Friday - May 18, 2007

The Bloomberg Gun Givaway

If your a gun owner and live in Virginia, you are probably aware of Phillip Van Cleave and the Virginia Citizens Defense League (www.vcdl.org)

This organization has been fighting for gun rights in Virginia for years, successfully helping to change laws to restore gun ownership to its rightful place.  New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg does not Virginia and its gun laws.  He feels no one should have a gun.  So he started his own effort to shut down gun sales in Virginia by hiring private individuals to conduct “straw purchases” in Virginia gun stores.  That is, he conspired to commit federal felonies so that he could “prove” Virginia gun dealers were flooding New York with illegal guns.  Let me be perfectly clear, he was not acting in any capacity as a law enforcement officer, but rather as a citizen of another state, making illegal purchases of guns in Virginia.  He and his hired cronies committed federal firearms violations.

He then sued a number of these gun shops, saying he would drop all charges if they submitted to him and allowed squads of his men to come in and have free access to their records at any point to make sure they were complying with the law. (as an aside, they already were complying with the law)

VCDL got involved to help out two of the shops that would not cave to Bloomberg’s blackmail.  Anyone who bought more than $100 worth of merchandise in one of these stores got a ticket to a drawing for a new firearm.  This was a way to bring business to these two stores to help them fight the lawsuit as well as draw public attention to Bloomberg’s blackmail scheme.  At the last minute, the Virginia authorities stated that the givaway may be illegal since entrants had to purchase something to be entered.  Van Cleave was not phased, he simply got two more guns and vowed to give them away at last night’s meeting, giving tickets to anyone who showed up (except Bloomberg and his family)

A buddy and I drove the three hours to DC to attend the meeting, but arrived too late to get into the room.  The fire marshal was enforcing a strict limit of 150 in the meeting room.  So here’s a picture through the window of Mr. Van Cleave talking to the crowd (and assembled media):

The crowd outside was enthusiastic, watching through the windows of the meeting hall.

Of course, you can’t have a gun rights event in DC without the loons showing up.

Since we were driving back after the event, I did not get to see any of the coverage, but here is the Washington Post article about it.

‘Bloomberg Gun Giveaway’ Draws Hundreds

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
The Associated Press
Friday, May 18, 2007; 7:40 AM

ANNANDALE, Va.—Openly armed firearms enthusiasts packed a normally sedate government building, hoping to win a pistol or rifle and at the same time send a defiant message to gun-control advocates, especially New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun-rights group, organized Thursday night’s “Bloomberg Gun Giveaway” in large part to thumb its nose at Bloomberg, who accuses some shops of allowing illegal purchases of firearms that later were used in crimes in his city.

The city has filed federal lawsuits against more than two dozen shops, including six in Virginia.

Two guns were awarded Thursday, a Para-Ordnance pistol and a Varmint Stalker rifle, each worth about $900. The winners did not immediately receive the weapons _ they will still be required to undergo federal and state background checks.

The first winner, Jay Minsky, responded with an obscene hand gesture when asked what message he hoped to send to Bloomberg.

“If he doesn’t like people in New York having guns, he should deal with New York,” said Minsky, who grew up in Brooklyn. “Just keep out of Virginia.”

Posted by Drew458     on 05/18/2007 at 07:52 AM   
Filed Under: • Philosophy • Politics •  
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