VA-ALERT: An excellent day for gun owners!

[W.E.G.]

VA-ALERT: An excellent day for gun owners!


-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Van Cleave
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2008 7:57 PM
Subject: VA-ALERT: An excellent day for gun owners!


THE RESTAURANT BAN REPEAL BILL CLEARS HOUSE COMMITTEE!!!

Senator Hanger's restaurant ban repeal, SB 476, passed out of the FULL
House Militia, Police and Public Safety committee today by a 16 to 5
vote!!

The bill is now on its way to the Floor of the House and we should
know its fate in the House by Friday!

As expected, the antis railed against the bill. The Virginia
Restaurant Association (VRA) railed against the bill. But the
committee was having none of it.

The VRA are hypocrites, BTW. The VRA wants the restaurant owner, and
not the government, to set a restaurant's smoking policies. But the
VRA then speaks out of the other side of its mouth saying that they
want government, and NOT the restaurant owner, to set the restaurant's
firearms policies. Which is it, VRA? The owner decides policies or
the government does?

Delegate Morgan Griffith did a superb job of carrying the bill for
Senator Hanger, who was delayed in getting to the meeting. The antis
and the VRA lobbyist were grilled on their illogical reasoning and not
given a free pass to say things that were flat out wrong or misleading.

Honorable mention for helping with the debate also goes to Delegates
Janis, Kilgore, and Athey.

If any of the following Delegates represent you, be sure to take a few
minutes to thank them for their support of SB 476 with a call or email:

Sherwood, Griffith, Kilgore, Wright, Carrico, Lingamfelter, Nutter,
Athey, Janis, Cline, Gilbert, Poindexter, Merricks, Shuler, Lewis,
Bowling

Voting against your rights:

Jim Scott, Barlow, Paula Miller, Poisson, Tyler

Delegate Moran didn't vote.

--

The vehicle carry in a locked container bill clears committee!!!

Senator Vogel's locked container bill, SB 436, cleared the FULL House
Militia, Police and Public Safety committee today by a 17 to 4 vote!!

The bill is now on its way to the Floor of the House and we should
know its fate in the House by Friday!

The State Police (VASP) spoke against the bill, saying that more guns
would be in stolen cars (they really did try to argue that with a
straight face). The committee grilled the VASP spokesman and he had
to admit that many of his arguments were specious. For example, the
VASP spokesman said that officers wouldn't know if a car had a gun in
it if the gun could be locked away out of sight. When he was asked if
the police don't assume that every car has a gun in it anyway, he had
to admit that they do teach their officers to make such an assumption.

Alice Mountjoy, spokeswoman for the latest reincarnation of anti-gun
Virginians Against Handgun Violence, inadvertently did a great job in
making a good case for the bill to pass! Thanks, Alice! The
committee chair asked her to please be brief, but Alice droned on and
on. At one point Alice totally misquoted Senator Vogel to the point
that Senator Vogel went to the microphone to set the record straight!

Oh, and then Delegate Janis asked Alice a question about how
transporting guns is handled in surrounding states and Alice
disrespectfully told Delegate Janis that his question didn't matter
because we were talking about Virginia! Nothing like being
disrespectful to make your point.

Antis truly have anger-management issues.

If any of the following Delegates represent you, be sure to take a few
minutes to thank them for their support of SB 436 with a call or email:

Sherwood, Griffith, Kilgore, Wright, Carrico, Lingamfelter, Nutter,
Athey, Janis, Cline, Gilbert, Poindexter, Merricks, Barlow, Shuler,
Lewis, Bowling

Voting against your rights:

Jim Scott, Paula Miller, Poisson, Tyler

Delegate Moran didn't vote.

--

Paula Miller tried to tell me last year that she is NOT anti-gun. I
sure haven't seen a voting record to back up her assertions.

--

The following pro-gun bills passed the Senate today. HB 873 had a
minor change and will go back to the House Floor for a final up or
down vote. HB 529 heads to the Governor's desk for a signature:

HB 529, Delegate Pogge's bill to allow CHPs to be reissued with a
change of address and also makes CHP renewals run sequentially from
the ending day on the person's old permit.

HB 873, Delegate Johnson's bill that clarifies that training for a CHP
never expires.

--

Great work, VCDL! However, the fight is far from over. Please be
ready for a huge push to lobby the Governor in a few days.

-------------------------------------------
***************************************************************************
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
***************************************************************************

 

[TheReeves]

Woohoooo! I sent my delegate (David Nutter) a big thank you email for the positive vote. Hopefully by Friday we Virginians will all be extremely happy!

 

[Standing Wolf]

Antis truly have anger-management issues.

Really? Think the sun will rise in the east tomorrow?

Seriously: people who are compelled to try to control other people are invariably seething with anger, fear, hatred, self-doubt, et cetera. Scratch a bully, and you'll always find a coward.

 

[Robert Hairless]

Antis truly have anger-management issues.

Somebody needs to do a T-shirt with that line. It's a good insight.

 

[chris in va]

Boy, wish I had audio of that hearing. You don't happen to have one do you?

