Washington Post: VCDL are trigger-happy scofflaws?

anonymous WaPo writer said:

THE VIRGINIA Citizens Defense League, a trigger-happy group that regards the National Rifle Association as slightly spineless on gun rights, will hold a raffle tonight in a Fairfax County government building. The door prizes include a hunting rifle, a semiautomatic handgun and ammunition -- more than $2,000 in merchandise in all. The league's goal is to assist Virginia firearms dealers alleged to have skirted the state's already lax laws on gun purchases. So, a month after a deranged gunman killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, a Virginia group is coddling scofflaw gun dealers in the same state.

This sorry story originated with a reasonable attempt by New York City authorities to take action against several dozen gun stores, in Virginia and elsewhere, that sold firearms later used in the commission of felonies in the Big Apple. The city sent pairs of private detectives to six of the stores to make "straw" purchases, in which one selected and paid for a weapon, and the other filled out the paperwork, thereby disguising the true owner's identity. The gun-loving Defense League decided that the gun stores were victims -- not the New Yorkers shot, pistol-whipped or mugged in New York -- and cooked up the idea of the raffle. (The drawing was originally scheduled for April 19, three days after the Virginia Tech killings; it was postponed because the group knew it would be inflammatory.)

Fairfax County's top prosecutor, Robert F. Horan Jr., slapped down the group's original game plan, which was to limit the drawing to those who had bought at least $100 worth of merchandise at one of the two gun stores caught in the sting. In tonight's drawing, tickets will be available to all comers. Still, the group has already achieved its purpose, which was to help to pay the legal fees of the gun shops, which are being sued in federal court by New York. In recent weeks, more than 2,500 people cleared the $100 threshold at the two shops, Bob Moates Sport Shop in Richmond and Old Dominion Gun and Tackle in Danville.

The drawing is to be held in the Mason District Government Center in Annandale, which includes a county police station -- the same sort of station as the one at which two county officers were shot by a gunman a year ago. Fairfax County pushed legislation in Richmond this year that would have banned the carrying of handguns at such facilities by nonauthorized individuals. The bill sailed through the state Senate but died in the House -- killed, it seems, by the gun lobby and groups such as the Citizens Defense League.

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me said:

With all this talk of guns used in felonies in NYC, has anyone actually seen the trace data Mr. Bloomberg is referring to? Oh, of course not, as he's even withheld it from Federal BATFE agents. Here's a little factoid about "crime guns" the good Mayor would like to obfuscate, and that the Washington Post apparently doesn't care to ask about:

Should a Virginia resident decide to go on a hunting trip or what have you in some North East State, and pass through the city of New York with an otherwise legal firearm, he/she becomes an instant felon. Even if the gun is locked up, unloaded, and in the trunk or checked airline luggage during transit (both protected by Federal "peaceable journey" law), NYC will nail you if you so much as stop for gas or your flight is delayed. This can and does result in multiple charges per offense, ranging from illegal possession of an unregistered firearm, illegal concealed carry, and sometimes a separate charge for each cartridge of ammunition, depending on the type. If you get pulled over while driving and the gun is found, you can also end up with each passenger in your car charged with felonies. So, in theory, one gun purchased from a shop in Virginia could be "used" in a dozen such "crimes" as your spouse and kids are carted off to Rikers Island because you wanted to go hunting while visiting aunt Jane up in Vermont.

I've read about quite a few of such cases, and for all we know, any number of the so-called "crime guns" Mr. Bloomberg shrieks about sneaking into "his" city could be the same. 'Tis of course possible that none of them are as well. However, until the Mayor quits obstructing Federal investigators and produces actual evidence, the term "innocent until proven guilty" immediately springs to mind..

Or is violating the right to a fair trial, the right to view the evidence, and freedom from unlawful search and seizure only bad when Bush does it to First Amendment supporters and suspected terrorists?

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