Free Republic

RICHMOND, Va. - Doug and Cheryl Camden were raised around guns but agreed not to keep them in their house after they got married and began raising five children of their own. Then violent crime began to dominate daily news reports. Several businesses near their Chester restaurant were robbed, home invasions seemed to increase and the world just seemed to be getting much more dangerous. "It's to the point where you can't walk through the park without getting attacked," Doug Camden said Friday. So the Camdens are following the path taken by a sharply increasing number of Virginians: They're applying...

Shame on Virginia Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw. A man who has spent the better part of three decades in the legislature in Richmond ought to have more sense than to insult any state resident – let alone an entire group of them. Saslaw, a Northern Virginia businessman and the leader of the newly minted Democratic majority, is in hot water for an ill-considered remark on an elevator at the capitol last week. His comments were either an insult to gun-rights supporters or rural voters or both. NO MATTER who was the target, the remarks were certainly not statesmanlike. Saslaw...

Hampton Sen. Mamie Locke is at the forefront now of an expected wave of legislation aimed at firearms. Expect grieving parents to talk about their slain children as they plead for stricter gun controls. Expect passionate Second Amendment loyalists to argue that a legally armed professor could have halted the Virginia Tech massacre. In all, expect heated discussions and passionate debates about firearms when state lawmakers return to Richmond next week. "We could see a record number of gun bills," said Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun-rights group. "There should be a lot more...

1. Roanoke Times will no longer allow any gun shows to advertise in their paper!!! 2. MMM has its protest at a church instead of the Richmond gun show 3. This is TOO FUNNY! The Daily Press accidentally gives VCDL yet ANOTHER great plug! ************************************************************* 1. Roanoke Times will no longer allow any gun shows to advertise in their paper!!! ************************************************************* Every time that I think the Roanoke Times has sunk as far as the toilet will let them go, they seem to find a new dent in the porcelain. Because of the Virginia Tech massacre, WHICH HAD NOTHING TO...

More than 100 gun-rights advocates, most carrying handguns on their hips and wearing buttons saying "Guns Save Lives," came to the City Council on Tuesday night to protest what they called harassment of law-abiding gun owners by city officials. The protest was called by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun-rights group, after Chet Szymecki of Yorktown was arrested in June at Harborfest for carrying a gun. Szymecki was arrested for violating a city ordinance banning guns at Harborfest - an ordinance that officials now acknowledge violates state law. City Attorney Bernard A. Pishko said city officials were unaware of...

NORFOLK Chester Szymecki Jr. was waiting for some music to start at Harborfest when a sheriff's deputy approached. It was a warm June afternoon, and thousands of people wandered on and off the tall ships moored around Town Point Park. Szymecki had come from Yorktown with his wife, their three children and two children from their neighborhood. Szymecki had brought along something else, too - a .45-caliber handgun in a holster on his belt. The deputy asked Szymecki whether he was a police officer. He said no. And then, he said, uniformed city police began closing in. They gave him...

The Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council will study whether it can restrict access to the list of people with concealed-handgun permits. By Michael Sluss (804) 697-1585 RICHMOND -- A state advisory council will examine the possibility of restricting access to information about Virginians who are licensed to carry concealed handguns, responding to a controversy sparked by The Roanoke Times. The Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council on Monday created a subcommittee to study the protection of "personal identifying information." Among other things, the group will consider the merits of allowing public access to a state police database listing the...

From: VCDL President Sent: Monday, July 31, 2006 8:48 PM Subject: VA-ALERT: Tragedy strikes GOA --------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe or change your email address, please follow the directions at the end of this message. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry to bombard everyone with another alert item, but this one is time sensitive. Erich Pratt, who is the director of communications for Gun Owners of America and son of GOA's Executive Director, Larry Pratt, has just lost his 23 month old son in a tragic drowning accident. (Shortly before his death little Luke Pratt was last seen throwing a baseball in his yard and happily...

Gov (D) Timothy M. Kaine - Responded Gov (I) H. Russ Potts, Jr. -No Response Gov (R) Jerry W. Kilgore - No Response Lt Gov (D) Leslie L.- Byrne No Response Lt Gov (R) William T. "Bill" Bolling - Responded AG (D) R. Creigh Deeds - Responded & NRA Endorsed. AG (R) Robert F. "Bob" McDonnell - No Response See how incumbents running for reelection answered the survey. House Survey Results - 2005 VCDL House Survey Results Statewide Survey Results - 2005 VCDL Statewide Survey Results

"The National Rifle Association yesterday endorsed Republican Jerry W. Kilgore to be Virginia's next governor, while members of a key gun-rights lobby fumed over remarks about their leadership made by the Kilgore campaign.... But some grass-roots members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) say they will not vote for Mr. Kilgore Nov. 8 because one of his staffers said the VCDL's president has "no credibility" on Second Amendment issues. "I am pro-life, reeling from the great tax hike of 2004, a staunch Second Amendment defender and wild horses could not drag me to vote for Kilgore," said Mike Downey,...

