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This needs repeating

peter nap

Accomplished Advocate
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
13,551
Location
Valhalla
As I've said before, we are in for a tough time.

From VCDL Alerts

Quote:FIRST - ARE YOU A MENTAL-HEALTH PROFESSIONAL?

If so, VCDL is putting together a special committee to monitor mental-health bills that will be coming up in the General Assembly in January. We need mental-health professionals to read all of the mental-health bills that get introduced and to tell VCDL leadership if the bills would affect gun-rights and how. The VCDL Board of Directors will then determine VCDL's position on such bills based on the committee's input.

Send an email to president@vcdl.org with your qualifications if you are interested in being on this committee. (The committee members will communicate primarily using emails.)

-

THE ANTIS TIPPED THEIR HAND ON HOW THEY PLAN TO GET GUN CONTROL PASSED IN VIRGINIA (AND IN OTHER STATES, TOO)

Monday some VCDL members and I attended the mental health and gun control forum held by Lt. Gov.-elect Ralph Northam at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Let's cut to the chase: the forum was how to pass gun control in Virginia using mental health as a guise. The veneer was so thin that a blind person could see through it.

As predicted years ago, and confirmed at the forum, the gun grabbers now want to disarm citizens for MISDEMEANOR crimes and also for drinking too much. We can expect to see some bills that attempt to do just that and we will fight them tooth-and-nail! Misdemeanors should NEVER take away a civil right, EVER.

Here are the Cliff's Notes of what the antis said:

1. Gun-control bills need to move through the General Assembly so fast that there isn't time for pro-gun opposition to build up steam

2. If anti-gun legislative leaders can do so, they should bypass committees that might kill the bill and fast track it using various legislative tricks to get around as many pro-gun legislators as possible

3. "Ask" for input on gun-control bills from gun-rights organizations, but do not actually accept their input or ideas. Certainly do not accept any important changes, but instead just tell the pro-gun groups that you will get the bill passed without their blessing or input, then ignore them

4. Use emotion and celebrity victims to push gun-control bills

5. Get an anti-gun grassroots movement started to push the bills to legislators

6. Use "scientific studies" (junk science is what I believe they were referring to) and statistics to prove the need for gun control and to show that pro-gun activists only have anecdotes and emotion and not science on their side

7. "Educate" legislators early and quietly so that they can "respond" to any pro-gun arguments


NORTHAM BARELY CONCEALED HIS CONTEMPT FOR GUN OWNERS

Lt. Gov. Elect Ralph Northam spoke to the attendees. At one point he basically said that gun owners who opposed gun control were close-minded. As if anyone up on the dais with him was open minded.

Northam claimed to be a gun owner and to have hunted, yet he seemed clueless about how most hunting rifles are much more powerful than military-lookalike rifles, like an AR-15 or an AK-47. His lack of knowledge on the subject didn't stop him from demonizing military-lookalike guns. (Another "gotcha" in this farce of a forum: what exactly did military-lookalike guns have to do with helping people with mental health problems?)


SENATOR MCEACHIN'S REVELATION: WASHINGTON, DC IS PART OF VIRGINIA!

When Senator McEachin got up to speak, he said that Virginia had been the home to MANY recent massacres. Showing his astute knowledge of geography, McEachin cited Virginia Tech and THE NAVY YARD, which is in the gun-control heaven of Washington, DC, as two examples of recent Virginia massacres!

Besides Virginia Tech and, er, the Navy Yard, where exactly were the other massacres that you claim happened in Virginia, Senator McEachin? Perhaps Aurora, Colorado and Chicago, Illinois are part of Virginia, too?


BIASED STUDENT REPORTS ON FIVE STATES

Moderator and anti-gun professor, Richard Bonnie, had his students give reports on gun-control efforts in Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Delaware, and Florida. The idea was to learn from these examples as to how to get gun control passed.

While the students doing Connecticut talked to some pro-gun groups, the New York students didn't bother talking to a single pro-gun group. The students were universally critical of all the pro-gun organizations. Did they all really feel that way, or were some of them afraid that Professor Bonnie would flunk them if they didn't tow the line?

There was an interesting nugget from the Florida group: they claim that the previous NRA president, Marion P. Hammer, worked with gun control groups to get a mental health bill passed in Florida, but demanded the bill be kept, "low profile" to get her support. The bill sailed through the Florida General Assembly with her help, it is claimed.

In Connecticut, they passed such a bad bill that even someone who voluntarily seeks mental health treatment loses their gun rights! I'll bet few will be seeking treatment any more.

The students doing New York admitted that the gun control bill that passed there added some mental health provisions as an afterthought. Another surprise! Ok, ok, it is not a surprise at all. This is about gun control, not mental health and that was just another admission of the same.


VCDL IS PREPARING FOR THE COMING MENTAL-HEALTH GUN-CONTROL PUSH

We have been warning gun owners in Virginia for well over a year now that mental health was going to be the next medium for gun control in the Old Dominion. We also know that Michael Bloomberg and his puppet group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, is behind this push.

For VCDL this push means that rather than just watching for gun-control bills to rear their ugly heads, we need to watch all mental-health bills, too. And we need to watch those mental-health bills every step of the way, so that changes can't get snuck in later in the process. This especially means watching for an changes made to a bill by the Governor. Luckily, we have a lot of talent to call upon to make such monitoring possible.

When the General Assembly begins, we'll need you to check your emails regularly so that you can respond quickly if any gun control bills start to move.

Dont' forget: Lobby Day is Monday, January 20th at the General Assembly building from 8:30 AM until 12 PM (with a rally from 11 AM to 12 PM). Please plan on attending this very important event!

Finally, we need to get our membership up as high as possible. If you are on this list and are not a paying member, now is the time to sign up. Get your family members, friends, and coworkers signed up, too!

To join online, click here:

http://vcdl.org/join/

If you haven't yet renewed, click here:

http://vcdl.org/renew/
 

skidmark

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
10,444
Location
Valhalla
It's not just the MH legislation that needs to be watched, although it appears that is where THEY are going to concentrate their efforts.

Our side needs to start developing coalitions with the MH/MR advocate folks. The push to criminalize and remove rights for MH status will not only effect gun owners. ARC and others continue every year to keep the right to vote for those not declared incompetent. These laws that are being proposed are going to head in the direction of disenfranchising both the MH/MR and gun owners - one by intention and one by (possibly) unintended consequence. You do not want the MH/MR to rise up against you. I wonder if the Ds understand that.

stay safe.
 
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