Tuesday, March 12, 2013

VA-ALERT: Gun owners dominated Moran "Forum" Monday

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Not yet a VCDL member? Join VCDL at: http://www.vcdl.org/join
----------------------------------------------------------------------
VCDL's meeting schedule: http://www.vcdl.org/meetings
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
I think Congressman Jim Moran had to take a deep breath as he looked out on an audience **dominated** by people wearing "Gun Save Lives" stickers last night!
 
The panel consisted of a retired BATFE agent, a Brady Campaign lawyer, a Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) member, Josh Horwitz (Executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence), and the Arlington Chief of Police.
 
The panel made opening statements.  Of note was the MAIG lady who claimed that MAIG was only interested in keeping guns out of the hands of criminals.  That's interesting since MAIG vehemently opposed national reciprocity for concealed handgun permit holders!  How would opposing permit holders carrying in more states have anything in the world to do with keeping guns out of the hands of criminals?  They are just another 2-bit anti-liberty group.
 
The Arlington Chief of Police made quite a few inane statements and even got booed when he said he liked gun registration.  He clearly had no idea what he was talking about, saying at one point that Virginia had both gun registration and waiting periods!
 
The very first person to speak was a man, but no one understood what he was trying to say, so I'll move on.
 
The second person was a young lady, Celia Bigelow, who hit the ball out of the park.  She asked why Moran is pro-choice on abortion, but not pro-choice with allowing a woman to choose how she wants to defend herself!  Moran clearly didn't see that coming, thinking the lady was on his side when she first started to speak.  He stood there in silence at first and then mumbled that he wanted to move on to the next question.  The young woman stood her ground and asked for an answer to her question.  But Moran repeated that he wanted to move on to the next question. Not a popular answer with the crowd, as you can imagine.  That woman had him cold and he had to slither away from her. (VIdeo of this exchange is included in a link below!)
 
One after the other, the questions were almost all from gun owners.  Moran was facing a tough crowd.  At one point he basically called gun owners paranoid (see video in below link).
 
One VCDL member asked Moran why the federal government thought it could regulate INTRASTATE commerce by requiring a background check when a gun is sold privately from one citizen to another.  Moran seemed confused as to what intrastate meant (vs interstate).
 
I stood up and got in line to speak.  An obnoxious-anti-liberty woman in line in front of me said that I didn't live in Moran's district and therefore couldn't speak!  That is SO typical of our opponents.  They have no regard for the Second Amendment and no regard for the First either (unless, of course, you agree with them).  She really, really didn't want me to have a chance to speak.  You know, I would NEVER, not even in my wildest dreams, try to stifle an opponent's right to free speech.  I ignored her and she was not happy about it.
 
My question was directed at the Police Chief.  I asked, "Since mass shooting with high body-counts almost always happen in 'gun-free zones,' don't you agree with the need to get rid of gun-free zones?"  I also noted that we do not have gun registration nor background checks in Virginia.
 
For some reason, the BATFE retiree decided that he was the Arlington Chief of Police and he would answer the question.  The trouble was that he proceeded to answer a question that I didn't ask.  His answer was based around the assumption that I had said that ALL shootings occur in gun-free zones.  To that assumption he said that only about 25% of all shootings happen in gun-free zones.  Hmmm - 25% is a big number and would justify getting rid of gun-free zones quite nicely all by itself!
 
One critique:  it would have been better if a few of those on our side had not tried to shout down Moran when he was speaking.  It's best to sit quietly and let the other side be the unruly ones.  True to form, some of the antis were indeed being unruly.  But, in an unusual situation, we lost the high ground.
 
Here is coverage of some of the meeting, with video.  Thanks to Charles Losik for the link:
 
From theblaze.com:   http://tinyurl.com/bjr823y
 
 
 
 
 
-------------------------------------------
***************************************************************************
VA-ALERT is a project of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc.
(VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization
dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to
Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.
 
VCDL web page: http://www.vcdl.org [http://www.vcdl.org/]
***************************************************************************
IMPORTANT: It is our intention to honor all "remove" requests promptly.
To unsubscribe from this list, or change the email address where you
receive messages, please go to:
https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=13906206&id_secret=13906206-aa118a3f [https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=13906206&id_secret=13906206-aa118a3f]
 
Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=13906206&id_secret=13906206-aa118a3f
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
 

No comments:

Post a Comment