Posted on 03/20/2007 11:19:53 AM PDT by Perseverando
VCDL Update 3/19/07 - Defending your right to defend yourself
1. VCDL's "Bloomberg Gun GiveAway" in the news again, another mayor jumps ship!
2. Governor signs second gun bill (another put in for VCDL)
3. Richmond Museum of Fine Arts playing games with gun owners!
4. Jittery Trejbal calls in bomb scare
5. Long story on Roanoke Times debacle, VCDL quoted
6. Let's contact Landmark Communications about the Roanoke Times!!
7. And you can tell the Roanoke Times Classified Department you are boycotting them
8. Roanoke Times privacy policy - what a joke!
9. Why did he move here? What Trejbal thinks of SW Virginia
10. Too many guns? Richmond Sheriff illegally confiscates guns
11. Prince William County closer to obeying VA state law
12. On heels of DC ruling, Federal pro-gun bill for DC introduced
13. Suffolk has 'no guns' signs in their parks - sigh
14. Correction on 'assault weapon' purchase
15. Yet another robbery of a UVA student on campus
16. Newport News gun owner turns the tables on a robber!
17. Another story on NRA vs Cato Institute dispute
18. Road rage incident leaves gun in a VA library over night!
19. Run to a police station for help and die. No substitute for having a gun for self-defense
20. Unarmed NY police shot and killed
21. MD gun groups beat back AWB!
22. Shad Planking coming up again!
23. Gun Show Coordinator Needed!
24. Tell DC to give self-defense a chance!
25. Gun haters call VCDL the "Zumbo mob"
26. Looking for a few good DOD ID holders to fight the VSP's military gun ban!
27. Gun shows and events!
*********************************************** 1. VCDL's "Bloomberg Gun GiveAway" in the news again, another mayor jumps ship! ***********************************************
The "Bloomberg Gun GiveAway" has been in national and local news lately, including CNN, WTOP (DC), and various tv stations around the state.
Here is coverage by the AP - with quotes from VCDL:
Va. gun enthusiasts taunt NYC mayor with ``Bloomberg Gun GiveAway'' By KRISTEN GELINEAU Associated Press Writer
March 16, 2007, 12:49 PM EDT MIDLOTHIAN, Va. -- Amid the Confederate flags, anti-Yankee bumper stickers and Civil War relics displayed throughout Bob Moates Sport Shop, a new, rather uncivil war is brewing.
"Ask about the Bloomberg Gun GiveAway" reads a sign taped to the gun shop's register, beckoning customers to enter the drawing named for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose federal lawsuits against gun dealers in five states have drawn the wrath of Virginia's gun enthusiasts.
Bloomberg calls the dealers holding the contest sick. The dealers call Bloomberg words that aren't fit to print.
"This has proved to be a battle royale," said Philip Van Cleave, president of the pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defense League and mastermind of the giveaway, which has boosted business for the two participating store owners. "The truth is, if Bloomberg hadn't picked on Virginia, we wouldn't have gotten involved. But he made the mistake of stepping into Virginia with this."
The Republican mayor has sued 27 out-of-state gun dealers, alleging that they sold firearms illegally to undercover private investigators conducting a sting operation for New York. City officials say the dealers have supplied hundreds of weapons used in New York City crimes. The lawsuits, which name dealers in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia, ask the court to require monitoring of the shops' sales.
Private investigators attempted "straw purchases" at about 45 dealers, in which one person fills out the legal forms and makes the purchase for someone else. The practice is prohibited by federal law and is typically used by those who can't own firearms, such as convicted felons.
Nine dealers, including two in Virginia, have settled with the city, agreeing to be monitored by a court-appointed special master.
The owners of two Virginia stores being sued said they were forced to close because of crushing legal fees. But in January, two other store owners began fighting back with the gun giveaway. Through March 31, customers who spend $100 at either of Bob Moates' stores or Old Dominion Guns and Tackle in Danville are eligible to win a handgun or a rifle, courtesy of the Defense League. The drawing will be held April 19. Among those ineligible to win, as per the official rules: "Mayor Bloomberg and his immediate family members."
