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Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

Posting has been non-existent this week as I am on vacation with the family. I will be home this weekend and posting will resume. I have finally heard back from the York County Assistant County Administrator on proposed shooting restrictions in the county and will up date that issue as well.

Happy Thanksgiving from VSSA.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Prince William Gun Range, Gun Sales and Gun Shows

I had the opportunity to speak with Cam Edwards on NRA News Wednesday night on several issues of interest to gun owners in Virginia.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Prince William Overwhelmingly Approves Woodbridge Shooting Range

Gun owners packed the Board room last night to support The Shooters Range that is proposed to fill a vacant Giant food store in Woodbridge. After about an hour and a half public hearing, which included testimony by the range owner's attorney, the range owner, one anti-range speaker and a host of pro-range speakers, the Board voted 7-1 in favor of approval.

Of special note was Supervisor Maureen Caddigan who represents the Dumfries District. She sited the fact that a Police Substation is proposed for a portion of the range property as a positive aspect of the proposal and the fact that besides being open to the public, it would also train federal and local law enforcement as well as ordinary citizens. She even asked if there would be a ribbon cutting so she can attend.

Another supervisor said that this time next year, he fully expects the number of 911 calls for the area (there are 600 to date) will have decreased. Another supervisor corrected a speaker who said the Second Amendment gives us the right to keep and bear arms. The supervisor said "God gave us the right and the Second Amendment protects it."

Woodbridge District Supervisor Frank J. Principi was the lone no vote. He sited the fact that there is a known gang presence in the area as one reason he could not support the proposal. In fact, the range owner as part of the proposal is going to remove the gang graffiti from the building.

Prince William County gun owners should contact their supervisors and think them for supporting the range and those who are represented by Mr. Principi should express their disappointment at his no vote.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Gun Control Back on Obama Transition Web Site

It appears the scrubbing of the Obama Transition Web Site is complete and they have adjusted some of the language from the original version. The new version related to gun control reads:

Address Gun Violence in Cities: Obama and Biden would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.
Note that the language talking about "assault weapons" belonging on the battlefield is now gone (see original here). I guess someone told Obama that our brave soldiers don't use semi-auto firearms in the line of duty.

Hat tip to Cam Edwards.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Attendence Brisk at Richmond Gun Show Over Weekend

According to the Richmond Times Dispatch, some 5,700 folks walked through the door at the Richmond Gun Show this past weekend. About 4,000 people attended the same show last November.

Seller Terry Coffman told the RTD that sales were so brisk on Saturday that he had little left to sell on Sunday. Coffman, who is with Georgia Arms in Villa Rica, GA, said his sales have "skyrocketed" in the two weeks since the election and attributes the election of Obama as a major reason.

Virginia gun control activist Alice Mountjoy told the RTD that gun owners are just "paranoid" and have nothing to fear because Obama "respects the Second Amendment." No offense Alice but I know your politics and I don't think you have the best interest of gun owners at heart.

The RTD reports that according to the State Police, there was a 22.8 percent increase in background checks in October, compared with the same month in 2007. So far for the year there is an increase of about 12 percent in the number of checks from January 1 to Nov. 1, compared with the same period last year.

One of the draw backs of the increased sales appears to be that the higher volume is causing delays in state background checks.

UPDATE: More on the increase in gun sales with this CNN story featuring a Manassas VA, gun shop.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Prince William County Public Hearing

On Tuesday, November 18, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing regarding an application for a commercial indoor shooting range in an existing shopping center. The range would be located within Marumsco Plaza, southeast of the intersection of Jeff. Davis Hwy. & Mt. Pleasant Dr. The PWC Planning Commission is recommending approval of the range.

The meeting is at 7:30 PM, and will be held in the Board Chamber, One County Complex Court, Prince William, Virginia 22192

Gun owners living in Prince William County are encouraged to attend the meeting and make your voice heard in support of this range.

You can find more details about the proposal here.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Lead Ammo Ban Sought by HSUS

The Washington Times reports that the Human Society of the United States (HSUS) is pushing for a nationwide ban on lead ammo. Such a ban passed in California just last year. They say California is about 10 years ahead of the rest of the nation legislatively. I guess HSUS is trying to speed up the process.

As part of the push for the California ban, HSUS claimed one-fifth of the population of condors in Southern California died because the birds ingested lead shot. They are now fear mongering about the dangers of lead in killed deer that allegedly finds its way into ground venison in soup kitchens and charity food pantries.

There has been no documented cases of anyone ever being poisoned by lead as a result of eating venison. This is just one more excuse for the anti-hunting crowd to attack hunting and to make it harder for the average gun owner to afford ammunition.

Hat tip to Sebastian.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Appleseed Shoot in Mechanicsville

An Appleseed Rifle Clinic will be held at Black Creek Shooters Association in Mechanicsville, November 22 & 23.

