Roanoke Times Has A Great Editorial Worth the Time to Read

Today's Roanoke Times has a very good editorial on the shooting of two WDBJ employees that asked the question "What Would Have Prevented This?" The Times notes:

Yet the notion that we need more gun control — what kind of gun control, exactly, would have prevented this? McAuliffe, in that radio interview with WTOP in Washington, said: “We need tougher gun laws in the commonwealth. Everyone who purchases a firearm in Virginia should have to go through a background check.”

While the Times dredges up the so-called "gun show loophole", they correctly note that the shooter passed a background check before he purchased his pistol. He was not a convicted felon, he had no protective orders against him, and did not have a history of psychiatric treatment.  They also point out that a waiting period would not have stopped him because he bought the handgun two months before using it.  With this background presented, the Times rightly asks:

What, short of repealing the Second Amendment and prohibiting the sale of any firearms, would have prevented Flanagan from patronizing a gun store?

The Times then points out the conversations that do need to be held, one about mental health, which they say is surely underfunded and underappreciated.  The second conversation is about the nature of American culture itself:

The other, perhaps even more difficult, conversation is about the nature of American culture in general. President Obama was correct when he said “the number of people who die from gun-related incidents around this country dwarfs any deaths that happen through terrorism.” What if the deepest problem here, though, is not in our laws or our mental health system but in ourselves? Other countries suffer horrendous crimes, too, but not the way we do. Why is that?

And that's the real question.  When I was a kid, we could take our shotguns to school in our trucks or cars to go hunting at the end of the day.  No one shot up the school with them.  People in New York that were on rifle teams took their guns to school on the subway.  All of this before background checks and magazine bans and such that have been passed since that time.  What has changed about people in the last 30 years?  The Times closes with this which could explain the change:

The British journalist Tim Stanley, writing in London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, put it this way: “I love America, I sincerely do. But it has an anger problem. Flanagan was a classic example of a man who sought conflict and when he found it, escalated it into hysteria and — crucially — politicised it. In reality, he was probably just a mediocre journalist. But he imagined that he was the victim of a conspiracy and that he had to fight back. This tendency to erupt when reason should have prevailed is behind so much of the social chaos in America

Well worth the time to read the entire editorial.  Hat tip to Cam Edwards and NRANews.

Roanoke Area College Professor Calls Gun Owners Callous

Megan Doney, an English professor at New River Community College had this OP/ED in today's Roanoke Times, where she uses the tragic incident in Arizona last week to call gun owners who have defended teaching young children to use firearms, extremists and callous:

Because extreme gun rights proponents think it’s perfectly all right to allow children to handle machine guns, a 9-year-old child has to spend the rest of her life knowing that an innocent man died at her hands. Gun rights extremists have fostered a culture where parents think it is adorable to watch their pony-tailed daughters firing a machine gun. In their world, Vacca’s death, the child’s trauma and the parents’ guilt are acceptable prices for the “right” to own as many guns as they want, and carry them whenever and wherever they want.

Speaking for this gun rights proponent, it's perfectly all right to allow children to be properly taught how to use firearms.  I'm not in a position to second guess what occurred last week which is why more has not been written about it on this blog.  I am not an instructor or range officer.  But, others with more qualifications have shared their thoughts.  ICE Training's Rob Pincus spoke with Mark Walters on Armed American Radio Sunday and gave his assessment:

And here is the CNN interview of NRA Certified Instructor Claude Werner that Pincus mentioned:

It's clear from Doney's piece that she believes even though millions of people have used firearms to stop armed attackers, because an incident at her college was averted by an unarmed security guard, that should be sufficient for all of us.

Despite my own firsthand experience in a school shooting, I carry no credibility with gun rights extremists. But I know that many sensible gun owners and NRA members are also horrified by this event, and I appeal to them — indeed, I beg them — to help their colleagues understand the gravity of this situation, to see reality, and to stop lying to themselves and to the American public.

Maybe if Doney listened to people like Rob Pincus and Claude Werner, she would know the firearms community is assessing what happened to make sure that such an incident, which rarely happens to begin with, doesn't happen again.  But my guess is she is more interested in spewing an anti-gun rant because she doesn't believe it is ever appropriate for children or adults to use firearms.

Update: A much more intelligent OP/ED can be found at Stars and Stripes.

