Richmond Advocacy Day Reports

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My two brothers and I got there a few minutes after 1000, and were told that all of the teams had already left, so we set out on our own.

We met with our Delegate (Brenda Pogge), and she remembered getting letters from us (she's been responding too). She's squared away on the issue of guns. She was also pleased to hear that our family gave her 8-10 votes in her primary victory, where she won by only 20-something votes.

One brother & I met with our State Senator (John Miller). He's a newly-elected Democrat in a district that has traditionally been Republican. He seems to have a copy of the Governor's script (close the "loophole," no guns on campus or in libraries) but doesn't seem overly dogmatic about it. We had a pleasant discussion, explaining our perspectives on those issues.

We went by the office of my other brother's State Senator (Tommy Norment), but he wasn't in. We chatted with his aide for a while on the issues.

We were also present for the protest, our signs held aloft. I'd guess we outnumbered the antis by about 2 to 1.

I saw (and chatted with) a lot of familiar faces, including several folks from here.

On the drive home, we agreed that it was time well spent.

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All in all, a good trip. I got down there right around 0900. Didn't make it into the Senate hearing room, as it was jammed. The lobby area outside the hearing room was pretty full of orange "Guns Save Lives" stickers, buttons, and badges. I ran into a few compatriots from Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. [Note to self: Get some buttons.] We broke up into teams, with each team lobbying a half-dozen legislators. After lobbying, we headed out to lunch. I hooked up with some Opencarry folks for a trip to Padow's deli. Left my suitcoat on for the most part, as they don't have an ABC license. The Opencarry guys, of course, uncovered as is their wont. They got the hairy eyeball from a few of the Other Side(tm) who were also having lunch there.

After lunch, we repaired to the Capitol lawn, where we watched the Virginia Center for Public Safety, Marching Mommies, ProtestEasyGuns, and a bunch of students bussed in from various places around the Commonwealth, demonstrating in favor of regulating private sales. I had a couple of discussions with some of their people. The general tone of all the interactions I was involved with, or saw, was civil.

What the news stories don't show, is that we outnumbered them.

Philip Van Cleave, president of VCDL, has a good writeup on the organization's website.

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VA-ALERT: Lobby Day - HUGE success!



-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Van Cleave

Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 12:52 AM
Subject: VA-ALERT: Lobby Day - HUGE success!





We estimate that almost 400 gun owners showed up at the General

Assembly today!



There was a SEA of orange "Guns Save Lives" badges on all floors.



It was truly impressive. The cavalry had arrived!



The metal detectors were going off almost continuously at times and

the overwhelmed police had to bring in extra people to handle the huge

load to check CHPs!



Once inside, people were assigned to a team. The teams went through

the building talking to Delegates and Senators and leaving VCDL

Legislative Analysis documents with aides. I talked to some aides who

were quite impressed with the quality of the VCDL people and the sheer

number of members that seemed to be everywhere.



Elevators were jammed with people and even the stairs were jammed!



GUN SHOW BILL



I arrived at 8:30 AM for the hearing of SB109, Senator Marsh's "Gun

show loophole" (AKA, the private sales registration) bill in the

Senate Courts of Justice. Testimony on the bill began at 10 AM. The

antis got 35 minutes to speak, as did our side. Only two or three VT

parents spoke, the rest of the speakers were either police (disgracing

the badges on their uniforms) or lobbyists.



The antis brought up their usual baloney and misleading "facts."

Colonel Massengil and the Superintendent of State Police (who was in

uniform) spoke in favor of the gun show bill. Massengil tried to

tout himself as being pro-gun.



When asked by one of the Senators how many criminals got their guns at

a private sale at a gun show, the Superintendent had to admit that he

didn't know.



While the antis spoke, all the gun owners were quiet and did not

disrupt or heckle them.



But, when our turn came to talk, things were different.



Joel Patridge, the NRA lobbyist for Virginia, was heckled and applause

at the heckling drowned him out at one point. He looked at Senator

Marsh, the committee chairman, to bring order. But Marsh, who had

been running the meeting with an iron fist before, just sat there for

a while and then weak-wristedly brought down the gavel and the room

finally came to order.



I spoke after Joel, and it was even worse. Again, as I spoke the

antis heckled and were very unruly, clapping loudly and long at the

heckling. When there was an outburst, I would stop speaking and wait

patiently for Marsh to get around to bringing order. The suddenly

weak-wristed Marsh would eventually get around to bringing order.



When I started pointing out that the bill would be onerous on dealers,

gun shows, and private sellers, Democrat Senator Saslaw shamelessly

playing to the hecklers, ask me if the VT parents had been

inconvenienced. ( More on Senator Saslaw other antics in an upcoming

alert.)



Again unruly applause and heckling took over the room as Marsh sat

there impotently.



In the end the committee decided to vote on the bill on Wednesday at

the 2 PM meeting. I will be there for the vote. I am optimistic -

delaying the vote was probably done because Marsh didn't have the

votes to pass his bill. But it isn't over until the fat lady sings.



***If you have NOT contacted your representatives on HB 109, PLEASE DO

SO NOW!***



Our side presented itself well and the antis showed themselves to be

their usual rude and inconsiderate selves.



THE "LIE"-IN



At 12:45, EM Dave Vann was taping signs on member's backs with

messages like, "Freedom is NOT a loophole." The members then headed

over to stand around the antis when their protest started at 1 PM.



We had about 200 people show up at the protest, dwarfing the

approximate 100 antis!



