C.o.T.M.

6. Lynchburg's gun surrender event yields no guns

Barney Laverty emailed me about Lynchburg's gun surrender event (Video).

How may guns got taken "off the street?" ZERO, nothing, goose eggs, nada, rien.

Yet, hold on to your hats:

"Even though they didn't get any guns Thursday night, police say this was great for strengthening the neighborhood."

Huh?

I think that is anti-gunner double-speak for "this was a really dumb idea that we are stuck having to repeat over and over again to try and save face."

http://tinyurl.com/ycwak45

cfc.wset.com

ABC 13

November 6, 2009

Gun Surrender Event Yields No Guns

Lynchburg, VA - A gun surrender event didn't pull any weapons off the street, but police say it brought the community together.

Dozens of young people gathered at the Diamond Hill Center for the event sponsored by Churches United For Service, the Lynchburg Police (web) Foundation, and the LPD.

It's the sixth gun surrender event the groups have held. So far, they've collected 11 guns.

Each person who has turned one in has been entered for a chance to win this Chevy Impala, an old police vehicle.

Even though they didn't get any guns Thursday night, police say this was great for strengthening the neighborhood.

Maj. Wayne Duff with the Lynchburg Police Department said, "By working with our community, our faith based community, our business community, all of us are the reasons I think that we're experiencing low crime right now. And that's good for us."

Major Duff says they plan to hold a couple more surrender events before drawing for the car on December 19th.

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7. Who needs a gun at a Halloween party?

A concealed handgun permit holder in Virginia Beach apprehends an armed robber and holds him at gun point.

Ken Richards and Omar Elhoss emailed me this:

http://tinyurl.com/ya3dd66

www.wavy.com

Jason Marks

Wednesday, November 4 2009

Scarecrow with a heart saves the day

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - They were having a Halloween party in the right place at the right time. Virginia Beach police told WAVY.com several costumed revelers saved a robbery victim.

A stuffed scarecrow leans against a wall at the Willow Lake apartment complex in Virginia Beach, with a smirk stretched across its face. The smile could be joy for a fellow scarecrow; one people are calling a hero.

"I think I was doing the right thing," Samuel Ramos said.

The scarecrow costume Ramos was wearing Saturday night has long been removed, but the lasting memory from the holiday has not.

"We were doing a barbeque," Ramos added. "Me and my friends saw this guy running."

Ramos was standing outside on the porch. As the man darted by, a woman ran behind him.

"He just robbed this lady at gunpoint," Ramos said. "So right there I started running too."

Ramos' sprint took him past a giant lake and unsuspecting ducks. He was chasing the suspect and gaining ground.

"I kept chasing him and so he jumped the fence," Ramos added. "I didn't jump the fence because of my Halloween costume."

Police say the scarecrow soon cornered the suspect on the next block. What the suspect didn't know was this scarecrow was also carrying a gun. Ramos, a sailor stationed on the USS Kearsarge, has a concealed weapons permit.

"I went with my gun and I said 'hey man drop it,'" Ramos yelled at the suspect. "I told him give me your gun and I'll let you go."

Police say Edward Morris handed over his gun to Ramos. The trick was a treat for police. Ramos held Morris until police arrived.

"I was thinking if I let him go right now maybe he can do the same thing later to somebody else," Ramos added.

Police recovered the victim's purse and returned it to her.

22-year-old Edward Morris of Chesapeake is charged with Robbery and Use of a Firearm in the Commission of a Felony. He is being held in the Virginia Beach Correctional Facility without bond.

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8. Anti-gun Brady Campaign wants 100 cosponsors by January

The Brady's want to register the private sales of guns and desperately need some kind of victory to show they have any clout at all.

It's our job to make sure they don't get one.

Sonny Sundaramurthy emailed me this:

--

Philip,

There are already two congressmen from Virginia that have cosponsored the federal gun-show "loophole" bill.

Rep Connolly, Gerald E. "Gerry" [VA-11] - 5/7/2009

Rep Moran, James P. [VA-8] - 6/19/2009

The Brady bunch is pushing for 100 cosponsors by January 18th (see attached e-mail). The number currently stands at 43.

I am going to use this opportunity to remind my congressman NOT to cosponsor HR 2324. We should all probably do the same.

- Sonny

http://tinyurl.com/ycxw26v

www.bradynetwork.org

(SNIP)

Good news! Just in the past few days - since Brian Malte's email to you last week - you've added eight new cosponsors to H.R 2324, Rep. Mike Castle and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy's bill to close the gun show loophole.

Thanks to you and others, we are getting closer to our ambitious goal of 100 cosponsors by Martin Luther King Day, January 18.

We can do this. When we keep the pressure on, we will close the gun show loophole.

But it will take every voice ... and every dollar ... to help pass this common sense bill to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people.

Please make a contribution to the Brady Campaign now to help save lives.

The gun lobby will fight us every step of the way with its ridiculous mantra of "any gun, anywhere, for anybody." But you and I have been in this fight for a long time. And common sense is on our side.

We want 100 cosponsors by January 18, but we are also pressing for a congressional hearing on the issue, and we are working with our media contacts to get editorials and interviews on all major news programs.