Van Cleave said he came up with the idea as a way to boost sales at the stores, which have already shelled out thousands in legal fees.
The contest has only further agitated Bloomberg, who has made gun control a top priority in his second term.
"These are sick people," Bloomberg said in January when questioned about the giveaway at the Mayors Against Illegal Guns summit in Washington. "And if they think that this is funny, I don't think that the parents or the spouses or the children of those that get killed with illegal guns would find that very entertaining."
Dave Hancock, who has worked at Bob Moates Sport Shop for 25 years, shakes his head at such statements.
"Mr. Bloomberg thinks we're a bunch of sick people," said Hancock, leaning against a display case of handguns. "Well, I think he's an idiot."
Bloomberg and his colleagues say the lawsuits are part of an effort to curb the flow of illegal guns into New York. Mayoral spokesman Jason Post points to New York City police statistics showing that 90 percent of the city's crime guns come from out of state.
But Hancock and other Virginia gun-rights advocates say the lawsuits are nothing more than a publicity stunt and a scheme to drive gun dealers out of business.
Richard Hill, manager of Bob Moates Sport Shop, called the lawsuits a "nice attempt by a politician just trying to get to the White House" and said his store always follows the law.
"The best way to get guns off the street and criminals off the street is to lock 'em up," Hill said. "They seem to want to pick on an old stereotype _ it's so easy to get a gun in Virginia and run it up to New York. When quite honestly, you can break into a house anywhere and get anything you like."
Bloomberg's face graces a poster taped to a shotgun rack at Bob Moates, under the words "Here are our worst enemy." Sarah Brady, of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle are also pictured, though Bloomberg's face is circled in bright pink highlighter.
The contest has been boosting sales, with several thousand tickets given out so far, Hancock said. The winner will receive a Para-Ordnance handgun worth around $900.
Longtime customer Scott Cashion, 31, of Chesterfield, said he's earned six or seven tickets _ and may end up with more to get back at Bloomberg.
"I bought some kind of for spite," he said while perusing a stack of ammunition. "What he's doing is wrong."
Dennis Alverson, owner of Old Dominion Guns and Tackle, is also enjoying brisk business, which he attributes to his customers' contempt for the lawsuits. The winner from his store will get a Browning Varmint Stalker rifle, also worth about $900.
"I've been in business 27 years and I've probably had the best February I've ever had," Alverson said. "Nobody's got a great likeness for Bloomberg in this area."
--
In a stringing rebuke to Bloomberg, Mayor Mary B. Wolf wrote to Bloomberg, "I have learned that the Coalition may be working on issues that conflict with legal gun ownership and that some actions on your behalf are dubious." [She is definitely being kind by saying 'some' actions of his are dubious - PVC]
Looks like she wants to get out of Dodge, er, New York City. This makes four disenchanged Mayors who want nothing more to do with Bloomberg and his baloney:
PA Mayor Tells SAF She is Quitting Bloomberg's 'Dubious' Coalition!
2007-03-14 22:41:52 -
BELLEVUE, Wash., March 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Williamsport, PA Mayor Mary B. Wolf has quit New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" coalition, telling the Second Amendment Foundation in a letter that she joined in hopes of finding "community based solutions to reduce gun violence."
However, in a letter to Bloomberg -- a copy of which Mayor Wolf forwarded to SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb -- she told Bloomberg, "I have learned that the Coalition may be working on issues that conflict with legal gun ownership and that some actions on your behalf are dubious."
Mayor Wolf joins several other mayors who have withdrawn from Bloomberg's coalition. Last month, after Bloomberg's office was advised by the Justice Department against conducting any more "gun shop sting" operations, Gottlieb sent an open letter to all mayors who had joined the anti-gun group, urging them to reconsider their involvement, which might be associated with Bloomberg's vigilante anti-gun activities.
"I am grateful that Mayor Wolf took a second look at Bloomberg's coalition," Gottlieb stated, "and that she thoughtfully advised SAF of her decision. Like several other mayors who think for themselves and the constituents who are their friends and neighbors, Mayor Wolf has demonstrated the kind of leadership that will set her apart from those who have been beguiled by Bloomberg's media hype."