Roanoke Times Op/Ed: The Fault in Ourselves, Not Our Guns

A Virginia NRA member and hunter had this op/ed in today's Roanoke Times as a response to a previous letter to the editor.  The writer, Glenn Watson, pointed out what was wrong with the opinions laid out in that letter, then pointed out that while firearm sales have increased, crime has decreased.  He closed with:

People make choices their entire life and have to live with those choices and accept responsibility for their actions.

Kyle Scott, who teaches American politics and constitutional law at Duke University and the University of Houston,  referred to it as a lack of a moral compass.  Watson would probably agree.

Let me just add to the points Watson made related to gun sales, between 2006 and 2012, firearm sales in Virginia increased 101% while at the same time, crime dropped 28%.  And last year, murders were down in the City of Richmond to levels not seen in 30 years.  The total for 2013 was 37.  Within the first four months of 1994, 60 murders had been committed.

While a number of factors lead to a reduction in crime, it is clear, that more guns do not equal more crime.

Is There A McAuliffe Effect on Gun Sales in Virginia?

The Roanoke Times reported this morning that firearm transactions set a record in Virginia on "Black Friday."

Gun transactions in Virginia totaled 3,902 on Black Friday, a 1.2 percent increase over the previous record of 3,856 transactions on the same day in 2012, according to the latest Virginia State Police figures of mandatory criminal-background checks of gun buyers.

This bucks national results for Black Friday 2013 which the Washington Times reported were slightly lower than last year, though still the sixth highest in history.  Virginia is on pace to set a record for the number of background checks for the entire year as well. The state police only keeps track of the number of background checks.  Actual sales could be higher. If someone is purchasing more that one firearm, only one background check is required.

What is driving the continued record numbers in Virginia? Thomas Baker, an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government Affairs who did a study of Virginia firearm sales last year offers this perspective:

Baker said it will be interesting to see if concerns about gun legislation have subsided after the defeat of the national gun legislation proposed this year, and if that “will lead to smaller increases of annual gun sales in years to come.”

However, Baker noted that the election of Democrat Terry McAuliffe as governor — “a staunch advocate for stricter gun controls” — could be a driving force for additional year-end gun sales in Virginia. 

“If McAuliffe proposes any state-level gun legislation, we could see another surge in sales similar to those in response to fears about national gun control legislation,” Baker said.

Baker's research found that in the last six years, total firearm sales in Virginia rose a whopping 101 percent from 2006 to 2012, according to federally licensed gun dealer sales estimates. Data for 2013 are not yet available.

MAIG Rolls Into Blacksburg

It was the same old song as Mayors Against Illegal Guns pulled into Blacksburg on their "No More Names" tour.  The Roanoke Times used the same discredited numbers (probably fed to them by MAIG) in discussing the percentage of firearm sales that are completed without a background check:

Currently, about 60 percent of gun sales are subject to background checks. Earlier this year, the Senate defeated legislation that would have required that all commercial gun sales be subject to checks.

That's another way of saying that 40% of sales are completed without background checkes.  That number has been discredited by none other than the Washington Post - not really a bastian of pro-rights information:

In other words, rather than being 30 to 40 percent (the original estimate of the range) or “up to 40 percent” (Obama’s words), gun purchases without background checks amounted to 14 to 22 percent. And since the survey sample is so small, that means the results have a survey caveat: plus or minus six percentage points.

But never let facts get in the way of a political agenda.  After the speeches by Neil Heslin, whose son was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, Peter Read, whose daughter killed at the Virginia Tech shooting, and Andrew Goddard, whose son Colin survived Tech shooting and now works for the Brady Campaign, names of those "killed by gun shots" since December 14th were read.

We don't know whether they removed the names of all those criminals that had originally been included on the list. 

Roanoke Area Middle Schooler Starts Airsoft Club

This is really neat story from the Roanoke Times.

For years, Tyler has been longing for somewhere to play with his airsoft guns. So, with the help of his father, Roger, the young Vinton teen is now an entrepreneur.

He started the Star City Airsoft Club last winter so fellow airsoft gun players could have a place to play. The club's first game day was July 21, and 10 boys came and went during the five games played. As of now, Tyler said, the club doesn't have a schedule for games, but he posts updates of when they're playing on the business' Facebook page.

The article also has a minute long video interview with the father and son.