Sprechen sie Deutsch The posted ban on firearms in town parks has sparked an odd, multilingual e-mail skirmish between Town Manager Brannon Godfrey and a Richmond-based gun rights group. Both sides are standing by their guns when it comes to the age-old debate of state law superseding local law, but it looks like the town is going to have to fold on its firearms ban in parks. Signs in Yowell Meadow and Mountain Run Lake parks will be modified within two weeks to remove the “no firearms” restriction - it’s state law. In the meantime, both sides are wrangling over words....

The Virginia Citizens Defense League is non-partisan. We are only asking all the candidates to take a position on specific issues of concern to Virginia's gun owners, so that gun owners might make an informed choice. We believe this to be a reasonable request, and remain perplexed by the hostility that this has generated from the Kilgore campaign. The emails on which I have been cc'ed from gun owners across the state run the gamut from *pleading* with Mr. Kilgore to answer the VCDL survey and take a stand on gun rights, to furious gun owners saying that they have...

A key Virginia gun rights lobby said yesterday that it will not endorse a candidate in the gubernatorial race but is urging its members not to sit out the election, as many did in 2001... Mr. Kilgore will not be seeking the group's [VCDL's] endorsement, campaign spokesman Tucker Martin said. "While we have great respect for the members of the VCDL, their President Phillip Van Cleave unfortunately has no credibility on Second Amendment issues and that is why we did not participate," Mr. Martin said, declining to elaborate.

----- Original Message -----   ----- Original Message ----- From: "VCDL President" <philip@virginiasystems.com> To: <va-alert@listbox.com> Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 10:52 PM Subject: VA-ALERT: ACTION ITEM! New Orleans DISARMING the Public!   > --------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe or change your email address, please follow the > directions at the end of this message. > --------------------------------------------------------------- > > > VCDL tries to stay within the bounds of Virginia as much as possible. > However, once in a while, we have to deal with the fact that we are > Americans above all else.  Our fellow citizens matter to us and >...

CNSNews.com) - Virginia State Police records confirm that at least seven gun show "sting" operations since July of 2004 have targeted gun buyers in the Richmond, Va., area. The documents support allegations that protected information may have been illegally shared with local police and gun buyers' relatives and neighbors. Cybercast News Service previously reported that nearly 500 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents, state troopers, county and city police officers participated in an "ATF Task Force" targeting the Showmasters gun show in Richmond, Va., on Aug. 13 and 14. Following that initial report, Cybercast News Service obtained...

A Federal Agency Out of Control The reputation of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) has been less than stellar for many years. Agents seem to take great pleasure in harrassing law-abiding citizens while those citizens are exercising their rights to purchase and own legal products, i.e., guns. And the management of the agency appears to allow their agents to run out of control. BATFE may very well have a legitimate role to play in homeland security and law enforcement, that role does not give them the authority to trample our rights with impunity. I will not...

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE), who seem to go out of their way to alienate gun owners with their heavy-handedness, behaved in a shameful manner this last weekend at the Showmasters' gun show in Richmond. I had reports from members of police going to their houses while the member was waiting for their approval to purchase a gun at the show! The police asked the spouse and other family members questions about the purchases and filled in a survey! "Did you know your husband was going to a gun show today?" "Did you know your husband...

When it comes to guns, both Sean Connaughton and Bill Bolling received high marks from the Virginia Citizens Defense League, but there are several key differences between the two candidates for lieutenant governor. Both Republicans checked the anti-gun control option for most of the 13 questions. The dispute is in the three questions they answered differently. Question 3 asked whether the candidates favor repealing laws that allow localities to fingerprint applicants for concealed handgun permits. Bolling answered yes, in favor of repeal and Connaughton answered no. "I'm a strong supporter of the right to bear arms," Connaughton said, noting that...

Only a slight "flicker of hope" remains in Richmond for the otherwise doomed photo red light program that numerous Northern Virginia jurisdictions, including the City of Falls Church and Fairfax County, have utilized in recent years. The requirement that the state legislature act to extend the program fell short during the just-ended legislative session with the speaker of the house stripped a transportation bill of an amendment that would have preserved it. Falls Church City Manager Dan McKeever, briefing the City Council on the development at its meeting Monday, said that the governor can still add the amendment back in...

As the gaggle of gun enthusiasts with their assorted handguns sitting openly on their hips dined on hamburgers and chicken tenders at the Fuddruckers restaurant in Annandale, Victor Castellon's eyes grew wide with concern. "I've got to be careful with these guys because they've got guns," he said, sitting at a nearby table with his girlfriend. "It's like the old West." Castellon was observing members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, an organization that believes gun owners have the right to carry their guns anywhere — including restaurants like Fuddruckers that serve alcohol. Under Virginia law, carrying a concealed firearm...