2010 Wild Game Dinner

In February the Riverside Community Church's Outdoor Ministry Team will hold their third annual Wild Game Dinner. You are envited to come and enjoy a night of family fellowship with a dinner menu of delicious wild game. There will be door prizes and an outdoors guest speaker.

There will be ONLY 250 tickets available for this event. For menu, tickets, and more information, click here.

What: Riverside Community Church Outdoor Ministry Wild Game Dinner
Where: Fireman's Sports Arena Hwy 628 Farmville , Virginia
When: Saturday, February 27, 2010, 7:00 - 10:00 PM

2010 General Assembly

The first firearms related bill has been dropped in the hopper at the General Assembly. Introduced by Roanoke area State Senator Ralph Smith, SB 3 would allow people to apply for the renewal of their concealed carry permit by mail. This bill should sail through both houses as out of state applicants already apply by mail to the State Police so people who already have a permit applying by mail to their clerk of the circuit court.

More firearms legislation is expected to be dropped during the pre-filing period and VSSA will keep Virginia gun owners informed as the bills become available.

Possible New King William Shooting Ordinance

The King William County Board of Supervisors considered an ordinance at it's November 23rd meeting that would ban discharge of a firearm within 100 yards of homes or businesses. In a rural county like King William, such a change could impact a gun owners's right to defend his property/life, as well as hunting activities. The County Courier reported that the Board agreed that the proposal required more study and will possibly revisit the issue in January of 2010.

Gun owners in King William need to contact their member of the Board of Supervisors and let them know the proposed change is unnecessary and will negatively impact the rights of law abiding gun owners and sportsmen. You can contact the Board members as follows:

First District
C. T. "Tom" Redd III
Phone: (804) 843-4188
Mailing Address:690 River Road
West Point, Virginia 23181
Email:tredd@kingwilliamcounty.us

Second District
Daniel L. Wright
Phone: (804) 769-3838
Mailing Address:P.O. Box 153
King William, VA 23086
Email:dwright@kingwilliamcounty.us


Third District
Cecil L. Schools
Phone: (804) 769-0681
Mailing Address:P.O. Box 79
Aylett, VA 23009
Email:cschools@kingwilliamcounty.us

Fourth District
T. G. "Tom" Smiley
Phone: (804) 769-3480
Mailing Address:P.O. Box 83
Manquin, VA 23106
Email:tsmiley@kingwilliamcounty.us

Fifth District
Otto O. Williams
Phone: (804) 994-2163
Mailing Address:4385 King William Road
Aylett, VA 23009
Email:owilliams@kingwilliamcounty.us

Obama Care and Gun Rights

Last week, Second Amendment scholar David Kopel wrote on the Volokh Conspiracy how the pending health care bill may have a negative impact on the rights (or at least the wallets/purses) of law abiding gun owners. Many commentators have discussed how a bill as overarching as the Pelosi and Reid bills will by its very nature have to touch many aspects of the individual lives of Americans. With the supposed purpose of covering everyone while reducing costs, it is not a stretch to presume that at some point the government will begin telling us what we can eat, what we can drink, and even if we can own guns if it means reducing the cost of health care.

Sounds paranoid? Take a look at Kopel's analysis and decide for yourself.

Let’s look at the bill. The rules for a “Wellness Program” begin on page 87. In brief, if you participate in a Wellness Program, you can get a health insurance premium
discount of up to 30%. Stated another way, if you don’t participate in a Wellness Program, you will pay a substantial insurance rate penalty for not doing so. The definition of a “Wellness Program” begins in paragraph (B) on page 88:

“(B) The wellness program shall be reasonably designed to promote health or prevent disease. A program complies with the preceding sentence if the program has a reasonable chance of improving the health of, or preventing disease in, participating individuals and it is not overly burdensome, is not a subterfuge for discriminating based on a health status factor, and is not highly suspect in the method chosen to promote health or prevent disease.”