Dan Casey Joins Chorus Against Eddie Eagle

On July 1, a number of new laws will take effect in the Commonwealth. One of those new laws, House Bill 1217, was introduced by Del. Lynwood Lewis, (D-Accomack County) which allows local school boards to offer firearm safety education programs in the elementary grades. The State Board of Education must establish a standardized program of firearm safety education for students in the elementary school grades and the bill requires that the program objectives incorporate, among other principles of firearm safety, accident prevention and the rules of the National Rifle Association's Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program.

For some reason, this seems to cause some editorial writers heartburn. Not long after the bill passed with Governor McDonnell's amendments, Michael Shannon with the Prince William News and Messenger wrote:

In this latest outrage, the General Assembly has directed the state's Board of Education to produce a curriculum for teaching gun safety to elementary school children that incorporates the advice of the National Rifle Association.

I guess it should not surprise me that the Roanoke Times' Dan Casey has joined in. Since his favorite target for the last year, online training qualifying for the training required for a concealed handgun permit, has not lead to mass shootings, another target was needed to fill his OP/ED space. Casey infers that it's payback for the NRA election activity on McDonnell's behalf last year.

The new law prescribes a gun-education curriculum for Virginia elementary schools, based upon materials provided by the National Rifle Association's "Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program."

Late in the game, Gov. Bob McDonnell made a seemingly innocuous change that effectively limited curriculum input to the NRA.

That came after the NRA's political action committee spent $622,000 last fall on radio, television and online ads promoting McDonnell for governor.

The change to which Casey refers is the correction of an error made by the Legislative Services staff who drafted a Senate amendment to the bill at the request of Senator Richard Saslaw. Casey makes a passing reference to the fact that the amendment was drafted incorrectly and named an organization (National Crime Prevention Center) that did not exist. It is likely that Saslaw told the LS staff National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) but NCPC made it known that they did not have an up-to-date firearm safety curriculum so Governor McDonnell amended the bill back to the form in which it passed the House. The Senate overwhelmingly concurred.

Casey also did not miss the chance to slip in Josh Sugarmann's (Violence Policy Center) comparison of Eddie Eagle to Joe Camel as if the Eddie Eagle program would encourage children to be interested in guns. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both of my elementary school aged children know the message delivered by the program and have the DVD provided by the NRA. I have yet to find either of them standing in front of my gun safe trying to figure out how to open it to gain access to one of the many firearms stored inside.

Casey tries to come off as not being anti-gun all the while being very snarky when he writes on the topic. One sure gets the feeling reading his articles that he fits in very nicely with the anti-gun editors of the Roanoke Times.

Roanoke Times' Dan Casey Picks Up Chant of Anti-Concealed Carry Crowd

The anti-rights crowd has been on a crusade to tie every mass shooting to a concealed carry permit holder. The script goes something like this; someone commits mayhem with a firearm. Could be a rifle, shotgun, multiple firearms, but not usually a concealed firearm. Then, the anti-rights crowd scours the concealed permit holder lists in the state where the shooter lived to see if he (or she) indeed was a permit holder. Then, the anti-rights crowd sends out a press releasing announcing that this was the (insert the number) mass shooting by a concealed carry permit holder.

Well, our old friend Dan Casey, columnist and blogger for the Roanoke Times has picked up the chant. Dan Casey is the Roanoke Times columnist that thought was constantly taking swipes at Ken Cuccinelli's bill last year that made it clear that the training required to qualify for a concealed handgun permit could be completed electronically.

On the surface, Christopher Bryan Speight, Nidal Malik Hasan and Aaron Poseidon Jackson seem like three very different fellows.

Speight, 39, is a relatively uneducated white guy with no kids who worked as a security guard and lived with his sister's family in Appomattox County.

Hasan, also 39 and raised in Roanoke, is a physician of Palestinian descent and an Army major who was stationed in Texas.

Jackson, who was 24 at the time of his death, lived in a Stafford County trailer home with his two children and their mother. He was black.

One thing the three men have in common is the commonwealth of Virginia issued each of them concealed handgun permits.

His conclusion? After admitting that concealed handgun permit holders commit crimes at lower rates than none permit holders, he uses the actions of the three individuals mentioned above to prove:

Virginia issues concealed carry permits to some total whack jobs.

But it gets better. You see, Casey complains that the bills in the Virginia General Assembly like HB 79 that would completely close the concealed carry permit information to the general public would mean we will no longer know if the next mass murderer had a permit.

