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Is the Red Cross going anti-gun? (Part II)

pourshot

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jul 10, 2006
Messages
405
Location
Stafford, Virginia, USA
imported post

See http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/forum4/6883.htmlfor part 1...

Well, I never got a return call for my original complaint so I went to the web site and mailed a couple of the contacts listed there. The Fredericksburg Virginia address, the one closest, and Newport News, Virginia address. They send me the cards that say come give blood.

Email follows....

Sun, Jan 20, 2008 at 12:53 PM



To: rappchap@usa.redcross.org, kehoekat@usa.redcross.org

Bcc:VCDL

Good Morning,

I hope whomever is reading this had a pleasant weekend.

I had (and still have) a small problem and since I live close to
Fredericksburg, but get postcards from Norfolk, I am emailing you
both.

On December 20th, 2007 I went to donate blood at the Porter Library,
2001 Parkway BLVD, Stafford Virginia.

Unfortunately, when I got there I noticed a NEW sign on the door...

"Carrying weapons on this premises is prohibited"

I was shocked. I thought it to be some kind of a mistake. I have
donated to the Red Cross for years, I have always had my gun with me,
and I have never had an issue.

I spoke to the supervisor and she apologized and said it was not her
call. She said it had come down from someone above her.

I called the 1-800-Give-Life number and noted my concerns, and I waited...

I waited past Dec 20th - Porter Library

I waited past Dec 26th - Michael's Arts and Crafts

I waited past Jan 2nd - The Stafford Walmart, but I have yet to hear back.

And so, it looks like I will be waiting past Jan 23rd - Stafford
School Board Office.

Life is very precious to me. I donate blood AND carry a gun for the
same reason, to help save lives.


I started giving blood almost 30 years ago and have been a steady
donor for most of my life.

Is the Red Cross so rich with blood donors that they can turn me away
for the next 30 years?

I am greatly disappointed.

Please let me know what you are going to do to remedy this situation.

Name

Address

Donor ID#Wxxxxxxxxx

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

I also attached the pictures from the first thread.



The second address in the "To:" bounced. The other did not and after a few days I got a call that said my email had gotten to the wrong place and this person forwarded it to the correct folks.

In the interest of saving time I will skip the intermediate phone calls...



Yesterday I received 2 messages. One from, if I have this right, Al Ford of the Fredericksburg office (540-735-0519) and Sarah of Newport News (757-333-3217)



I returned both calls. I left a message with Al, but spoke to Sarah.



She started the conversation with "Your not happy with our newpolicy huh?" and of course I said no (as well as a few other things).


She reviewed the actually policy "this is new (not audible) division with the support of ournational..."

She then asked if I was a police officer. I said no and she said "the only ones who will be allowed are credentialed police officers in uniform. Unfortunately everybody else will not be allowed to have weapons."

I asked for either a hard or soft copy of the reg and she said she could email me something. I gave her my email address.

She said they would be happy to have me donate if I left my weapon some place "for the safety of the donors..." and I tried to interrupt and tell her that it "is NOT for the safety of the donors it was for some bureaucrat's convenience." I then explained how I have carried my gun for 10 years and that there were 140,000+ permit holders in Virginia and that a lot of them were good solid folks that would be on the blood donor roles. So I said they were dipping into their limited pool of donors. She then stated "that they started in the Pennsylvania area that is now part of our division and it seemed to not cause too much problem there so they decided to spread it."

She then started to say something about someone having a reaction to the donation. I countered with what happens when one of your nurses has a relationship that goes bad and the boyfriend comes into your bus and starts a domestic? I then stated how the average CHP holder was more law abiding then the average citizen in the US. I then used the Philip Van Cleave's line "It is a solution in search of a problem, you have had no issues what so ever and all of a sudden you are denying a portion of the population from coming in and donating that are perfectly healthy, perfectly willing to donate,AND if you are not on your bus you can'tdisallow then from being in where ever it is they are going."

She came back with they "we're not disallowing the donating, we’re just the disallowingtheweapons." to which I replied, "you are not getting it. Where I go, my gun goes. I am not leaving it in my car where it can get stolen."

I went on to say that I had been armed on the bus before with no issues and even given my card out to folks on the bus as I am an instructor and they were interested. I also asked if they had thought about asking donors instead of just making a blanket policy. She said she did not know but would try and find out and get back to me as the policy was very new and that they had just rolled it out a couple of weeks ago. So I asked her to get me the name/email addressof the policy maker so that they could receive lots of email saying it is not a good decision.

I told her that both my gun and my blood were my way of saving lives.

She then went on to say it was part of their safety policy and that they were not saying I could not donate, but that guns were not allowed on Red Cross property.

So again I told her that a no gun policy WAS saying I could not donate and that unless they were going to give me an armed escort to the bus, during the donation, and back to my car they were taking away a God given right and that was not acceptable.

In any event, the call was 8:56 long and I now await her response via E-Mail.



The quotes are pretty close. The rest is done 'in essence' of what was being said.

:banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

<SIGH>



I just finiished an edit to clean up some minor errors. Thanks!

 

AbNo

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2007
Messages
3,805
Location
Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
imported post

I will be calling later today, and I will be reminding them of my numerous donations in the past, which they will not be getting more of in the future.
 

Mr. Y

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2006
Messages
485
Location
Super Secret Squirrel Bunker, Virginia, USA
imported post

Not for nothing... But I don't think that the short bus, or the Red Cross bus meets the statutory definition of "premises" rendering the point pretty well moot if you ask me.

  1. premises[/b]
  2. Land and the buildings on it.
  3. A building or part of a building.
(apologies for the auto-formatting above)
 

kurtmax_0

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
794
Location
Auburn, Alabama, USA
imported post

I have O- blood too. Although, I've never given blood before anyways since I don't trust some person to not accidently jab me with a used needle and spread god-knows-what to me. I freak at the hospital even....
 

Schofield

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2008
Messages
69
Location
Empire of, Alaska, USA
imported post

Huh, is this a nation-wide thing or just the east coast "division" ? I'm pretty curious now, especially since this is on a bus and not on land property.
 
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