In her letter to Gottlieb, Mayor Wolf said that, in her opinion, "It was always clear that licensed gun dealers, sportsmen, gun collectors and other similarly situated individuals were not part of the problem .... "
Meanwhile, in her letter to Bloomberg, Mayor Wolf was straightforward, noting, "The intent of the coalition was well-founded but current initiatives seem counterproductive to ... reduce the criminal misuse of firearms."
"It takes a special quality and a certain amount of political courage to go against the current of political correctness and media favoritism," Gottlieb said. "Hers is the example that fellow mayors ought to follow, not Bloomberg's."
The Second Amendment Foundation (http://www.saf.org/) is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
Source: Second Amendment Foundation
--
REMINDER - the "Bloomberg Gun GiveAway" is still running, but will end on March 31st!
There's still time to participate.
Prizes include firearms, a deluxe gas grill, laser boresighters and more! Mail orders are allowed.
The drawing will be held on April 19th at the VCDL membership meeting in Annandale. Plan on attending!
For more info click here:
*********************************************** 2. Governor signs second gun bill (another put in for VCDL) ***********************************************
Delegate Bill Carrico has had a second pro-gun bill signed that clarifies that a person with a CHP is NOT to be fingerprinted when renewing. AND it clarifies that it doesn't matter how old or expired the previous permit is when a person renews it - no fingerprints!
I'll give Chesterfield's Circuit Court Clerk a call and tell her that after July 1, her policy of fingerprinting people whose permit have expired by more than six months needs to stop.
Congratulations Delegate Carrico and thanks for carrying that bill for VCDL!
*********************************************** 3. Richmond Museum of Fine Arts playing games with gun owners! ***********************************************
As VCDL members, you are pretty well versed on Virginia gun laws and know your rights. Heaven help you if you don't and you come up against a security guard trying to trick and intimidate you.
In this case, the hapless guard decided to pick on VCDL Board member Dennis O'Connor. BAD mistake:
Dennis sent me this email:
--
I went back to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts today for the first time since the Oct. 28th conflict with their security guards over open carry.
In the newspaper article reporting on that incident, the Museum spokesperson admitted they had no authority to ban guns, and said in the future they would asked armed patrons to leave their firearms outside, but would not further bother them if the patron refused.
Today I was open carrying the full size Springfield Armory XD in .45 ACP as I had the last time, when a security guard approached me and said "Excuse me, sir. Are you aware of the Code of Virginia? I'm going to ask you to take your firearm back to your vehicle for the comfort of our visitors." [HAHAHAHAHA! Dennis aware of the Code of Virginia? Well, if you consider someone able to quote the gun laws chapter and verse as "knowing the Code of Virginia," then I would say, "yes!" HAHAHAHA! - PVC]
When I looked at her and said "Sorry, but no," she quickly said "OK, then have a pleasant tour of the museum" and walked away. She did come back a few minutes later with who I suspect was a guard supervisor, and the two of them stood watching me at a distance for a few minutes between intermittent radio calls before leaving again. [Dennis should have said, "Excuse me. Do you know the Code of Virginia? I'm going to have to ask you to turn those radios off and give them to me!" - PVC]
While I cannot fault them for quickly dropping the subject this time when I again refused to comply, It is rather sneaky of them to have implied that I was in violation of the law when I certainly was not. It is undoubtedly meant to intimidate those who do not have a full understanding of their rights or the law.
*********************************************** 4. Jittery Trejbal calls in bomb scare ***********************************************
The original story was quickly edited to remove a section that said that Christian Trejbal, the columnist who helped put the list of CHP holders online at the Roanoke Times, had already opened the package before he called the police bomb squad!
If he did that, he is guilty of calling in a false bomb threat.
The paper pulled that part in short order and replaced the story with on that doesn't mention Trejbal opening the package first.
Sounds like a CYA to me.
Anyway, I wonder if the Roanoke Times is going to post an armed guard outside the homes of all the permit holders that the Times just endangered, just like they did after this phony bomb scare of Trejbal's.