Casey and the anti-rights crowd want to promote a political agenda. He as much as admits it with this line:

Trifling facts about mass murderers with handgun permits can be rather inconvenient for gun lobbyists as they attempt to persuade lawmakers to liberalize concealed-carry laws.

Casey and his soul mates in the anti-rights lobby don't like concealed carry so they continue to make non-existent connections between some high profile crimes with the fact that the perps also happened to have permits. It doesn't matter to these folks that there is no connection between concealed firearms and the crimes committed, just that they had permits. But then, facts rarely mean anything to the anti-rights crowd.

Hat tip to VA-Alert.

Dan Casey and Tonight's Gubernatorial Debate

Tonight, Roanoke College's Olin Hall will host the final scheduled debate for this year's gubernatorial election. Roanoke Times columnist Dan Casey has suggested some questions for the event. Remember, Mr. Casey is the columnist who has made a big deal out of the new law that clarifies that the safety training required to apply for a concealed carry permit can be conducted online or through some other electronic means. I'm beginning to think that Mr. Casey is obsessed with the law. Casey poses this query in his hypothetical debate questions:

Mr. Deeds, in the 2009 session you voted for an idiotic bill that defined anyone who had passed a one-hour streaming video "course" as competent enough with a gun to qualify for a Virginia concealed handgun permit --even if they had never touched a handgun.

I know this is true because I took that course and had never touched a handgun before the state issued me my permit.

The question is, do you regret supporting this dumb bill?

Follow-up: Would you support its repeal?

But Casey does not limit his gun related questions to the concealed carry permit safety training. His next question finally confirms what I have believed since reading his first column - that is less than pro-rights:

Messrs. Deeds and McDonnell, each of you has said that if elected, you would sign legislation allowing concealed-carry permit holders to take their hidden weapons into establishments that serve alcohol, provided those gun-packers don't imbibe.

A recent poll conducted by Christopher Newport University found nearly two-thirds of the commonwealth's likely voters are opposed to legalizing concealed weapons in bars.

Please explain why you're in favor of legislation opposed by nearly two-thirds of this state's voters.

Follow-up: Please explain to us how more guns in bars makes everyone safer.

Second follow-up: Are both of you insane?

I think Mr. Casey has finally shown his true colors.

"Dead-eye" Dan Casey Continues Assault on Online CHP Training

Since last July, Roanoke Times columnist Dan Casey has taken Virginia, and by extension, Senator Ken Cuccinelli, to task for allowing Virginians seeking a concealed carry permit (CHP) to complete the required safety training by taking an online or electronically delivered course. Casey has written several columns detailing how he completed a course and received his permit without ever touching a handgun. He's at it again.

There's still no doubt in my mind that the state law that deemed me "competent" enough to get a Virginia concealed handgun permit via that online course is
asinine and irresponsible.

What he does not tell readers is that was always allowed even before Senator Cuccinelli's legislation became law on July 1, 2009. Oh sure, he alluded to the fact in his original column but he never clearly states that since 1995, anyone without a criminal or mental disability could qualify for a CHP by taking a simple firearm safety course, completing the required application, and paying a fee. The statute does not require an applicant to have ever handled a firearm during the safety course or at any other time. A qualifying firearm safety course can include among other things a hunter safety course. Hunter safety courses do not require the participant to handle a firearm during the training and many of the classroom courses approved for a CHP permit also do not require the student to handle a firearm.

VSSA advocates that everyone considering purchasing, owning, and using a firearm, do so safely and responsibly. A member who is also an NRA Certified Instructor even contacted me after the Cuccinelli bill passed expressing his disappointment that VSSA supported the bill because in his view, requirements for obtaining a concealed carry permit should be more, not less strict.

There are a lot of things to consider when deciding whether to carry a firearm, whether it be openly or concealed - not least of which is if the individual is prepared to handle the consequences of defending oneself should the situation arise. But that is for the individual to determine. The Commonwealth decided its responsibility was to insure that the individual had a minimum level of training to qualify for a permit and that it was not going to take a "nanny state" approach.

This writer might agree that someone should take the step of spending considerable time at a range before applying for a CHP. But unlike Casey, I don't think I should be making that decision for other people.

Virginia Concealed Carry Permits Increase by 50%

It's not very often that you can glean good news from an article that is intended to slam gun rights but that is exactly what happened with this Roanoke Times op/ed by Christian Trejbal. Since July 1, a columnist for the Times named Dan Casey has been detailing how he was able to qualify for a Conealed Handgun Permit (CHP) without touching a firearm. Casey's story was not a pro-rights angle. His was the "I can't believe Virginia does this" angle.