Brady and Million Mom March Chapters - we have more than 70 - are also organizing in key districts to help get more cosponsors.

This kind of all-out effort is how we passed the Brady Law.

But our victories do not come cheap - especially against the mammoth gun lobby machine.

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9. Time will only prove folly of new gun law for U.S. National Parks

The anti-gunners, when they are losing, can really get nutty and bring paranoia and bedwetting to new heights. I truly think that most of the antis have some form of a mental disease and the article below confirms that in spades.

EM Dale Welch emailed me this:

--

Circle the wagons, the responsible citizens are coming.

I imagine that "viewing" wild animals through a rifle mounted scope will be responded to much like someone playing with a lazer sight across someone else's chest. At the very least brandishing.

This should have had a duct tape warning!

----Dale

http://tinyurl.com/ya5one7

www.huffingtonpost.com

Todd Wilkinson

November 5, 2009

Always, the first question responsible legislators should ask when writing a law is this: What significant problem is being solved by putting another code on the books?

This is the nut of a conundrum now before the U.S. National Park Service as it prepares to deal with a new gun law buried as a rider (amendment) in a hastily-passed credit card reform bill on Capitol Hill.

It caught many by surprise. Public Law 111-24 will allow tourists, beginning in 2010 if not sooner, to openly tote the legal gun of their choice through national parks such as Yellowstone, Grand Teton and other bustling crown jewel preserves.

In contrast to how the legislation was originally proposed,it is not a provision that only empowers licensed individuals with concealed weapons permits.

In some states, it allows any citizen, of legal age, to holster a loaded sidearm or walk with a rifle or shotgun slung over their backs through campgrounds, along hiking trails and while standing off roadways at popular scenic overlooks.

Tourists will even be able to use their riflescopes, while still on the barrel, as optical devices for viewing wildlife. As one seasoned professional with a state game agency told me: "It really opens up some mind-bending dilemmas, doesn't it?"

Park officials nationwide say they are committed to enforcing all laws handed down by Congress and the president.

But privately, rangers are deeply concerned about how the potential, expanded presence of firearms in crowded parks will affect human behavior in places where guns, for the most part, have not existed before, and where public and wildlife safety have not heretofore been problems in need of fixing.

Environmental groups such as the National Parks Conservation Association, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition have all warned of dire consequences. They are not anti-gun; they just believe the tradition of not having armed national park tourists, which has worked well for nearly a century, should be upheld.

Although the law was packaged in the flowery rhetoric of "expanding liberty" and protecting Second Amendment rights when first drafted during the Bush Administration, it is, when one looks deeper, little more than a calculated wedge issue that only inflames our fear of each other.

Authored by U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) and endorsed by the National Rifle Association,it is a thinly veiled attempt to create a false "pro-gun versus anti-gun"litmus test aimed at further polarizing the country.

I too own guns, and support and defend the right to bear arms that is a boilerplate component of the U.S. Constitution. I even firmly agree with the NRA on certain issues. But I have never, after hiking thousands of miles and visiting dozens of national parks, ever felt the need to carry a loaded firearm inside one.

Proponents say it will "protect Americans against violent crime", the kind that exists in urban parks and remote preserves along the U.S.border with Mexico. That may be.

But tell us, Senator Coburn, how many homicides, drug killings, and acts of gang violence have occurred in Yellowstone and Grand Teton in the last decade?

Name one.

Fact: Nearly all of the violent offenses ever involving people and guns in these parks were carried out by poachers killing animals and not as acts of self-defense. One wonders: Has Coburn not been to Yellowstone?

Another thing he won't find in the Yellowstone and Grand Teton statistics are deaths or serious injuries caused by accidental gun discharges during the busy summer months. This law will actually increase the likelihood of that happening.

One can also imagine these scenarios: A family approaches a bison. A lone bull, say 40 yards away, raises his head and apart from roiling of tail, shows no indication of an imminent charge.

Is papa with a gun cleared of wrongdoing when he tells investigating rangers he shot and killed the bison because he was afraid the animal was about to trample a family member?

Or what about the autumn chaos that ensues when tourists and photographers swarm around bugling elk? In recent years, a few bulls have charged people who got too close. Will it now be acceptable to provoke an animal and then gun it down?

Or picture rangers pulling up alongside suspicious looking individuals standing near a steamy elk or bison or wolf carcass, fitting the profile of poachers, only to claim their lives were endangered?

Even more importantly, how will the presence of guns compromise the welcoming ambiance that three million visitors seek during their visits to Yellowstone and Grand Teton?

How will parents feel about paranoid individuals sitting around adjacent campfires with guns, leaning them up against their RVs or bringing weapons with them to outdoor ranger interpretive programs?

Apparently, handguns, rifles and shotguns will not be allowed in visitor centers, but there is a question about whether the prohibition applies to park hotels and restaurants where alcohol is served.

Public Law 111-24 does not enhance public appreciation for the Second Amendment; it is a liability to it.

If, and when it results in just one headline grabbing human tragedy or leads to an increase in wildlife poaching, will politicians who voted for it hold themselves accountable?