I also wonder if Mr. Trejbal always panics when a courier drops off shipping materials? Or was he just looking for sympathy or trying to make gun owners seem like criminals?
Trejbal claims he had threats issued against him.
VCDL calls on the Roanoke Police to investigate both charges:
* Did Trejbal open that box, as a neighbor reported, BEFORE he called the police? If so, charge Trejbal with reporting a false bomb threat!
* Were there threats made against Mr. Trejbal? If so, find out who did that and charge them!
Here is the article:
No bomb at editorial writer's home
By Donna Alvis-Banks and Paul Dellinger
UPDATED 5:59 p.m.
The mysterious package that was delivered today to Roanoke Times editorial writer Christian Trejbal's home and prompted the closing of a Christiansburg street turned out to be full of blank mailing labels and cardboard mailers.
School Lane was closed, a state police bomb squad was called and at least some neighbors were evacuated after Trejbal, who attracted a deluge of criticism with a column about concealed carry firearms permits, found the package during a lunch-time trip home. Trejbal has received threats in the wake of his Sunday column, which celebrated open government and public records and was accompanied by an online database listing the about 135,000 Virginians who are licensed to carry concealed firearms. The information is available to anyone who inquires at county courthouses, or can be obtained on a statewide basis from Richmond.
Angry responses poured into the paper's message boards after the column ran, with readers complaining that putting the database online would make it easier for thieves to find weapons to steal or for abusive spouses to track down partners who'd acquired weapons to protect themselves. The Roanoke Times removed the database from its Web site Monday afternoon due to concern that it might include names that should not have been made public, president and publisher Debbie Meade said.
Lt. Mark Sisson of the Christiansburg police said today that Trejbal said he definitely didn't order the package "so we're going to take every precaution."
Susan Thomas, who lives near Trejbal, called him a good neighbor, but said he had upset people with his columns. She and others who live in the neighborhood were confused as police arrived at his home.
"We don't have any idea what's going on," Thomas, 64, said as the bomb squad examined the box. "... I saw a yellow truck this morning. They delivered a package this morning. It said DHL on the side. ... Then I saw all the police cars. I asked them, 'Should we be concerned?' and they said 'Just give us a minute.' A minute has been two or three hours."
The box was full of blank mailers and labels from shipping company DHL. Wendy Parmalee of DHL's Blacksburg office said the box sounded like something that went to new customers and she was not sure why it was delivered to Trejbal.
*********************************************** 5. Long story on Roanoke Times debacle, VCDL quoted ***********************************************
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/109163
Should gun data lists be muzzled? First Amendment rights collided with Second Amendment rights in the recent brouhaha.
By Laurence Hammack
It didn't take long for Sunshine Week to turn stormy.
At 9:15 last Sunday morning, just a few hours after The Roanoke Times was dropped on doorsteps and shoved into paper boxes across the region, Scot Shippee fired the first shot in what would become the newspaper's biggest Internet controversy.
In an online discussion forum, Shippee blasted the paper for posting on its Web site a database that included the names and addresses of everyone in Virginia licensed to carry a concealed handgun.
Shippee wrote that if the newspaper was so committed to public information, it would only be fair for him to publicly list the home address of editorial writer Christian Trejbal. A column by Trejbal that day had urged readers to celebrate Sunshine Week -- a national recognition of the public's right to know -- by using the database to see who in their community was "packing heat."
In the furor that followed, irate readers swamped the newspaper with hundreds of calls and e-mails. And Trejbal became the recipient of threats and a suspicious package that drew a state police bomb squad to his Christiansburg home.
There was no bomb, only fallout.
Even though The Roanoke Times hastily removed the database from its Web site, questions remain: Should people be allowed to know who among them is secretly armed? Or did identifying those who carry concealed handguns invade their privacy and make them targets for criminals?
And will this fundamental conflict between advocates of the First and Second amendments be resolved by the General Assembly's restricting public access to gun permit information when it takes up the issue next year?
***
The issue of hidden guns and open records is handled differently from state to state.
