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Not yet a Virginia Citizens Defense League 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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VA-ALERT archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/727/=now
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1. HELP NEEDED: Abingdon Gun Show THIS WEEKEND!
2. ACTION ITEM: McLean Citizens Association has moved their venue for the Wednesday, November 4th, meeting
3. ACTION ITEM: Newport News City Council to push gun control, hearing on November 10th!
4. Sturtevant’s resistance to doing the VCDL Candidate Survey has been explained
5. Politifact hammers Governor McAuliffe for his “mostly untrue” statistic on guns
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1. HELP NEEDED: Abingdon Gun Show THIS WEEKEND!
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The Abington gun show is this coming up weekend (November 7 and
in SWVA at the Abington fair groundshttps://gunshowtrader.com/gun-shows/abingdon-gun-show/
Volunteers are needed for both days. Any and all volunteers will be be appreciated!
Saturday hours will be from 9:00 am to 5 pm, Sunday will be from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Anyone that wishes to assist with manning a VCDL table defending their 2nd amendment rights can contact Chris Sturgill at (276) 733-6123 or via email gunshows.abingdon@vcdl.org
No experience will be necessary: Chris & Wendy Sturgill will be there to assist with providing instructions to any new volunteers.
Don’t miss this great opportunity to get out and assist your fellow gun owners defending the 2nd amendment!
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2. ACTION ITEM: McLean Citizens Association has moved their venue for the Wednesday, November 4th, meeting
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The McLean Citizens Association (MCA) is breaking its own by-laws requiring a 10-day notice of venue change as it moves Wednesday’s meeting from the McLean Community Center to the McLean High School Lecture Hall. They are doing this to disarm any gun owners attending their meeting this Wednesday.
At the meeting they will hear from the ad hoc committee that is looking at what to do, if anything, about NOVA Firearms being near a school. (Move the school?
) On Wednesday, I expect MCA to continue breaking their by-law requiring prior notification as they move to ban guns from all their meetings, even those at the community center.
If they are hoping to deter gun owners turn-out, we need to prove them wrong and show up to hear what their committee has to say.
Those attending the meeting on Wednesday will have to leave their unloaded handguns in a closed compartment or container in their vehicle. Loading and unloading should be done prior to driving on school property. OR, if you can park off of school property, you can leave your loaded handgun in your car wherever you please. (State law allows the carry of a folding knife with a metal blade less than 3-inches long on school property.)
GSL stickers will be handed out, please be sure to grab one.
Here is the address of Wednesday’s meeting at 7:30 PM:
McLean High School Lecture Hall
1633 Davidson Rd
McLean, VA 22101
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3. ACTION ITEM: Newport News City Council to push gun control, hearing on November 10th!
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Newport News is looking to push gun control in the General Assembly in January - including a possible “license to possess a firearm,” just like New York has! The issue will come up on Tuesday, November 10th.
ACTION ITEM
For those in the Newport News area, plan on attending the City Council meeting on November 10th. I will be there with a roll of GSL stickers. Let’s make sure City Council gets the message: NO MORE GUN CONTROL!
The meeting is at 7 PM at:
City Hall
2400 Washington Ave.
9th Floor
Newport News, VA 23607
See you there!
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4. Sturtevant’s resistance to doing the VCDL Candidate Survey has been explained
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EM Hal “Mack” Macklin went over to the Glen Sturtevant campaign headquarters a week or so ago to ask the staff there face-to-face why Sturtevant is refusing to return the VCDL Candidate Survey, something very important to Virginia grassroots gun owners.
Mack was told that Glen had been given an “AQ” rating by the NRA, so there was no need to do the VCDL survey.
Mack said that the steadfast refusal to return the VCDL survey in the face of much pressure by gun owners to do so, providing few details on how the candidate would vote on some specific gun-related issues, and standing solely on an NRA rating, sounded exactly like the failed Jerry Kilgore for Governor campaign back in 2005.
Mack said there was a surprised look on the face of the campaign worker, but nothing more was said, and Mack had no idea what caused the surprise.
Lo and behold, today we learn that both the Kilgore and Sturtevant campaigns (along with Ed Gillespie, and some others, too) actually do have something in common: a political consultant named Tucker Martin.
Back in 2005 Tucker stirred up a firestorm when some of his statements appeared in the Washington Times:
"Kilgore spokesman Tucker Martin said the candidate has 'great respect' for VCDL members but would not submit the survey because 'their president, Philip Van Cleave, unfortunately has no credibility on Second Amendment issues.’”
Is Tucker still underestimating the importance of grassroots gun organizations and giving bad advice to the candidates who are paying him?
Whether Tucker loves me or hates me is irrelevant. The elections are not about either Tucker or me, but about getting some straightforward, honest answers from the candidates so gun owners can head to the polls and be confident with their vote.