It all started when Senator Ken Cuccinelli's bill (SB1528), making it clear that online or electronically delivered safety training met the safety training requirement to qualify for a CHP, became law on July 1 of this year. Casey wrote a column in the Times that talked about how easy his online course was and that Virginians could now get a CHP without even touching a firearm. The truth is you never had to have touched a firearm. The course I took was a classroom course. Virginia law does not require range time to get a permit. It only requires a basic safety course and even a hunter safety course qualifies.

Casey followed up his July article with another one on August 30, letting people know he had received his permit and once again expressing horror in a snarky fashion that Virginia allowed him to do so without having touched a firearm.

Trejbal followed up with a column of his own that talked about the increase in Virginians now holding a CHP - in fact - 203,132 Virginians now have concealed carry permits. According to Trejbal via the State Police:

That is a 50 percent jump since January 2007, when only 135,789 people had them. The number of permits tends to increase over time, but this sort of growth is astonishing.

The uptick began in the second half of 2008 and took off in 2009, according to Virginia State Police records.

Already this year, the number of valid permits has grown by 18 percent, outstripping growth in all of last year and on pace to more than double the 2007 growth rate.

Anyone who has followed Trejbal's writing's in the Roanoke Times knows that he is no fan of gun owners. He is the one responsible for the publication of the names of all 135,000 permit holders on the Times web site in 2007 for a brief amount of time.

He repeats the new anti-rights talking point that concealed carry permit holders around the nation killed seven law enforcement officers and 54 private citizens in the last two years. Minneapolis Gun Rights Examiner John Pierce has debunked that myth.

Even Trejbal admits that few of those new people getting permits are like Casey and getting permits with little training or to prove a point. Casey and Trejbal may deplore the ease with which Virginian's can get a CHP, but clearly, more people are learning that it is their responsibility to protect their families so anything we can do to streamline that process is good for law abiding citizens.

I will be discussing this further tonight with Cam Edwards on NRANews.com and Sirius Patriot 144.

Roanoke Times Peddling Tired "Gun Show Loophole" Again

This morning's Roanoke Times is running an editorial titled "Find a way to narrow the gun show loophole." It's a response to a hearing held by the Virginia Crime Commission this past Tuesday. You may recall that before the Senate Courts of Justice Committee spiked Governor Tim Kaine's "gun show loophole" bill for good in January, it referred it to the Virginia Crime Commission for study.

During the hearing, pro-gun legislators made it clear while there is no "loophole" and thus they have no interest in passing a law that closes something that does not exist, the law is unclear on who is a dealer and who is a private seller. Senator Ken Stolle of Virginia Beach suggested that a way to clear this "confusion" would be to set a threshold for the number of guns sold, to determine who escapes federal requirements.

The Times applauded members of the Commission for "not getting bogged down" in the arguments made by both sides of the issue and for considering other options. Then the Times offered their own - something along the lines of everyone entering a gun show would have to show an ID, undergo a background check, then get a credential that allows them to approach any vendor. I don't know about you, but I go to gun shows to look around. I haven't bought a gun at a gun show in years - I have dealers that I have relationships with in my area and those are the folks that I turn to when I want to purchase a firearm.

I will give the Times credit for originality, to an extent. This proposal sounds more like the one several years ago that would have required gun show promoters to register with the government and keep records of everyone who attends a show.

I've said it once and I will say it again - there is no gun show loophole. Studies conducted by the Clinton Justice Department showed that criminals rarely acquire their guns at gun shows. This is just one more attempt to put gun shows out of business. People like me who go to shows simply to browse and not purchase would be deterred by the requirement of having to wait for a background check before entering -thus reducing the profit margin of the promoter and some shows would likely go out of business. But, that is likely what folks like the Roanoke Times wants anyway.

Brady Still Trying to Protest on Tech Campus

On Tuesday I posted that Virginia Tech was not going to allow one of the Brady "Lie-ins" on the campus Drillfield as it would 1)interfere with plans to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the shooting deaths of 32 students and faculty and 2)the group had not applied for a permit (that the University would deny because they are not a student group).

The Roanoke Times is reporting today that Brady is working with students who were planning to participate in the protest in the hope they can negotiate an agreement with the University.