Virginia is one of 17 states that treats information about concealed-handgun permit holders as a public matter, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
In another 18 states, the information is closed from public view. The remaining states have no laws or court decisions that clearly address the question one way or the other.
Because laws vary from state to state, direct comparisons are hard to draw from a database of record availability compiled by the committee.
In some states the information is open only to police, in one state it's available just to the media, in others the names of permit holders are public but their addresses are not, and in others permit holders can petition the court to keep their information private.
In Vermont and Alaska, the issue is moot because people don't need a permit to carry a concealed handgun. In Wisconsin and Illinois, individuals are not allowed to pack a hidden holster, permit or not.
One thing does seem clear: A growing number of states -- including Florida, Ohio and South Dakota -- have passed laws in recent years to remove or restrict concealed-weapon information from the public domain.
Virginia could be headed in that direction, as the blowup over Trejbal's column has some state lawmakers talking about introducing bills at next year's General Assembly.
"The trend has been moving in the direction of protecting people's privacy rights," said Alan Gottlieb of Second Amendment Foundation, a gun rights organization based in Washington state.
The catalyst behind that trend is "abusive behavior by the media," said Marion Hammer, executive director of Unified Sportsmen of Florida. Hammer's group pushed for the change in Florida's law last year after an Orlando television station became the latest media outlet to run a database of concealed handgun permit holders.
"They made it sound like exercising a constitutional right was something wrong, and they held [gun owners] up to ridicule," Hammer said.
While Second Amendment supporters argue that publicizing the names of gun owners violates their privacy and makes them possible targets of crime, some First Amendment advocates say there's a compelling public interest in that information.
"I can hear the shocked indignation of gun-toters already: It's nobody's business but mine if I want to pack heat," Trejbal wrote in his column on Sunshine Week, which included a link to the now-defunct database of permit holders.
"Au contraire. Because the government handles the permitting, it is everyone's business."
Some media experts -- journalism ethics professor Edward Wasserman of Washington and Lee University among them -- have questioned whether a newspaper should publish the information just because it has it.
But Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, sided with Trejbal. "I think public records are public records" and people should have the right to see them, she said.
"I don't know what it is about the gun people. They seem to think they should have all these rights, but they don't want to recognize the rights of the rest of us to know who they are."
***
Among the hundreds of comments about Trejbal's column that followed Shippee's initial posting to roanoke.com's message board, there was this one from a woman identified only as "Not Wanted to be found":
"I've moved twice to get away from a violent ex. Now I have to move again. I really appreciate you publishing my address. Gee, thanks."
It was a common theme that ran through the opposition: Publicizing the names and addresses of 135,000 concealed-gun carriers was more than just a privacy issue; it also enabled criminals to track down their victims and find the best homes to burglarize for guns.
Yet no one interviewed for this story -- including a Second Amendment scholar, a state police spokeswoman, the National Rifle Association and three other gun rights groups -- could point to a single incident in which that actually ever happened.
The odds seem unlikely to Randell Beck, executive editor of The Argus Leader in South Dakota, which maintains a database of that state's concealed handgun permit holders on its Web site.
"I find it very difficult to argue that [publication] in any way may put you on somebody's burglary list," Beck said. "In fact the opposite argument applies: If I'm a burglar looking for a place to steal stuff, and if I know Joe Blow has a handgun, I would be less likely to burglarize his house, knowing that he might shoot me."
Andria Harper, director of the First Amendment Foundation, made the same argument when her group fought unsuccessfully against the move to close gun records in Florida.
"That's the definition of a dumb criminal," Harper said. "To stalk someone they know has a concealed weapon."
Even though NRA spokeswoman Ashley Varner could not cite an incident in which a criminal used concealed-carry data to commit a crime, she said there were "real-life situations" in which potential victims were forced to move after being outed.
Said Varner: "I would hope that we don't have to wait for someone to actually be burglarized or raped for someone to say: 'Oh, maybe this is a bad idea.' "
***
Not many people noticed, at least not at first, when The Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg quietly put a database of local concealed handgun permit holders on its Web site in November 2002.
