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ATTN: Virginia Members--Legislative special session-AWB

John A.

Unconstitutional laws are not laws.
Staff member
Administrator
Global Moderator
Just wanted to let you Virginia guys know about this so you will have time to contact your reps and voice your concerns.

Here is a link and the high points of what they're doing:

https://vcdl.org/rally

Governor Northam is engaging in a despicable act of political theater after the Virginia Beach tragedy in order to deflect attention from his recent scandals and to pay back ex-New York Governor Michael Bloomberg for his massive contributions to Democrat candidates during the last election.

Governor Northam is calling a special session of the General Assembly on Tuesday, July 9th, to do nothing but pass more gun control!

Governor Northam seeks to penalize law abiding gun owners without harming criminals.



The stated purpose according to the Governor is to avoid having another Virginia Beach-type massacre. The trouble is that not a single piece of legislation that Northam is pushing would have changed anything in Virginia Beach:


  • Red Flag laws - forget the unconstitutionality of this law, no one thought the Virginia Beach murderer to be a threat, so that law would have changed nothing
    • Universal Background Checks - the Virginia Beach murderer passed at least two background checks, just like the Virginia Tech murderer. And street thugs don't go through background checks to get their guns
    • One Handgun a Month - the murderer bought the two handguns he used a year apart, not even a month apart
    • "Assault Weapon" ban - no "assault weapons" were used in the Virginia Beach massacre. Long guns are rarely ever used in crime
    • Magazine-capacity limits - the commission on the Virginia Tech massacre concluded that restricting magazine size would not have changed the outcome
    • Silencer/suppressor ban - it is extremely rare that a lawfully owned suppressor is used in a crime. They are not popular with criminals because 1) the gun shot is still loud and 2) it doubles the length of a handgun, making it much more difficult to conceal
    • Bump-stock ban - bump stocks have only been used in one crime, out in Nevada and there is no evidence that it increased the number of injuries or fatalities
    • Allow local government to implement gun control (get rid of firearm pre-emption law) - the Virginia Beach government building was already a "gun-free zone." What are they going to do, make it a double-gun-free-zone? This legislation would make gun laws in Virginia extremely hard to comply with, benefiting criminals, who don't care about laws, and dissuading good people due to the complexities of carrying legally as they travel through the state
    • Punish those who've had a gun stolen if they don't report it quick enough - as if having your gun stolen isn't bad enough, you will get punished by the State if you don't report it fast enough. How do you prove you reported the theft within the arbitrary timeframe the law would require?
    • Charge gun owners with a felony if a child has access to loaded gun - this includes a "child" who is a 17-year-old, has broken into your locked house, and found a loaded gun in your nightstand! There have been many cases where someone under 18 has used a firearm to save their life during a home invasion. That would get the parent a felony charge under this law.
Click here to send a letter to your reps:
http://www2.vcdl.org/cgi-bin/wspd_cgi.sh/vcdl/reflector.html?REF=MyBoth&PRE=19-SS-GUNCONTROL

2. Come to the General Assembly Building in Richmond at 9 am on Tuesday, July 9. You will be given a "Guns Save Lives" sticker to wear and will go into the General Assembly to lobby as one of many teams. No lobbying experience is necessary! If you have a concealed handgun permit, you can carry. CHANGED LOCATION: We will be marshaling at the intersection of 10th and Bank streets, where teams will be formed and sent into the General Assembly Building.

join the other 29,000 subscribers to VCDL's email alert system [FREE]. That will keep you up-to-date on what's happening at the General Assembly as it pertains to guns, and anything else gun related that you should know about, including news items.

Carpooling


Click here for carpool locations around the state. We are coordinating carpooling by having people post their availability on the Lobby Day event Facebook page.





Capitol Area Parking


Unfortunately, July 9th is not a holiday, so there is no free street-parking. Click here for a map showing parking locations in Richmond near the Capitol. There is active construction on what will eventually be the new General Assembly Building at 9th and Broad, so traffic might be detoured in some places.