Tech spokesman Larry Hincker told the Times he would not rule out the possibility of the university giving a permit to a student group to assemble somewhere on campus April 16, but he said events are already planned for the Drillfield that morning and evening and the university doesn't want anything to interrupt the "solemnity" of the day. Hincker told the Times that April 16 is a time for the community to heal and reflect on the lives of people lost a year ago. "April 16 is, to us, truly a solemn day," he said. "It's a day of remembrance."

I agree. I've said before that Brady's plans are in poor taste. In addition, there are a number of students, including Tech's Student Government Association, who have expressed that April 16 is not the appropriate day for one of the Brady lie-in stunts. The SGA passed a resolution Tuesday night asking protesters "to respect the Virginia Tech community's wish to peacefully embrace the university day of remembrance by holding their demonstrations on a different date."

VDGIF Hunting with Hounds Study Getting More Attention

I posted on this earlier and since that time, discussion on the Internet among hunters as well as a couple of comments on the earlier post merits another mention. Those who hunt with dogs are very concerned about the process DGIF has created for this debate. The Virginia Deer Hunters Association has a vested interest in this and they sent a letter to their membership in mid 2007 pointing out that a small hand full of unethical individuals are partly to blame for this situation. The vast majority of hunters using hounds are ethical and respect the private property of others. Unfortunately, they are caught up in this and will suffer from any ill effects. But hunters using hounds are also experiencing something that gun owners have been feeling the effects of for the last several years - people new to rural life, complaining about noise - in this case noisy hounds. This article ran on Christmas Eve in the Richmond Times Dispatch and is pretty balanced. This editorial ran on News Years Eve in the Roanoke Times and as usual, has the Times anti-slant with a swipe at hunters, calling them a "paranoid bunch."

Governor Kaine and the Second Amendment

Yesterday I posted about Attorney General Bob McDonnell joining a multi-state brief for the Supreme Court in the District of Columbia v Heller, that support the view that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. The Roanoke Times contacted the Governor's office where the occupant, Tim Kaine, has a history of strongly supporting gun control (i.e. trying to use taxpayer money to support the misled mommie march in 2000). I think the response (or lack thereof) is telling.

Kaine's spokesman Gordon Hickey said, "The governor generally (emphasis added) supports Second Amendment rights..."

One either does or does not support a basic human right. I find it hard to envision what "general" support would mean. True, Kaine signed into law Delegate Lingamfelter's bill blocking New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun dealer entrapment schemes and given the fact he used to be a trial lawyer that is a plus since it was a group of trial lawyers that gave Bloomberg the idea in the first place. But Kaine has now jumped on the bandwagon to close the nonexistant "gun show loophole" and I can't imagine an anti-gun bill that has been introduced in the General Assembly over the past several years (banning carrying a firearm in a police station, banning carrying in a library etc) that he would not sign if it reached his desk.

VSSA on Tim Kaine and the Gun Show Loophole

I was interviewed on NRANews' Cam and Company on December 5th and the topic was Tim Kaine's decision to put his political neck on the line to try and close the so-called "gun show loophole."

FOIA Commission Proposal Would Close Concealed Handgun Permit Data

The Richmond Times Dispatch and the Roanoke Times reported on Tuesday that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advisory Council has proposed legislation that would limit access to the list of persons that possess a Concealed Handgun Permit (CHP). Until this past March when the Roanoke Times abused the list and posted it for a day on it's web site, anyone could make a FOIA request to the Virginia State Police and obtain a copy of the list (sometimes at a small fee to cover the cost of providing the list). Some pro-gun groups and political candidates have obtained copies of the list in the past for membership campaigns and voter outreach. After the Roanoke Times incident, the Attorney General issued an opinion that caused the VSP to limit access to the list.

The FOIA Council draft legislation would prohibit the state police from releasing its database containing the identities of state residents with concealed-carry permits. Records of concealed-carry permits would remain available on a locality-by-locality basis at circuit courts, which issue the permits. The state police could continue to release statistical summaries and related data about concealed-carry permits without identifying individual permit holders.

Pro-gun Senator Edd Houck (D-Spotsylvania County) said "This sort of balances the need that I think we all felt when The Roanoke Times published that database." Houck is the chairman of the advisory council.

A version of the draft legislation would have allowed political committees and candidates and nonprofit hunting and firearms groups to have access to the database, but those exemptions were struck by a council subcommittee.