Why should you attend this clinic?

The Appleseed web site says:
Well, for one thing, to see what this Appleseed stuff is all about. To find out why one well-known gun writer who was there said, "this is going to be the next big thing that nobody saw coming."

Another reason...
To learn to shoot a rifle — to learn to shoot it just as well as your forefathers.

Another reason...To qualify to purchase an M1 Garand — still one of the world's finest battle rifles — and a true piece of American history...direct from the Civilian Marksmanship Program for a price several hundred dollars under market.

Check here to see what to bring if you would like to attend.

Click here to register for the clinic.

Hat tip to VA-Alert.

Obama Scrubs Transition Web Site

The Obama transition team was apparently taken aback by all of the Internet chatter over the weekend about its mandatory public service proposals for middle and high school students and the gun control proposals discussed here over the weekend. The 20 some agenda areas like Urban Policy and Iraq have been replaced by this single entry under Agenda:

The Agenda

President-Elect Obama and Vice President-Elect Biden have developed innovative approaches to challenge the status quo in Washington and to bring about the kind of change America needs.

The Obama Administration has a comprehensive and detailed agenda to carry out its policies. The principal priorities of the Obama administration include: a plan to revive the economy, to fix our health care, education, and social security systems, to define a clear path to energy independence, to end the war in Iraq responsibly and finish our mission in Afghanistan, and to work with our allies to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, among many other domestic and foreign policy objectives.

Don't expect the scrubbing to change the policy initiatives, just the transparency with which they will be carried out.

Update: Thanks to the folks over at Pink Pistols, those who did not see the original agenda pages on the Obama Transition web site are now able to see them. Someone thinking ahead scanned the pages and uploaded them so the world can still see the leftest turn this country is about to take. You can see the gun control proposals here by scrolling down to page four of the document.

Hat tip to Yahoo's Gun Issues Group for pointing me to this.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

The Story That Will Not Go Away

I received a phone call yesterday from the local ABC affiliate (WRIC TV8) asking me for reaction to the Obama election victory and what it means for gun owners. I told the reporter my thoughts as posted here the day after the election and emailed her a copy of the VSSA alert that members received about Obama's gun control proposals found on the Official Transition web site (since taken down at some point after Saturday).

Last night, Nightline did a story on the nationwide increase in gun sales.




Not surpisingly, there is a run on firearms like AR-15s. Also not surprisingly, the reporter said the NRA had scared gun owners into believing Obama was going to take away everyone's guns. I don't think even Obama believes he can take away guns that are already in our possession and NRA has never said Obama was going to come into our homes and take them. But, he can make it harder for us to buy firearms and that is exactly what he plans to do. He also is planning to take away the privacy of gun owners by ending protections of the Tiahrt Amendment - the appropriations rider that requires the distruction of gun sales records after 60 days.

Gun owners, we are in for a rough four years.

Update: A gun shop owner in Arizona tells Reuters this and it reflects my thoughts on this topic:

I'd rather that (Republican Sen. John) McCain got in and there's not a big scare and we just followed our normal sales, rather than say right now we are going to make a lot of money for a few months, and then in a few months, possibly, our business could be shut down.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Election Post Mortem

There are still a few races that are undecided at this point but we do have a handle on what the impact of last night's results will have on gun rights. Clearly, I believe it will be hard to get significant pro-gun legislation enacted such as reform of BATFE or the DC bill that passed the House in this session but failed to move out of the Senate. It is not likely that a President Obama will sign such legislation.

According to Dave Kopel's analysis, gun owners lost approximately 15 friends in the House (less than the 26 that he had considered possible). In the Senate, when all the dust settles, we will likely see 4 less pro-gun senators but we will still have enough to sustain a filibuster if those Democrats that identify themselves as pro-gun, like Mark Warner, act as they have campaigned. We shall see if those like Warner will stand with gun owners if and when President Obama nominates justices for the Supreme Court that believe the Constitution changes with the whim of public opinion instead of those who believe that the Constitution means what it says.

My thought is that Barack Obama's left wing tendencies coupled with an over zealous Nancy Pelosi will cause him to try and strike while the iron is hot and push for a renewal of the ban on certain semi-automatic firearms and an end to gun owner privacy protected by the Tiahart Amendment. We shall see if his instincts for survival of his term and his party's majority in the House and Senate will cause him to be more cautious in the first two years than was Bill Clinton.

We have our work cut out for us.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

It's All Over But the Voting

Gun owners should know by now how much is at stake in today's election so get out and vote - and vote your values, vote for your freedom, and defeat Barack Obama.

For some good commentary on what the results of Senate and House races will mean for our freedom, read Dave Kopel's piece over at National Review. Kopel also had a great article in the Rocky Mountain News on the differences between Obama and McCain on guns. Given there are still 8% of voters who say they are undecided, if you know a gun owner that has not made up their mind, give them Kopel's article.