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"Shameful Decision": Virginia Repeals 1-Gun-Per-Month Law
WASHINGTON -- When Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell decided today to sign legislation that repeals Virginia’s 19-year-old restriction on selling more than one handgun a month, he ignored the pleas of the Virginia Tech families affected by the worst shooting massacre in the history of the Commonwealth and the United States.
Colin Goddard, who survived being shot four times at Virginia Tech and now works as an advocate with the Brady Campaign, was outraged.
"When the Virginia Tech families spoke to the governor on Saturday, he offered sympathy, not solutions. Sympathy alone will not save lives. The governor had a chance to be a leader for our state and for the nation in preventing future gun tragedies, but he chose a different path. As a result, innocent people will die. We will not let Virginians forget his shameful decision."
Lori Haas, whose daughter Emily survived being shot on April 16, 2007, and helped write and deliver a letter to Gov. McDonnell last week, asking him to meet with victims and survivors of the Virginia Tech massacre, saw the governor’s action as pandering. “Gov. McDonnell saw the wisdom of this law as a legislator. In our conversation with him on Saturday, he didn’t offer a single rational explanation for getting rid of it,” said Haas, a spokesperson for Virginians for Responsible Gun Laws. “When gun dealers can sell more guns without limits, they get the cold hard cash and we get more dead bodies. The governor needs to understand that.”
Peter Read, who lost his daughter, Mary Karen Read, during the Virginia Tech Massacre, told the governor during Saturday’s conference call, “I want to be able to say to anyone who asks that our governor is a profile in courage.” Today, in responding to the governor’s acceptance of the repeal, Read said, ”We didn’t get a profile in courage from our governor. We got a profile in capitulation.”
Dan Gross, new president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, was also dismayed at the governor’s unwillingness to put public safety first. “We at the Brady Campaign will continue to work with the families of Virginia Tech and citizens everywhere to let elected officials know that we’re not going away, we’re not backing down. If they make decisions that cost American lives, we will make sure the voices of their constituents are heard.”
The one-gun-a-month limit on handgun sales succeeded in dramatically reducing gun trafficking in Virginia, which 19 years ago was dubbed the “firearms supermarket” and “iron pipeline” for supplying crime guns to cities along Interstate I-95, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. It had the support of the 66 percent of Virginians, according to a poll released Feb. 19 by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The Virginia Tech families, who since the tragedy five years ago, have become advocates for saving more Americans from the devastation of gun violence, are determined to continue their fight for strong, sensible gun laws.
Family members who requested the meeting with the governor last week included: Lori and Channing Haas, Andrew and Colin Goddard, Peter D. Read, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF (Retired), Father of Mary Karen Read, VT '07, and Catherine M. Read, Kevin Sterne, Derek O’Dell, Joe, Mona, and Omar Samaha.
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"A 1994 survey conducted by
"A 1994 survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Americans use guns to frighten away intruders who are breaking into their homes about 498,000 times per year."
"According to the CDC, there were about 18,498 gun-related accidents that resulted in death or an emergency room visit during 2001[131] (the earliest year such data is available from the CDC[132]). This is roughly 27 times lower than the CDC's 1994 estimate for the number of times Americans use guns to frighten away intruders who are breaking into their homes"
"A 1994 survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that Americans use guns to frighten away intruders who are breaking into their homes about 498,000 times per year"
"A 1982 survey of male felons in 11 state prisons dispersed across the U.S. found: - 34% had been "scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim" - 40% had decided not to commit a crime because they "knew or believed that the victim was carrying a gun" - 69% personally knew other criminals who had been "scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim"
"A 1993 nationwide survey of 4,977 households found that over the previous five years, at least 0.5% of households had members who had used a gun for defense during a situation in which they thought someone "almost certainly would have been killed" if they "had not used a gun for protection." Applied to the U.S. population, this amounts to 162,000 such incidents per year. This figure excludes all "military service, police work, or work as a security guard."
"Based on survey data from a 2000 study published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, U.S. civilians use guns to defend themselves and others from crime at least 989,883 times per year."
"A 1993 nationwide survey of 4,977 households found that over the previous five years, at least 3.5% of households had members who had used a gun "for self-protection or for the protection of property at home, work, or elsewhere." Applied to the U.S. population, this amounts to 1,029,615 such incidents per year. This figure excludes all "military service, police work, or work as a security guard."