Here are more public parking places that have been identified:



111 North 8th Street Garage (attached to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church) - Map: https://imgur.com/3ArXqPe | Street View of Entrance: https://imgur.com/yUbtYEb

108 North 8th Street Garage - Map: https://imgur.com/04nRd7V | Street View of Entrance: https://imgur.com/vpFviyA

629 East Broad Street Lot - Map: https://imgur.com/a41Ttj3 | Street View of Entrance: https://imgur.com/vjmqxXs

116 North 7th Street Lot - Map: https://imgur.com/5ZGl2w9 | Street View of Entrance: https://imgur.com/UEltxR6

106 East Marshall Street Garage - Map: https://imgur.com/oFDlFqp | Street View of Entrance: https://imgur.com/4RMVqMC

1110 East Cary Street Garage - Map: https://imgur.com/LnnSLvw | Street View of Entrance: https://imgur.com/J6X4VNc






Schedule for Lobby Day and Rally


  • We will muster at 10th and Banks streets between 8:30 am and 9 am. We will enter the building as a series of teams.
  • You can carry a handgun at the General Assembly Building, openly or concealed, if you have a concealed handgun permit. Just advise the officer as you approach the metal detectors that you have a concealed handgun permit. Show the permit and your photo ID to the officer.
  • (If you arrive late, after the teams have headed it, look for other gun owners that arrived late and form an ad hoc team. Your ad hoc team should then go to the offices of the Senator and Delegate for each member of your team. Be sure to advise the legislator or the legislative aide that you have team members that are constituents. Another option is to just go into the General Assembly Building and find another VCDL team and join them.)
  • The teams will lobby from 9 am until 11:45 am, then everyone will head to the Bell Tower on the Capitol grounds near 9th and Bank streets
  • The Lobby Day rally will begin at 12 noon and run until 1 pm. We will have several speakers. Be sure to hang around at the end of the rally for our photograph of the entire crowd!
  • After the rally ends, people should get a quick lunch and return to the General Assembly Building. If you haven't yet stopped by your senator or delegate's office (teams don't necessarily go to offices of all their members), then this would be a good time to do so.
  • VCDL will be announcing via email (VA-ALERT), Twitter, and VCDL's Facebook page, the location of any committee or subcommittee meetings that afternoon. We need to flood those committee and/or subcommittee rooms. If you don't have a way to check for email, Twitter, or Facebook, hang around with someone who does. Push-come-to-shove we will have someone standing near the help desk in the lobby area (right after you pass through the metal detectors) who can provide stratus updates
  • If you wish to speak at a committee or subcommittee hearing, you don't need to register. They usually call for speakers that oppose a bill and then call for speakers that support the bill. Step up and the appropriate time and give your name and general location (Richmond, Hannover, etc.). Keep your comments short and to the point. Try to take no more than 2 or 3 minutes, less if possible. If you are merely agreeing with someone else, just say that. Succinctness is appreciated by all!
  • Once the committees and subcommittees are done for the day, we will advise using email (VA-ALERT), Twitter, and VCDL's Facebook page. At that time, we are done and everyone can go home.
  • Please check VA-ALERT at night or in the morning for a schedule of hearings on the next day. If you can make it to help fill those rooms and/or to speak, that would be excellent! We hope it will all be over by the end of the week, but we really don't know when it will end.


Lobby Day Speakers (so far)


  • Erich Pratt, senior vice-president, Gun Owners of America
  • Vincent Smith, employee at Virginia Beach Government Building #2, fighting for right of employees to carry
  • Maj Toure, founder, Black Guns Matter
  • Brandon Howard, Right to Bear Arms, Richmond
 
SPECIAL VICTORY ANNOUNCEMENT!

Anti-gun Virginia Governor Swings for the Fences, Winds Up Striking Out Big Time

he showdown in the Old Dominion ended as soon as it began.

Gov. Ralph Northam (D) set out to use the recent Virginia Beach mass shooting to his political advantage.

He called the legislature back into session with one objective -- to pass a litany of gun control proposals.

But he wound up empty. The legislature met briefly yesterday and then quickly adjourned without passing one iota of gun control.

The victory is one that gun owners should appreciate, no matter where you live.

It demonstrates the power of the grassroots and the importance of holding legislators accountable.

Grassroots gun owners light up the state capitol
Media reports indicate that legislators received a “deluge of calls” in opposition to the Virginia Governor’s gun control proposals.

And GOA email alerts played a big part.

