imported post
VA-ALERT: Alan Gura and VCDL meeting last night!
-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Van Cleave
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 7:35 PM
Subject: VA-ALERT: VCDL meeting packed last night!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
VCDL's Gun Dealer Legal Defense Fund -- help fight Mayor Bloomberg's
scheme to cripple Virginia firearms dealers. See:
www.vcdl.org/index.html#DefenseFund
----------------------------------------------------------------------
VCDL's meeting schedule:
http://www.vcdl.org/meetings.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We had 133 people who came to hear Alan Gura speak last night!
I opened the meeting by showing a US flag that VCDL member Chris
Pugrud had flown on a combat mission over Bagdad on July 4. Chris
donated the flag to VCDL to thank all of you for your great work
defending our freedoms here in Virginia!
Guys like Chris continue to amaze me and make me proud to be an
American. They are out there laying their lives on the line to
protect freedom and they still find the time and make the effort to do
something like this.
I gave the flag to my Delegate (Lee Ware) to see if he could now have
it flown over the General Assembly. Delegate Ware is checking into
just that and hopefully I will have it back soon so it can be proudly
displayed at future meetings.
Chris had a second flag flown over Bagdad for Alan Gura, which I
presented to Alan as he came up to speak.
I was also given a t-shirt by Board member Bruce Jackson which reads,
"If you don't like my gun rights, you can go straight to Heller"
Alan signed the shirt for me - talk about a great keepsake!
*** I plan on bringing that shirt to Senator Ken Cuccinelli's Heller
Victory Party at Fuddruckers here in Richmond tomorrow (Saturday) at 4
PM. The restaurant is at the intersection of Broad St. and Parham
Road (8205 West Broad). ***
Alan gave a fantastic talk, which was professionally taped by VCDL
member Matt Gottschalk and will be available on the VCDL site in the
near future (I'll send out an alert).
Alan spent an hour with a question-and-answer session and he fielded
questions until we we ran out of time.
Over 50 of us, including Alan, headed over to Fuddrucker's for
fellowship.
A great time was had by all!
---
DC refused to register Heller's semi-automatic handgun yesterday! DC
City Council should all be kicked out for malfeasance.
Here is the article:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/07/dc-refuses-to-r.html
D.C. refuses to register litigant's semi-automatic handgun
USA TODAY's Kevin Johnson reports that the District of Columbia
refused this morning to register a handgun on behalf of the security
guard whose legal challenge resulted in last month's landmark Supreme
Court ruling on the Second Amendment.
Dick Heller was one of two applicants who were waiting at police
headquarters when the doors opened to prospective gun owners at 7 a.m.
ET. Officers wouldn't let him register a semi-automatic handgun
because local laws still ban such weapons.
"The city still does not yet understand the decision of the Supreme
Court," Heller says on the steps of police headquarters. "We have been
denied again," he adds.
Dane von Breichenruchardt, president of the Bill of Rights Foundation,
said the city was attempting to make gun ownership as "difficult and
restrictive as possible."
"We're going to be back in court. There is no doubt about that," he
says.
Under the terms of an emergency law that was passed earlier this week,
residents may store handguns in their homes for self-defense purposes.
Every gun owner has to pass a written test and vision exam, submit the
weapons for ballistic testing and prove they live in the city.
Short of the prior gun ban, the provisions still rank as some of the
toughest in the nation.
Assistant Police Chief Peter Newsham said the regulations can be
"interpreted" in various ways. "But this isn't a 'gotcha' program.
We're trying to accommodate people," he says.
--
Oh, and I'll leave you with this gem. The Illinois Governor is
considering bringing in National Guard helicopters for crime control
in Chicago!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That, ladies and gentlemen, is OUR future if we don't protect our
rights, and especially our gun rights, with veracity.
http://tinyurl.com/6kvoxy
Blagojevich Says Chicago Is 'Out Of Control'
Mayor Unaware Of Plan; Welcomes Partnership
CHICAGO -- As Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday signed a new law that
will put in place tougher penalties for selling guns to minors, he
also announced he's got a new idea to help combat the violence that
Chicago is experiencing: he's talking to the Illinois State Police and
the National Guard to see if they could help.