"In 2007, there were roughly 15,698 emergency room visits for non-fatal firearm accidents, constituting 0.05% of 27.7 million emergency room visits for non-fatal accidents that year"
"In 2007, there were 613 fatal firearm accidents in the United States, constituting 0.5% of 123,706 fatal accidents that year."
See more at JustFacts.com
The Brady Campaign Making
The Brady Campaign Making Statistics One Defenseless Victim at a Time
The Brady Camp, and anti gun nuts in general, are creating dead, beaten and raped victims every day in this country. They do this by convincing YOU that by YOU not carrying a gun to defend yourself that somehow you are contributing to reducing crime. But, are YOU a criminal? If YOU carried a gun would you suddenly lose your mind and go on a killing rampage?
The Brady camp knows that there are violent criminals out there. And they know if these criminals somehow target YOUR family like they do so many others in this country that YOU will be defenseless by listening to their rhetoric and their false statistics.
Are YOU naive enough and ignorant enough to give YOUR life up, and your families lives up, to some crack head criminal who doesn't care in the least if he bashes in your sons skull or rapes your daughter and butchers her afterward....just to win points with the Brady camp nuts?
Is YOUR family so worthless to you that you will let some man like Paul Helmke tell YOU that you can't be trusted with a tool to defend your family from these predators?
Why do you let Brady tell you how YOU will behave if you own a gun? Why do you let them allow YOU to let YOUR family be unprotected just so THEY can spew out feel good rhetoric so even bigger idiots than you will continue to support them?
What does Brady lose or gain if YOU listen to their idiocy and YOUR wife is raped when she could have saved herself by simply having a gun ?
See what happens when a woman has a gun? See this video: Woman kills her returning rapist with shotgun No gun = a raped woman. Gun = unraped woman and a dead ass rapist.
No one wants to admit that the Brady camp MAKES dead victims. They CREATE raped women. They FACILITATE defenseless prey who are beaten, raped, robbed, stabbed, shot....murdered.
And they do it because YOU let them because YOU are too much of a hive mind drone that you can't think and reason for yourself. Do you think Paul Helke gives a rats rear about YOUR wife...YOUR son...YOUR daughter? No...he doesnt.
All the Brady Camp cares about is making sure YOU are DEFENSELESS. To them if you are murdered...if your wife is savagely raped and beaten to death....if you son is ripped apart by some lunatic with a knife, all Brady sees is that you are one more statistic. Gun rights groups are fighting for YOUR RIGHT to DEFEND yourself even if YOU don't presently understand that fact. Gun rights advocates want YOU to have the POWER to PROTECT yourself...your wife...your daughters and your sons...even if you cant accept that fact. You may call us gun nuts. You may think we are paranoid. But the fact is that there are millions of defenseless victims in the USA every year. Will your wife be one of them tomorrow? Will your family? You may not think so but crime happens every day...and it happens to someone just like you and me. Will YOU be next? And if you are can you do anything to stop it? Honestly?
If we knew when and where crime was going to happen there wouldnt' be any crime.
