Carries Her Guns, So Can You.”
New Rules: No guns (including fashion accessories that look like guns) for rich blacks until poor blacks—without Rih Rih’s expensive armed entourage of body guards—can defend themselves with their own firearms.
New Rules: Affluent black celebrities can’t market clothing lines that impressionable youths could misinterpret as glamorizing school shootings until poor black teachers who teach in high crime school districts can carry concealed to protect themselves and their pupils.
Rihanna has over 170 million followers across her social media networks of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Google+. In addition, she narrated the voice of Tip in the animated feature Home. Tip is a young black girl with beautiful curly hair who looks and sounds like a young Rihanna. Bottom line, Rihanna wields enormous influence over millions of young people—including those in grade school.
It’s not right that Rih Rih continues to make millions glamorizing the gangster life while everyday black Americans face job loss or a public shaming for doing similar or related but respectable actions and in a more responsible and purposeful manner.
New rules: If Rihanna can open carry, so can you.
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23. Meet the next generation of gun owners [VIDEO]
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Hard to believe that MSNBC did this one. Excellent item on younger gun owners. Kirsten Joy Weiss, an amazing shot BTW, hits the ball clean out of the park when asked about karate vs guns. The commentator asks about the claim that unlike guns, “karate can't wipe out a whole school full of children.” Without missing a beat Kirsten says, “karate might not save a school full of children, whereas if you have somebody who is trained with a gun and who knew how to use it responsibly, he could actually save that school.”
Member Jay Minsky emailed me this:
From today.com: http://tinyurl.com/p8wlqb3
http://www.today.com/video/meet-the-nex ... 3473603991
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24. This is who America's gun owners are
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Another “study” by the antis.
Reader Ellen Schmidt emailed me this:
From blogs.voanews.com: https://tinyurl.com/o3jgqjm
http://blogs.voanews.com/all-about-amer ... wners-are/
This Is Who America’s Gun Owners Are
by Dora Mekouar
July 1, 2015
Almost one in three Americans own at least one gun and the owners of these weapons are most likely white, married men over the age of 55.
“Firearm violence in the USA continues to be a major public health concern,” according to the report published online in Injury Prevention. “There is little question that the high prevalence of gun ownership in the USA contributes to the burden of firearm-related injury. Firearm ownership and use for recreation and personal defense have long been an integral part of U.S. culture.”
The research found gun owners are twice as likely as people who don’t own guns to be associated with an active social gun culture, where family or friends own guns, or social activities that involve guns. [PVC: Gun owners like to associate with other gun owners because the vast majority of gun owners are friendly, generous, freedom loving, patriotic people, who enjoy each other’s company.]
The report tracked gun ownership rates in 2013. That same year, gun violence killed 33,636 people and injured 84,258 others in the United States. There are an estimated 300 million guns in the U.S.
Alaska has the highest per capita firepower with nearly 62 percent of its populace having guns.Other states with the high gun ownership rates include Arkansas (57.9 percent) and West Virginia (54.2) in the south and Idaho (56.9) in the west.
The study shows that the states with highest gun death rates had gun ownership rates that were 50 percent higher than states with low gun death rates.
The researchers, from Columbia University and elsewhere, say the strong social gun culture in the U.S. should be factored in when planning and implementing gun policies designed to reduce the dangers that can be associated with gun ownership.
The study used data from a national sample of 4,000 U.S. adults, from 50 states and District of Columbia.
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25. 9 of the worst 13 mass public shootings happened outside the U.S.
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From crimepreventionresearchcenter.org: http://tinyurl.com/ok9wmg3
http://crimepreventionresearchcenter.or ... ed-states/
With 39 killed in Tunisia attack, the top three mass public shootings, 9 of the worst 13, are outside the United States
by John R. Lott
June 28, 2015
After the Charleston massacre, President Obama made this comment: “the unique mayhem that gun violence afflicts upon this nation.” The three worst public mass shootings and nine of the worst 13 public mass shootings occurred outside the US. Of these cases, nine occurred in developed or “advanced” countries. The worst public mass shooting are as follows:
1) Utoya, Norway, July 22, 2011: Anders Behring Breivik used a gun to kill 67 people and wound 110 others. Still others were killed by bombs that Breivik detonated.
2) Sousse, Tunisia, June 26, 2015: Seifeddine Rezgui, a college student, used a gun to kill 39 people at a crowded tourist beach resort at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel.
3) Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia, April 28 and 29, 1996: Martin Bryant killed 35 people and wounded another 23 at a popular tourist site, the historic Port Arthur former prison colony.
4) Blacksburg, Virginia, USA, April 16, 2007: Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 17 by gun fire at Virginia Tech University.
5) Hebron, Israel, February 25, 1994: Baruch Goldstein killed 29 and wounded 125 Muslim worshippers in an attack on the Cave of the Patriarchs.
6) Newtown, Connecticut, USA, December 14, 2012: 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 26 people at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
7) Killeen, Texas, USA, October 16, 1991: George Hennard crashed his pickup truck into the plate glass windows of the Luby Cafeteria and then shot 23 people to death.
San Ysidro, California, USA July 18, 1984: James Huberty shot and killed 21 people and wounded another 19 at a McDonald’s restaurant.9) Erfurt, Germany, April 26, 2002: Robert Steinhäuser, a recent graduate of the Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany, killed 18 people.
10) Near Stirling, Scotland, UK, March 13, 1996: Thomas Hamilton killed 17 people at the Dunblane Primary School.
11) Hungerford, UK, August 19, 1987: Michael Robert Ryan killed 16 people, but they occurred at several locations.
12) São Gonçalo do Amarante, Natal, Brazil, May 21, 1997: Genildo Ferreira Do Francais killed 15 people in a small northern Brazilian town.
13) Winnenden, Germany, March 11, 2009: 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer 15 killed at the Winnenden School.
Other cases: The Zug Switzerland shooting left 14 people killed in September 27, 2001. The 1966 University of Texas shooting left 14 people dead (wife and mother were killed through other means). Edmond, Oklahoma shooting at a post office left 14 people killed on August 20, 1986.
UPDATE: Woo Bum-kon killed 56 people a over two days in South Korea (April 26-27, 1982). It is hard to include him in the above list because there was no large number of people killed in any one single public place, but instead he would kill one or two people in a lot of different public places. He also used grenades to kill people.
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26. Why comparing the U.S. only to other developed countries is deceitful
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Board Member Dale Welch emailed me this:
From theinternationallibertarian.blogspot.com: http://tinyurl.com/ps22sko
http://theinternationallibertarian.blog ... ed_29.html
Murder Rates: Why Comparing The United States Only To Other Developed Countries Is Deceitful
by Darren Wolfe
June 29, 2015
My recent article “Islands, Churches, and Guns” was met with a ridiculous criticism that gun rights advocates have left unrefuted for far too long. Namely, the idea that it's only legitimate to compare the US murder rate to that of other developed countries. When one does compare the US to that cherry picked group the US looks, for the most part, bad. This false point is why gun rights haters try to limit the comparison. The problem with that limited comparison is the fact that many very poor countries are also very peaceful. Gun rights haters would have to be able to show that virtually all affluent countries are very peaceful and that virtually all poor countries are very violent for their limited comparison to make any sense. That would indeed make the US an outlier. Fortunately for gun rights they can't meet the above conditions. There are many poor countries with high murder rates. The table below shows that there are at least 36 poor countries (that's over 18% of the 195 countries that exist in the world today) with a murder rate under 5 per 100,000. This puts them in the same category that the US and most of Europe is in. This tells us that a country's level of development or poverty is irrelevant to the murder rate.
[VCDL Editor Note: Chart in article listing the country - Murder rate per 100,00 - Percentage of population living on <$2 per day - Percentage of population living on <$4 per day]
The US has a rate of 4.5 murders per 100,000 of population which is well below the world average of 6.2 per 100,000. There's no disputing that the US has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world. Putting these two facts together is part of showing that having guns isn't the problem as gun rights haters can't show a correlation between access to guns (or the lack thereof) and murder rates.
If the level of development of a country and rate of gun ownership aren't determining factors what should we look at? The social dynamics that drive murder rates. As Kates and Mauser wrote in “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?”:
...the determinants of murder and suicide are basic social, economic, and cultural factors, not the prevalence of some form of deadly mechanism. In this connection, recall that the
American jurisdictions which have the highest violent crime rates are precisely those with the most stringent gun controls.
Let's finally put to rest the idea that forcibly disarming people will make them safer. We need to stop wasting time and implement liberty so that the social dynamics that lead to a harmonious society can take hold here.
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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/]