GOA mobilized thousands of Virginia gun owners to contact their Delegates and Senators. And that includes almost 10,000 emails that were generated by GOA’s grassroots into two specific offices -- that of House Speaker Kirk Cox (R) and Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment (R).

Special kudos go to VCDL (the Virginia Citizens Defense League) for their leadership in the state in the weeks leading up to yesterday’s special session.

They hammered Senator Norment for introducing two gun control proposals that he was offering as a “middle ground” proposal.

Of course, leave it to Republican RINOs to always be willing to counter anti-gun Democrats with a Constructive Republican Alternative Proposal (C.R.A.P.). It’s disgusting.

Thankfully, not all Republicans were on board with Norment’s compromise. Senate Majority Whip Bill Stanley (R) resigned his leadership position in protest and called Norment’s actions “a great betrayal.”

Grassroots heat “encourages” Norment to spike his own gun control bill
One of Sen. Norment’s bills would have punished gun owners with a felony for merely stepping into a Gun Free Zone. In response to this, VCDL urged calls into Sen. Norment’s office.

The grassroots campaign was very effective. Not only did Norment hear from angry GOP Senators, he was also getting “pounded” by a lot of angry people in the hustings -- thanks to alerts from groups like VCDL, GOA and others.

The “heat” that Sen. Norment was feeling must have been unbearable, because he ended up pulling his bills yesterday -- effectively killing them.

Shockingly, he tried to argue with a straight face that, “I do not support -- nor will I support -- any measure that restricts the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.”

Translated: “Wow, I really got a lot of calls and emails from constituents in my district and gun owners around the state, and I realize now that I really goofed.”

Again, gun owners around the country should be encouraged by these results.

Because it’s a reminder once again that our elected officials work for us ... that when we organize and protest, it gets their attention ... and that by working together, we can make a huge difference in defending our gun rights.

But it’s also a reminder that elections have consequences. The vote to adjourn without any votes on gun control was a party line vote.

The Republicans hold a narrow majority in both chambers in Virginia, and the state has off-year elections this November.

As in most states, Democrats are the party of gun control. So what happens if gun owners sit out the election -- in Virginia and across the country next year?

You can only imagine: It will make the job of stopping gun control in your state capital all the harder.

This is what occurred in states like Colorado this year, where anti-gun Democrats control the House, Senate and Governor’s mansion.

They used that majority to their advantage by ramming a “red flag” Gun Confiscation Order into law.

GOA pursues multi-media attack against the Governor’s racist gun control agenda
As always, I want to thank you for helping keep GOA on the frontlines.

Not only did GOA mobilize the grassroots with several email alerts, we also brought attention to what Gov. “Blackface” Northam was doing in national columns here and here, or in national radio spots, like this one on Fox News.

I was also grateful to speak at the rally outside the Virginia capitol yesterday -- at the invitation of Philip Van Cleave, who is the VCDL President.

Similar to one of the other speakers -- that is, Maj Toure of Black Guns Matter -- I pointed out the racist roots of the gun control policies being supported by the Governor.

Richmond31-990000000003cf3c.jpg

GOA’s Erich Pratt with Maj Toure, the founder of Black Guns Matter. Toure educates urban communities on firearm safety and gun rights, and he is also a GOA-backed candidate for Philadelphia city council. Toure gave a passionate speech on resisting tyranny, prompting loud cheers from gun owners at the rally.

This is the very same Governor who made national headlines earlier this year for his racist yearbook picture from years ago.

The Governor has equivocated greatly in his response to this scandal, leaving everyone to wonder whether he was the student in blackface or the student wearing a KKK hood.

So this is where things stand now in Virginia: Republican leaders assigned the state's bipartisan crime commission to study the Governor's gun control proposals, as well as, the Virginia Beach shooting. And the legislature is now poised to take up crime and gun-related issues after the November elections.

We will have to wait and see whether this is a good thing. Scheduling votes after an election is usually a problem.

But maybe this delaying tactic is just a technique to push off the Governor’s agenda indefinitely.

We will have to wait and see.

For now, I hope that no matter where you live, you’re encouraged by the tremendous victory your fellow gun owners achieved in the Old Dominion.

In Liberty,

Erich Pratt
Senior Vice President
Gun Owners of America
 
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