====Heroes of Armed Self Defense====
78-year-old farmer wounds young intruder before gun jams
Okla. mom Sarah McKinley defends her infant sons life from armed intruders
Ohio CHL-holders acting in self-defense
Woman kills her returning rapist with shotgun
Woman Shoots Would-Be Rapist
Cocoa Store Owner Shoots Robber
Woman Uses .22 Pistol to Shoot & Kill Invader
84-year-old Cincinnati man uses gun to defend himself during home invasion
Licensed gunpacker at GAS STATION shoots to defend himself
Mom with Ohio concealed handgun license fires gun to ward off sex offender's violent attack
Woman kills her returning rapist with shotgun
Pizza Guy Pulls Gun on Robber
Man at ATM Shoots Armed Robbers
Woman who shot 12-year-old won't face charges, but boy will
Concealed Carry works
Gun Owners Busy Shooting Thugs in Toledo
It was them or my family
Dont bring a knife to a gunfight
Appalachian School of Law shooting
A principal and his gun
Armed 11 year old Girl Defends Home from 3 armed Burglars: Armed Citizen
Texas 15 Year Old Defends Self, Sister; Shoots Burglar
Child Shoots Intruder - Port Allen, LA
Boy Uses Dad's AR-15 to Shoot Invader
Houston Self Defense Shooting CCW
Tire Shop Robber Shot by Armed Citizen (TX)
Shot Boy 11, Shoots Illegal Alien Home Invader
Woman Speaks Out After Shooting Attackers
Police: Shooting Was Self-Defense
Man Stops criminal with his concealed handgun
Woman kills her returning rapist with shotgun
84-year-old Woman Shoots Intruder
Elderly Apartment Owner Shoots Invader
Kentucky Homeowner Shoots Would-be Thief
Armed Pastor Holds Crooks at Gunpoint for Police
Kid Shoots Home Invader
Metro Mom Kills Home Invader
FoxNews: Pregnant Mom Holds Burglar at Gunpoint
HOME INTRUDER IS FATALY SHOT 10PM
89-Year-Old Fires Gun at Intruder
Woman In Home Kills Intruder
Man Fires Shotgun to Kill Home Invader
Man Shoots And Kills Intruder
Gun Owner Kills Burglar
Resident Kills Intruder, Wounds Another
Chicago Elderly Kills Intruder With Handgun
71-year-old homeowner shoots burglar
69-Year-Old Shoots Home Intruder
Armed Samaritan Thwarts Bank Robber
Man Shoots Armed Robbers
Woman Shoots Crazed Gunman at Mega-Church
Ailing Elderly Man Shoots Robber
Another 911 Caller Shoots & Kills Intruder
Texas Father Protects Family, Kills Intruders
Man Uses Handgun to Protect Home
Houston Self Defense Shooting CCW
Ambushed Dad Shoots Back at Robbers
Security Video: Woman With Gun Shoots Robber
Armed Customer Shoots Knife-Wielding Man
Man at ATM Shoots Armed Robbers
Good reason to be armed...
Armed Citizen Halts Liquor Store Robbery
Good Samaritan Kills Woman's Attacker
Liquor Store Owner V Armed Robber
Robber killed by clerk, robber's accomplice charged with it
Robber's Victim Pulls His Own Gun
Man Uses Shotgun to Protect Home
Man's Shooting Spree Thwarted by Armed Citizen
Gas Station Clerk Fires Gun at Robbery Suspects
Woman Uses Handgun to Shoot Invader
Armed Citizen Shoots Violent Ex-Boyfriend
Clerk Shoots Armed Robber
Gunfight Caught on Tape: Store Owner vs. 2 Armed Robbers
Robber Gets Shot By Clerk
Having guns doesn't mean you can rob everybody
Man Shoots Home Invader
Home Intruder Fatally Shot & killed by elderly man During 911 Call
Armed Beauty Queen Fatally Shoots Intruder in Florida Home Invasion
Man with concealed-carry permit kills robbery suspect in Cleveland
teen robber shot by Wal-Mart shopper
Richmond Store owner grateful for man who shot robber
Would-Be Robber Fatally Shot
Pizza Delivery Man Shoots, Kills Robber
Man Shoots, Kills Robber
Dunkin' Donuts robbery suspect dies after being shot
Customer shoots, kills robber at L.A. Tan
Clerk Who Shot Robber Acted in Self Defense
Man who shot robber a hero
Diner owner shoots robber in self defense
Clerk says he shot robber in self-defense
Church's customer shoots robber in neck
Beach pizza shop owner fatally shoots robber, police say
Exceptionally disingenuous
Exceptionally disingenuous drivel. At no time has there been any showing that this "feelgood statute" ever had any effect on any criminal activity. TL671 has it right, but fails to link the Brady Bunch and their useful idiots to their greater plan of changing citizens into subjects.
"Sympathy alone will not save
"Sympathy alone will not save lives." Neither will your insistence on continuing to punish/restrict the rights of those that have not, will not commit a single crime. The VT shooter carried two handguns, which he waited the requisite month+ between purchasing, so how exactly did this law, which was in full effect prevent his spree? Oh, wait, that's right it didn't. It was also illegal to take weapons onto the VT campus, not to mention a little law against murder, none of which matter in the least to anyone determined to kill. So, why do you continue to cling to proven failures in policy as a means to prevent crimes?