PLEASE READ... and ACT..VA-ALERT: ACTION ITEM: Newport News City's push for Chicago-style Gun Control
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This alert affects EVERYONE, not just the City of Newport News residents. So please read on and do at least the first action item.STATEWIDE GUN CONTROL PUSH
I now have a copy of the Tuesday, November 10, agenda for the City of Newport News.
In the agenda is an item where City Council want the General Assembly to pass a gun-control scheme like they have in places like Illinois, Maryland, DC, New York, New Jersey, and California!
Do any of YOU want to live in ANY of those places?
BACKGROUND
Here are the key parts of a 160 page agenda that covers the issue of permits to possess a firearm, my comments are in square brackets:
13. Protect Virginians from Gun Violence - the City asked that the General Assembly protect Virginians from gun violence by adopting legislation to require a license to possess a firearm. [PVC: As you will see, their suggestion will increase crime, not reduce it. We don’t need a “nanny” government with a monopoly of power to “protect” us.]
Vice Mayor Coleman stated this was similar to what was already required for concealed weapons permits. He inquired whether the City could alleviate the requirement of a concealed weapons permit if one obtained a license to possess a firearm. Ms. Wilson believed that the process to obtain a concealed weapons permit would be streamlined if the legislation to require a license to possess a firearm was adopted. [PVC: Ms. Wilson doesn’t even know Virginia has a concealed HANDGUN permit and she is making predictions? The concealed carry permit harkens back to a time when the government wanted to keep minorities from carrying guns. Like all gun control, it has a shameful history. That said, a CHP deals with CARRYING a concealed handgun in public, not merely POSSESSING a handgun, rifle, or shotgun.]
Vice Mayor Coleman felt there was no point in having two permits. Ms. Wilson agreed, and felt the process would be streamlined to make it as simple as possible. [PVC: It would also mean that if a person couldn't qualify for a CHP, they couldn’t own any firearms at all.]
Councilwoman Cherry inquired whether a license for a firearm would truly reduce gun violence in Newport News. City Manager Bourey replied that studies, over a 20-year time period, had concluded that a permit requirement to own a firearm had resulted in a significant reduction in gun violence. He felt the requirement would make a huge difference. [PVC: WHAT studies is Bourey talking about? His prediction on a “significant reduction in ‘gun violence’" is so far from what would actually happen as to be laughable. Illinois has Universal Background Checks and requires that all purchasers have a permit to buy a gun, but 40 to 50 people are shot every weekend in Chicago. Is THAT what Bourey wants for Virginia?]
Vice Mayor Coleman felt the biggest advantage of the General Assembly approving the legislation would be to close the gun shows and secondary sale loop-hole where no current requirements existed. Someone who bought a gun at a gun show could turnaround and sell the gun to someone else, without any ownership requirements. Everyone would have to qualify for a permit under this proposal. [PVC: Yeah, I can just see criminals lining up to get a permit to buy a gun, because we know that criminals always obey the law. In Illinois 97% of the guns used in crime come either from the black market or through straw purchases. Illinois’s Universal Background Checks and permits to possess firearms both fail miserably to even slow down criminals. This is really a Universal Gun Owner Registration scheme.)]
Councilwoman Woodbury inquired about research regarding States that had implemented legislation to require a license to possess a firearm, and asked that the City Manager provide the information to City Council. City Manager Bourey stated he would provide the information to City
Council.
Councilwoman Woodbury recalled that guns had been banned in Washington, D.C.; however, the murder rate increased. Ms. Wilson stated that the State of New York had an outright handgun ban and all United States territories banned private gun ownership, which she had learned in her research. [PVC: I sure hope they are not seriously looking at Ms. Wilson as some kind of expert. She is wrong on all of this. Where did she research this? At the Violence Policy Center? It was Chicago, not the State of New York, that banned all handgun possession. All the United States territories banning private gun ownership? I’ll bet the people of Puerto Rico, Northern Marianas, American Samoa, Guam, and the Virgin Islands are shocked to hear of that one. Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam even have laws allowing concealed carry on a “may issue” basis. NONE have a ban on private ownership!]
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XIII. PROTECT VIRGINIANS FROM GUN VIOLENCE
Request:
The City of Newport News asks that the General Assembly protect Virginians from gun violence by adopting legislation to require a license to possess a firearm.