But once the Virginia Citizens Defense League found out, the guns rights group quickly mobilized its membership, encouraging them to bombard the newspaper with angry e-mails and phone calls. The organization also dug up the home addresses and other information about the paper's key managers and made it public.
"We were flooded" with opposition, said Brian Baer, editor of Fredericksburg.com. The newspaper quickly took the database down and never put it back up.
But The Free Lance-Star still publishes information from newly issued concealed handgun permits, which it gathers from local courthouses, on a regular basis.
Local news editor Dick Hammerstrom said they might get a complaint every month or so.
The same holds true in Danville, where the Register & Bee runs the information in its weekly publication for nonsubscribers.
"It hasn't been an issue here at all," news editor Darren Sweeney said.
That could soon change, as the controversy in Roanoke has refocused the VCDL's attention on the issue. "They're going to get a pounding on this," the group's president, Philip Van Cleave, said of any newspaper that dares publish the information.
VCDL was especially incensed that The Roanoke Times chose to list the exact address of gun owners. The Fredericksburg paper listed just the street names, and in South Dakota only the city or county in which a gun owner lives is made public.
While the Argus Leader received about 20 complaints, editor Beck said he would have expected much more flak had the exact addresses been listed.
Another reason why outrage peaked in Roanoke might be a line in Trejbal's column in which he noted that Virginia does not take the same pains to list gun owners online as it does for convicted sex offenders.
"Concealed handgun permit holders and sex offenders????," wrote one poster, identified only as "vashooter."
"Your [sic] a class act, way to abuse the first amendment while trying to strip us of the second."
Before a Virginia resident obtains court permission to carry a concealed handgun, he or she must pass a criminal background check and a firearm training course. That should debunk the implication that concealed handgun carriers are an inherent risk to society and need to be monitored, said Nelson Lund, a George Mason University law professor who specializes in gun issues.
"Every time anyone has looked into this, they have found extraordinarily low levels of misuse of firearms by concealed-carry holders," Lund said.
***
Almost as fast as the concealed handgun database went up on roanoke.com, it was gone.
Roanoke Times president and publisher Debbie Meade explained Monday that it was pulled because of concerns that state police, who provided the data at the newspaper's request, might have identified crime victims on the list in violation of a state law.
That turned out not to be the case. But the newspaper was in no rush to re-post the data, explaining that it was only intended as a temporary feature to supplement the column on Sunshine Week.
Many questions remained unanswered by week's end, including three that were submitted in writing to Meade:
Did the newspaper make any mistakes in publishing the database? If yes, what were those mistakes? If no, did the newspaper bow to pressure in deciding not to re-post the data?
"We're still responding to the developments from the past several days and have not had time to evaluate all of this yet," Meade responded Friday afternoon in a written statement. "But I can assure you that those discussions will take place."
*********************************************** 6. Let's contact Landmark Communications about the Roanoke Times!! ***********************************************
Let's contact the parent company and let them know that we want action! A few thousand emails will get their attention.
Thanks to Marc Winder for the idea.
Here's the link to the web-mail page:
http://www.landmarkcom.com/about/contact.php
Suggested message:
The Roanoke Times recently endangered the lives of law-abiding gun owners, including judges, police and people who are under threat of death from ex-spouses by putting a searchable database of Virginia's Concealed Handgun Permit holders on their web site! This mean-spirited attack was inexcusable. I will do NO further business with the paper nor its advertisers until the paper publicly apologizes to gun owners and fires Christian Trejbold and Debbie Meade, both of whom were behind this atrocity.
*********************************************** 7. And you can tell the Roanoke Times Classified Department you are boycotting them ***********************************************
Let's bring some more pain to the Roanoke Times by boycotting their Classified Department.
Here is there email address: adEXPRESS*roanoke.com
And the link to their feedback section:
Let them know that you will not do business with them or their advertisers until the paper publicly apologizes to gun owners for publishing the Concealed Handgun Permit List and fires Christian
Continued ...
Sorry, I won't be able to reply to posts. Have to sign off for the day. I'll catch up with everyone tomorrow.
Freep on! !
For his extrajudicial antics, Bloomberg should be doing time.
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