For those unfamiliar with the Kilgore debacle back in 2005, some Washington Times articles are still online and worth a read:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/200 ... /?page=all
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/200 ... /?page=all
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Here is something on the Ed Gillespie campaign, which also followed the Kilgore game-plan with similar results:
http://www.ammoland.com/2014/10/ed-gill ... r-a-dodge/
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5. Politifact hammers Governor McAuliffe for his “mostly untrue” statistic on guns
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McAuliffe not telling the truth on guns? What a shocker! Both Lori Haas and Andrew Goddard have also repeated this same bogus statistic recently.
http://www.politifact.com/virginia/stat ... e-backgro/
or
http://tinyurl.com/ojbx2v2
McAuliffe says 40 percent of U.S. gun sales escape background checks
By Sean Gorman on Monday, November 2nd, 2015 at 12:20 a.m.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe recently issued an executive order that banned firearms from most state buildings and offered his rationale for a gun control measure he plans to present to the General Assembly this winter.
McAuliffe, a Democrat, is calling for a law that would require all prospective gun buyers in Virginia to undergo a background check to determine whether the purchaser has a disqualifying criminal record or mental health history. Although the governor long has supported this action, his intensity grew after the Aug. 26 fatal shootings of Roanoke television reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward near Smith Mountain Lake.
Virginia law now requires all licensed gun dealers - those in the business of selling arms - to conduct computerized checks on buyers. But sales between individuals are exempt and that, McAuliffe says, opens a loophole for guns to fall into the wrong hands. A federal law requiring background checks has the same exemption.
"It has been estimated that nearly 40 percent of all guns sold in America are sold by private, unlicensed sellers either online or through guns shows," McAuliffe stated in his Oct. 15 executive order.
Christina Nuckols, deputy press secretary for McAuliffe, said the source of the 40 percent figure is a 1997 study by the National Institute of Justice that looked at gun owners’ responses to a 1994 national survey asking how they got their weapons. The study found that 30 percent to 40 percent of all gun transactions were made through an "off-the-books" transfer in which a background check wasn’t required.
The finding has been cited widely by gun control advocates - including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D- Va. - in calling for a federal law mandating universal background checks. But as we and other fact checkers have noted previously, the research is old and limited. Consider:
* The 1994 survey was conducted eight months after the federal Brady Act went into effect, mandating background checks on individuals seeking to buy firearms from federally licensed dealers. Survey participants were asked about their gun acquisitions going back to 1991.
* Only 251 gun owners answered the survey question about the origin of their weapons. Some of the gun owners weren’t sure how they’d gotten their guns and answered "probably" or "probably not" to whether they got the gun from a licensed firearm dealer.
McAuliffe’s statement misses a key distinction in the study: The research looked at all gun transactions - including when a gun was obtained as a gift or as an inheritance - and not just being "sold," as the governor said.
The Fact Checker at The Washington Post in 2013 asked one of the co-authors of the study, Jens Ludwig of the University of Chicago, to crunch the 1994 data just looking at sales. Ludwig replied that 14 percent to 22 percent of guns were purchased without a background check.
The 1994 data, we also should note, did not have a category for online sales, as McAuliffe’s statement suggests.
Earlier this year, we asked the other co-author of the report, Philip Cook of Duke University, what percentage of guns currently are sold without a background check. In response, he sent us an op-ed that he and Ludwig wrote in the National Review after the December 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. - a time when the 40 percent figure was circulating again.
"We’ve been following the give-and-take with some interest because our research is the original source of the 40-percent statistic," they wrote. "Our views may come as a surprise: First, we don’t know the current percentage - nor does anyone else."
The lack of current data is due largely because federal funding for gun studies dried up two decades ago. President Barack Obama issued a memorandum in 2013 directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to re-examine gun violence.
We also should note that Virginia doesn’t keep data about private guns, said Corinne Geller, communications manager for the state police. As a result, we recently gave a False rating to a statement by state Sen. Tommy Norment, R-James City, that only 2 percent of Virginia gun sales are exempt from background checks. The fact is, nobody knows.
Our ruling
McAuliffe said, "It has been estimated that nearly 40 percent of all guns sold in America are sold by private, unlicensed sellers either online or through gun shows."
His source is a small-sample survey from 1994 that included firearms that were sold and those that were given as gifts or inheritances. When the results were adjusted to guns sold - the term McAuliffe uses - only 14 percent to 22 percent of the firearms were sold without background checks.
The researchers say they "don’t know" if their findings are relevant today. No current national study has been published.
McAuliffe did not acknowledge these points, all of which have been reported widely. So we rate his statement Mostly False.
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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/]