VCDL Update 6-22-18

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VA-ALERT archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/727/=now
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1. Loudoun County shooting ban
2. Katie Couric lawsuit
3. Pennsylvania dropping reciprocity with Virginia 4. Town of Floyd gun-ban in their Lineberry Park

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1. Loudoun County shooting ban
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There was a large pro-gun turnout at last nights Loudoun County Board of Supervisors meeting on an attempt to basically ban discharge of firearms in the County.

Thanks to member Baraka James, who I authorized to read a message on my behalf.

The good news is the proposed ordinance was rejected, BUT the bad news is that they will probably look at other options in a future meeting. So one bullet was dodged, but others may be coming.

Member David Strafford sent me a summary of what happened:

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The room was full of people with GSL stickers. Very effective. They clearly dominated the room. There were 30 people signed up to speak in the evening.

There were a few Moms Demand people there -- three sitting together and 1-2 stragglers. During the breaks, I chatted with the moms. It was a friendly chat. Most have been duped by the Moms Demand party line -- "we just want sensible gun control, we don't want to ban your guns." Most were open to talking - and could see when gun restrictions make women and kids less safe. Oddly, I was the only person who chose to have a friendly chat with the opposition.

Ulmstadt's amendment came up without a second and died. That's the good news.

Phyllis Randal was adamantly opposed to any pro gun statements, shushing the crowd when they applauded Senator Black and Delegate Dave LaRock. At one point she threatened to have the deputies remove anyone who clapped.

Buffington, with Saines as a second, introduced a motion to study whether there could be ways to restrict shooting toward occupied houses. Initially, it was over any distance -- which let them prohibit shooting west in Loudoun for fear of hitting a house in California. It came back to commissioning a study to look at what restrictions are reasonable, with input from the sheriff, the county attorney, and local shooting and hunting clubs. It also looked at moving lines to expand restrictions (currently Ashburn and east) to new high density places further west. Buffington wanted something of "limited scope" but it has the potential to become a real witch hunt.

Randal did everything she could to shut out the pro gun people. She moved that item to the end. The vote took place at about 10:15pm. (The meeting started at 5:00pm.) She moved everything else up to push the pro gun people as late as possible. She had a closed session before the gun related ordinance change. She shut the meeting down when people applauded -- she said that she does that uniformly for everyone, but then let people applaud some breast cancer survivor support group.

Good: Ulstadt's motion -- which would have immediately amended the code to essentially prohibit shooting on anything less than 640 acres, almost all properties in Loudoun county -- was rejected.

Buona, Higgins, and Volpe stood strong.

Buffington and Saines were pushed left of center by the shooting-ban lunacy. Not far left, but left.

BTW, the Loudoun County sheriff, along with the County Attorney, made a presentation. Apparently there were four people shooting. They were having a fun shoot with at least one automatic weapon, using a legally registered automatic weapon -- not a bump stock. Many hundred rounds were fired by four shooters. 3 rounds escaped. They called the sheriff's office before shooting and shot for about 30 minutes. One of the 911 callers called to say that they heard a round pass over their house.

The attorney said that 1) it was not clear which shooter fired the escaping rounds and 2) there wasn't sufficient evidence to prove that they were being reckless. Both were needed to bring charges and he couldn't prove either.

The questions that didn't get asked were 1) if this new stupid code amendment were passed, would it have changed anything? Hint: answer = no. and 2) how much of Loudoun County would have been excluded per the stupid code amendment? They tried to get county GIS to answer the question, but they said they needed more time. Typical hasty legislation. Hint: answer = 99%+ of the county.

There will be more discussed at the next BoS meeting. Expect Moms Demand to be there. We need to make sure we outnumber them.


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2. Katie Couric lawsuit
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The VCDL/Katie Couric lawsuit appeal should be heard by the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in the September timeframe.


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3. Pennsylvania dropping reciprocity with Virginia
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VCDL has consulted the Virginia State Police on technical questions in an effort to find a solution to restoring reciprocal rights between Virginia and Pennsylvania.

I will be talking to legislators about putting in a bill in the 2019 General Assembly session that that will add a NICS check requirement for CHPs.

Hopefully that will fix reciprocity concerns with Pennsylvania. If successfully passed into law and Pennsylvania is satisfied with the final law, we will likely have reciprocity restored around July of 2019.

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