Justifcation
The City of Newport News is just one of many Virginia cities that are challenged by gun violence in the community. Eight years after the gun rampage at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and only a few months after another shooting tragedy occurred in Roanoke, we continue to seek resources and remedies from lawmakers in Richmond or Washington. [PVC: NEITHER of those murders would have been stopped by a permit to possess a firearm, as both Cho and Flanagan passed a background check.] Putting political ideology aside, when we view gun violence as we would any other community issue, solutions can be found from what works in other places. [PVC: Good luck finding one where gun control works.] Almost always the debate on 2nd amendment rights drowns-out safety concerns. [PVC: Yes, freedom can get in the way of tyranny. Funny how that works.] That is exactly what should NOT happen. Public safety is a core function of government and finding solutions that protect the public while not infringing on the rights of responsible gun owners is critical for lawmakers. It is clear that a majority of Americans understand and want better protection from those who should not possess guns. [PVC: The City Council’s “safety concerns” seem to play down a person’s personal safety - their right to self-defense. Licenses to possess firearms would infringe on gun owners in a major way and would open gun owners up to future confiscations a la New York, Connecticut, and California. If we got rid of all gun control, we would all be a lot safer.]
Requiring all gun owners to possess a license would:
• Ensure that every person who purchases/possesses a gun has undergone a background check, thereby closing the "private sale loophole” [PVC: BALONEY! Criminals will not get a permit to possess. PERIOD. And there is no “private sale loophole.” That is just a fabrication designed to demonize the sale of firearms.]
• Confirm that gun owners remain eligible to possess firearms and facilitate the removal of firearms from people who have become ineligible [PVC: Who knows what “ineligible” will be in the future? The antis keep pushing for more and more things to make someone ineligible. I’m sure that breathing will be on that ineligibility list somewhere down the road. Here the City Council admits that confiscation would be both possible and a reality under this scheme.]
• Ensure that gun owners understand relevant firearms laws and know how to safely store and handle firearms [PVC: Intentional misuse of firearms is the problem. Problems with storage and handling are very rare. The proposed license to possess a firearm would not ensure that anyone knows firearm laws or how to safely store and handle firearms.]
• Help prevent trafficking of crime guns and make it more difficult for criminals, juveniles and other prohibited purchasers to obtain guns [PVC: This scheme won’t even slow down criminals and straw purchases will work just as well.]
Virginia currently requires a wide array of licenses and permits: driver's licenses, ABC licenses, hunting and fishing licenses, marriage licenses, business licenses, and even a permit to carry a concealed weapon, just to name a few. Licensing for gun owners has the potential to protect ALL Virginians and prevent needless gun violence. Newport News urges the General Assembly to adopt legislation to require a license to possess a firearm [PVC: When did we start licensing free speech and religion? Like both of those, the right to keep and bear arms is a RIGHT, not a privilege that is licensed. Did anybody on City Council ever take a civics class? Sure doesn’t look that way.]
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ACTION ITEM #1
We will work to kill this item in the General Assembly, but we need to let politicians who touch the third rail of gun control know that we are going to fight back. And that includes the Newport News City Council.
Since the City Council’s proposal is a STATEWIDE gun-control measure, I suggest ALL OF US respond to this threat to our rights by sending City Council an email!
Email address for all of City Council: council@nnva.gov
Suggested subject: OPPOSE the permit for firearm possession scheme!
Suggested message:
Newport News City Council,
I have just learned that the City Council is going to recommend that Virginia become just like Illinois, Maryland, and other high crime states, all of which have “permit to possess a firearm” laws.
Those permits don’t do anything to lower crime, as criminals don’t bother getting them. Criminals get guns from the black market (“the street”), by theft, or from straw purchasers who pass background checks before turning the guns over to the criminal.
Chicago, which has both Universal Background Checks and a permit to possess a firearm law, experiences 40 to 50 shootings every weekend! Southern Maryland has 4 TIMES and DC 8 TIMES the number of firearm-related murders as Northern Virginia according to a recent Washington Post article. Is that what you want for Virginia?
This proposal is bad for Virginia, defies Virginia’s Constitution, and I urge you to drop this item from your legislative packet.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
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ACTION ITEM #2
If you live in the general area of the City of Newport News, we need to flood the City Council Chamber with gun owners wearing Guns Save Lives stickers and to speak against the licensing scheme. Even if they don’t pull that item based on being flooded by emails, we still need to let them know what they are requesting is WRONG.
The meeting is at 7 PM on Tuesday, November 10th at:
City Council Chambers (behind City Hall)
2400 Washington Ave.
Newport News, VA 23607
Look for someone with GSL stickers and get one to wear. I’ll be there, will you?
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Many thanks to member Richard Thomas for his tenaciousness in going after the issue of the City pushing gun control and to Theresa Clift, with the Daily Press, for pointing Richard in the right direction.
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