The Chicago Sun-Times depicted Blagojevich as the "new sheriff in
town" Thursday morning in its coverage of the governor's plan to form
an "elite tactical team" to help the city fight crime.
"Violent crime in the city of Chicago is out of control," Blagojevich
said at the bill signing ceremony. "I'm offering resources of the
state to the city to work in a constructive way with Mayor Daley to do
everything we can possibly do to help stop this violence," said the
governor.
The summer of 2008 will be remembered as especially violent.
Blagojevich said there's been a child shot nearly every day since June
26, with 29 Chicago Public School students shot since last fall.
"Twenty-eight of those kids are African-American and Latino. Hard to
imagine that that would be acceptable if that were, in fact, the case
in other parts of the city or in a middle-class suburb somewhere," he
said. "Something is wrong, and this violence has to stop."
Bringing in state troopers -- even National Guard helicopters to high-
crime areas -- is still very much in the planning stages.
"It might be able to free up some resources that the Chicago police
uses for capital needs, to be able, to maybe to, hire more police
officers, or possibly ask some to come out of retirement, to put them
into these violent zones, hot zones, where, clearly, I think, part of
the challenge is that gangbangers outnumber police officers five to
one," Blagojevich said.
The governor said Chicago Mayor Richard Daley hasn't asked for help,
but Blagojevich said he'll call the mayor once he has some concrete
suggestions about what help he can provide. He didn't have many
specifics, but he said it's more likely that state police will be
brought in than the National Guard.
In fact, Daley's office said the mayor did not know anything about
Blagojevich's comments and did not know he was going to make them.
"The mayor welcomes partnerships, not just on this issue but on a
variety of issues," said spokeswoman Jody Kawada. "Beyond that, it is
difficult to comment because we don't have any facts."
And police department spokeswoman Monique Bond said they learned of
the comments after Blagojevich made them as well, and said it was too
soon to comment.
But Bond took issue with the governor's contention that crime is "out
of control" in Chicago, pointing out that if the current murder rate
holds in the city, 2008 may end with fewer than 500 homicides and that
it is expected to be one of the least deadly years in the city in the
last 40 years.
On Wednesday, Superintendent Jody Weis was grilled by members of a
city council committee, who complained both about rising crime and
statistics that suggested to them that the police department wasn't
doing enough to stop it.
They also come as the governor tries to find support for a massive
statewide construction program that would be funded by expanded casino
gambling. So far, Daley has refused to go along because he objects to
the amount Blagojevich wants to charge Chicago to run a downtown casino.
Blagojevich raised that issue as he discussed the possibility of state
aid with Chicago's crime problem.
"We need help in that legislative process and the mayor could be a big
help in this in getting the House Democratic leadership to pass that
big capital program or versions of it," the governor said.
Blagojevich's offer, whether or not it comes to anything, also puts
him in the position of trying to help on an issue dominating the news
in Chicago.
Blagojevich said it is far more likely that state troopers would be
used than guardsmen. In fact, his office moved quickly after the
governor's comments to stress in a news release that Blagojevich was
not considering bringing in National Guard troops to the city.
"The only way the National Guard would be involved, if they are
involved, is with the use of tactical helicopters that are currently
used in narcotics operations," spokesman Lucio Guerrero said in a
prepared statement.
Blagojevich had few details, but suggested that one possibility would
be to assign state troopers to areas of the city with lower crime
rates, freeing Chicago police officers for areas where there is more
crime.
"Maybe we can play a role in providing more manpower so that the mayor
doesn't have to make that choice between taking a police from, let's
say the North Side, and putting that police officer on the street on
the South Side," he said.
He also suggested that retired Chicago police officers and state
troopers could be hired on a temporary basis to help out during the
summer months when the violent crime rate typically climbs.
[PVC: Er, Governor Blagojevich - you could have 100,000 gun owners on
the streets of Chicago with concealed handgun permits at no cost to
the state. Criminals would have to think twice before committing
violent crimes on innocent people.]
-------------------------------------------
***************************************************************************
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
***************************************************************************