No surprise - the Roanoke Times is not happy with the proposed legislation.

More on Roanoke Times Banning Gun Ads

Last week I posted about the Roanoke Times refusing to run ads for the Roanoke Valley Gun Show that was held at the Civic Center last week end. Bill Cochran has written about it on his Times’ “Field Reports” blog that the refusal to run ads for the gun show was a result of the newspaper tightening its policy on firearms advertising where they will only accept gun and accessory ads from licensed firearm’s dealers only.

Now a trade journal covering the newspaper industry has picked up the story. The Editor and Publisher wrote that the Roanoke Times' marketing director, Nan Mahone explained “Our tightening policy ensures that firearms advertising in our newspaper is restricted to licensed dealers who are subject to these background checks. The Editor and Publisher story noted that the NRA called the policy “blatantly discriminatory” and urged members and pro-gun citizens to contact the newspaper “to express their outrage.” Like VSSA, the NRA did not call for canceling subscriptions. You will recall that rather than urging a boycott of the newspaper, I suggested that pro-gun advertisers take their business somewhere else and then fax a copy of their invoice to the Times every time they purchased advertising from an alternative source so the paper would see a tangible loss of income.

The Editor and Publisher continues that a newspaper statement on the policy says: “The decision to restrict firearms advertising to licensed dealers was made by the advertising department, with the support of the president and publisher and independent of the news and editorial departments. It was made after careful examination of a loophole in a federal law and consideration of the safety of our community.” As I mentioned in my previous post, the new policy comes months after the paper got in hot water with pro-gun advocates…when it published a list of 135,000 Virginians who had earned Right-to-Carry Permits.

Roanoke Times Says No to Showmasters' Ad

I think most Virginia gun owners know that the Roanoke Times is not gun friendly. All you have to do is recall how they put the personal information of 135,000 CHP holders on their web site without regard for whether some of those permit holders were trying to keep hidden from abusive former spouses or former boyfriends. Well, now they have told one of their local businesses, Showmasters Gun Shows, that their business ads are no longer welcome.

I have never been one to promote or suggest boycotts. It is more effective to instead, keep copies of receipts where you purchase a product from a similar merchant, and then fax it to the corporate office of the business that tells you your guns are not welcome, accompanied with a note each time that says something like "I would have like to have purchased this product from your but you have a sign on your door that says I am not welcome because I carry a firearm." If every gun owner did this it would be something tangible that shows a merchant how much money they are losing because of their policy - much more so than just saying, I am going to boycott your business.

If you own a business and currently advertise in the Roanoke Times, consider finding an alternative method of advertising your business. After receiving the receipt for payment each time you purchase advertising, fax a copy of it to the Roanoke Times and let them know this could have been their ad if they had not started this new policy.

If you live around Roanoke, be sure to stop by the Roanoke gun show this weekend at the Roanoke Civic Center to show your support for Showmasters.

The stuff really stacks up when you don't post for a week

Here is another item that popped up while I was on posting hiatus. As is usually the case Northern Virginia localities put together a legislative package that they hope the General Assembly will consider and pass. Inevitably it includes one or more gun control recommendations. It is usually the same rehash from year to year, banning firearms in recreation centers, blah blah blah. This year, Arlington has come up with a new idea. According to the Sun Gazette Newspaper the Arlington County Civic Association wants the General Assembly to allow officials to furnish to media outlets the names of people who have purchased handguns. Newspapers and other media organizations can then determine whether to publish them.

Apparently, Arlington did not learn the lesson that gun owners taught the Roanoke Times after it published the names and addresses of Virginia's 135,000 CHP holders. That led the State Police after an opinion from the AG to limit access to the list.

Speaking of the Roanoke Times and publishing the personal information of CHP holders, a friend forwarded a story from an October 8th WDBJ news report about a new proposal that would keep the public from using the Freedom of Information Act to access identifying information about permit holders.

According to the report, a subcommittee of the General Assembly's Freedom of Information Advisory Council is recommending personal identifiable information of concealed carry holders be kept private. Under their proposal, folks could request statistical information, like what percentage of the population in the Roanoke Valley has a concealed gun permit.

Law enforcement could still access the complete data for their jobs. The proposal must be approved by the General Assembly before it becomes law.

VSSA will keep gun owners informed on this issue and when a bill is introduced next session.