 

[SWMAN]

The bigger question for me is Gov. Kaine going to sign any progun bill that makes it to his desk, especially the resturant one, or do they get vetoed? And if vetoed, does the assembly have the votes to override?

 

[JohnBT]

He will sign them if he wants to keep his dream of being VP or even President some day.

John

 

[chris in va]

Crap, now I hope they don't pass this bill. I don't want to show my CC permit every time I go out to eat or go bowling.

I'd rather open carry and have the manager come up to ME instead. Less chance of me getting carry denial in the establishment.

 

[Leatherneck]

I can see Kaine vetoing this unless it passes with a big majority, which even VCDL doesn't predict. He'll show his true colors, I believe.

TC

 

[TheReeves]

Chris in va - I'd rather be legally carrying in a restaurant and "forget" to tell anyone than I would be leaving my gun in the car every time.

 

[Conqueror]

I like all of it except this paragraph:

The VRA are hypocrites, BTW. The VRA wants the restaurant owner, and
not the government, to set a restaurant's smoking policies. But the
VRA then speaks out of the other side of its mouth saying that they
want government, and NOT the restaurant owner, to set the restaurant's
firearms policies. Which is it, VRA? The owner decides policies or
the government does?

It does not make one a hypocrite to want certain gov't regulations but not others. I want murder to be illegal, but I don't want farting to be illegal. Doesn't make me a hypocrite, you don't have to be "all gov't regulation or none" to be a sane individual.

 

[ZeSpectre]

Conqueror,
You are not wrong, it's just that there's a bit more history to that statement when you know politics here in Va. Long story short, the VRA has a LONG history of loudly demanding their autonomy....and then hiding behind the government's skirts when what they want is unpopular so they can say "oh the government MADE us do <fill in the blank>, it's not OUR fault".

 

[ATAShooter]

This may have went thru, but the Castle doctrine got flamed again...

 

[ozwyn]

If virginia gun owners keep fighting as well as they have, they will get Castle doctrine sooner or later.

keep up the fight over there, maybe you'll start to influence policy makers in sad, sad Maryland

 

[Sevengunner]

Delegate Supporting Current Restaurant Ban

I wrote my delegate asking that he support repeal of the restaurant ban. I've posted his response below. While I'd have liked him to agree with me, I feel like I got an honest, thoughtful and sincere response. I am no expert on this issue, but his concerns about the self-identifying requirement seem legit...it's an odd provision.
******



Thank you for your note. This is an issue to which I've given a lot of thought. When I was in the military, I was rated a small arms expert on the M-9 handgun and I was proficient with an M-16, so I have no particular version to firearms. I have even experienced patroning bars and restaurants that serve alcohol on NATO bases overseas while my colleagues and I were deployed and fully armed. My concern about this legislation is that it is practically unenforceable, since it relies on an individual to self-identify to the restaurant that he is carrying a concealed weapon. If he fails to make that notice, then the restaurant may unwittingly break the law and risk its ABC license by serving him alcohol. While I appreciate your concern about not disturbing other customers by carrying your weapon in the open, I think the current law strikes the right balance between enforceability, Second Amendment rights, and the rights and responsibilities of restaurant owners.

 

[chris in va]

Here's something I thought of yesterday.

I'd venture to say that 90% of ABC license holders have NO idea about current concealed carry laws. So here's what has been happening, and what *may* happen.

Previously we've been expected to open carry in a restaurant. The manager, not knowing current legislation, sees a customer in 'plain clothes' with a firearm on his/her hip. He goes over to have a chat (I've personally experienced this more than once). Either he kicks you out or nervously asks why you're carrying and continues with service.

Now with the current bill, we'll either verbally inform an employee of our carrying concealed or show our permit. They look at us like and get the manager, who of course also isn't up on "this sort of thing" and now is on the spot to either accept or refuse our patronage.

Either way, ABC holders probably have never run across this issue and will be pretty confused.

Who was responsible for injecting this awful wording in the bill? I want to talk with them.

 

[KBintheSLC]

The VRA are hypocrites, BTW. The VRA wants the restaurant owner, and not the government, to set a restaurant's smoking policies. But the
VRA then speaks out of the other side of its mouth saying that they
want government, and NOT the restaurant owner, to set the restaurant's
firearms policies. Which is it, VRA? The owner decides policies or
the government does?

Typical hypocrisies from the flaming liberals. They only respect the rights that apply to them... that serve their regime. All other rights are viewed by these people as a threat.
Hell, don't more folks die from tobacco-related illness each year than from firearm-related violence?

I hope the VA legislators are intelligent enough to see through this rubbish.

 

[TheReeves]

It was my understanding that SB 476, as it was introduced and how it stands now, the notification that you are carrying is NOT included in the repeal. That was something one of the Senators asked for while the bill was in the Senate. Here is a copy of the bill:

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?081+ful+SB476

I know in one of the VCDL alert messages, there was mention of the Senator asking for the change, and maybe some talk later on, but I have not seen any ammending of the bills original form.