As I approached the protest, I was taken aback by the image of all

those white VCDL signs blanketing the protest, drowning out the antis'

messages.



And the antis got mad. They tried to get us kick out, but the police

told them that their protest was a spectacle, which draws spectators.

He pointed out that we weren't doing anything but standing and

observing, all of which is protected by the First Amendment.



The antis, fuming, walked away from the police officer to pout

somewhere else.



We had one member assalted by an anti who shoved him out of the way,

saying, "This is OUR protest!"



Nice people, aren't they?



--



It is 10:30 PM as I write this and I am STILL at the General Assembly

listening to key mental health bills. Activist Roy B. Scherer was

kind enough to loan me his computer to type this alert while I am

waiting for a bill to come up.



It looks like we may well end up with a good, supportable, mental

health bill. But the Devil is in the details and we will be looking

at the final wording to see if it satisfies our concerns and watching

the bill to see that bad wording isn't slipped in.



I will be at the General Assembly again on Tuesday (tomorrow) the

Senate is going to hear the library ban bills, amongst other anti-gun

bills.



I will advise the outcome of those bills.



ANY INTERESTING LOBBY DAY STORIES?



I am collecting interesting stories of things that happened on Lobby

Day. Either interaction with the antis or perhaps with Delegates and

Senators. If you have such a story, email it to me.



I have not seen the news, but we should have been all over it. I was

interviewed by the AP, WRVA (radio station in Richmond) and TV stations.



Thanks to leadership and many of our EMs for their help making Lobby

Day a success!



VCDL - good turnout, good work - I'm proud of you guys!



-------------------------------------------

***************************************************************************

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

***************************************************************************

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Two new videos that I have up

Philip Van Cleave being interviewed by washingtonpost

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nomPbywpL4Q

A bunch of us in the office of Delegate Lacey Putney

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKu0Ek09-8Q

More to follow


corrected name of delegate in post and in video

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Later tonight (as in sometime after 8PM) I'll post up the link to view thedebate from the Senate hearing room as well as the tape from the speeches at the lie-in.

Isqueezed in right before they closed access to the room so I missed thestart of the first speaker (representing a police or gov agency). It was so packed I couldn't spread the tripod legs so the first vid will be a little shaky, only had one leg down for support. Due to me moving locations and swapping tapes/battery I missed the first progun speaker but at that point had the tripod legs extended so it's steady. I'll have all of that as well as the MMM lie in speakers tonight.

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I got the first one for you

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Here are the lobby day videos:
http://vaguninfo.com/videos/vcdl_meetings/2008/lobbyday.htm

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nakedshoplifter wrote:

Here are the lobby day videos:
http://vaguninfo.com/videos/vcdl_meetings/2008/lobbyday.htm

Click to expand...

PVC took care of bizniz :celebrate.

And, true to form, the antis were rude and unprofessional.

Million Moonbats Mourn

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Neplusultra wrote:

peter nap wrote:

http://news.oldva.org/?p=79


and here's the AP story:

http://news.oldva.org/?p=80

and one from the Roanoke Times:

http://www.roanoke.com/news/breaking/wb/147920

Click to expand...

I gave the website "protesteasygunslies.com" to 3 TV stations to included in their piece. None have included it.

Click to expand...

Everything you need to launch a counter-protest to any Protest Easy Guns protest can be found here:

http://www.cafepress.com/peglies

A list of upcoming Protest Easy Guns protests can be found here:

http://www.protesteasyguns.com/about.html#upcoming

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What I posted to google video, speech at the clock tower on the 21 of Jan, 2008. This doesn't contain the "lie-in" portion, that will be up soon. I'll be posting links to the same thing just cut up to fit into YouTube's time length requirements. This clip has been edited and should not be considered politically correct or sensitive. It is blunt and to the point.

http://tinyurl.com/2jr2wy


Chopped YouTube Versions

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTnl-GZ5cqk

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wQ9mTMS49k

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgb1C85p2IQ

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Some interesting sites viewed the Lobby day videos:

The Brookings Institute
National Counterterrorism Center (4 unique workstations)
WHRO
Fairfax Co Gov (7 unique workstations)
Supreme Ct of Virginia
Virginia Department Of General Services
US Inspector General

I realize that most of these are you guys checking things out from work, but the fact that the logs show NCTC visited the site is a bit disturbing. Don't tase me bro!

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More like "don't waterboard me, bro!"

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That's because they know they can't count on the networks to give them an accurate account of what happened, lol. After all, they have to verify that "half the cast of deliverance" really showed up.

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bohdi wrote:

That's because they know they can't count on the networks to give them an accurate account of what happened, lol. After all, they have to verify that "half the cast of deliverance" really showed up.

Click to expand...

No way--The cast of Deliverance was there? That's great that you had that kind of celebrity support.

Seriously, who said that?

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My video of the crowd/lie inis a bit shaky, and the audio is a bit unstable. I think my tape I used was at fault - note to self, use fresh tape I was zoomed in too close when any physical activity was taking place apparently but I did manage to catch a trooper or two going through the crowd at that time I believe.

http://tinyurl.com/38uqc4

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Douva wrote:

bohdi wrote:

That's because they know they can't count on the networks to give them an accurate account of what happened, lol. After all, they have to verify that "half the cast of deliverance" really showed up.

Click to expand...

No way--The cast of Deliverance was there? That's great that you had that kind of celebrity support.

Seriously, who said that?

Click to expand...

http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/forum54/7705.html