Pages 29–30 mention some of items that “Wellness and Prevention Programs” “may include.” The phrasing does not appear to exclude other items. In any case, the item for “Healthy lifestyle support” is broad enough to include almost anything.

Kopel writes that the definition of "Wellness and Prevention Programs" is very broad and that the assertion that it is not broad enough to include gun ownership is most likely incorrect. We have all heard of antis siting "public health scholarship" claims linking gun ownership to the health risks of families with guns in the home. While we know this is junk science, the antis will site the dozens of articles in journals to get an anti-gun Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to create an anti-rights definition of said "Wellness Program."

A regulation which said that a Wellness Program may (or “shall”) include a discount for not owning a gun (or not owning a handgun, or not owning a so-called “assault weapon”, or for not owning more than a certain number of guns) might be argued to be “overly burdensome.” But there’s no guarantee that a reviewing court would consider a mere discount for people who don’t own guns to be “overly” burdensome on gun owners.

Kopel reminds us in his post that Senator Reid is a strong supporter of the right to keep and bear arms and Kopel does not believe Senator Reid intends any harm to gun owners. But we all know that the intent of a senator or the Senate does not necessarily bind the hands of some political appointee and President Obama has appointed enough anti-gun appointees to make us all a little wary.

Kopel offered a fix to make sure the bill is clear in it's intent.

An amendment might say something like: “No wellness program, nor anything else in this bill or any regulation, policy, or practice thereunder, may create any discount or any other incentive that discourages the ownership, possession, use, or carrying of firearms, air guns, or ammunition, or of any type or quantity of firearms, air guns, or ammunition. This aforesaid prohibition shall be broadly construed, and in case any conflict with any other provision of this bill, the prohibition shall control. Further, the prohibition on incentives against the exercise of constitutional rights shall also protect the exercise of each and every right in Amendments I through VIII of the United States Constitution.”

Just one more example how a 2000 page bill that on its face would appear to have nothing to do with gun ownership can do a great deal of harm to gun owners.

Hat tip to Mark Levin.

Sussex Range Restrictions Fails - For Now

Last night the Sussex County Board of Supervisors heard from about two dozen gun owners who were opposed to requiring special use permits for the establishment of shooting ranges in the county. In the end the Board was not happy with the definition that the planning commission came up with to describe "pistol range" and sent the proposal back to the commission. The fight will not be over until the proposal is dead for good. For now, it is on life support. There does not seem to be any appetite for it on the Board, especially from the one member with which I spoke on Wednesday.

Please contact the Board of Supervisors and thank them for their action last night and urge them to defeat this proposal for good when it comes before them again.

Blackwater District
Wayne M. Harrell
406 Jasper Lane
Post Office Box 1
Waverly, Virginia 23890
Home: (804) 834-2603

Courthouse District
T. Wayne Birdsong
116 Nicholson Drive
Wakefield, Virginia 23888
Home: (757) 899-3806

Henry District
Rufus E. Tyler Sr., Vice-Chairman
25359 Blue Star Highway Jarratt,
Virginia 23867
Home: (434) 246-4246
Office: (434) 634-2490 or (804) 834-3522

Stony Creek District
Charlie E. Caple, Jr.
12038 Palestine Road
Stony Creek, Virginia 23882
Home: (434) 246-2602

Wakefield District
C. Eric Fly, Chairman
38411 Rocky Hock Road
Wakefield, Virginia 23888
Cell: (757) 647-8190
Email: cefly@seamcorp.net

Waverly District
Harris L. Parker
300 Barkley Place
P.O. Box 616
Waverly, Virginia 23890
Home: (804) 834-3136



Hat tip to VA-Alert.

Sussex County Range Ordinance Update Part II

VSSA has received the definition of "Pistol Range" as it relates to Sussex County's proposed ordinance to require special use permits for new shooting ranges.

Pistol Range means any facility or grounds, where a monetary fee is charged and/or membership dues are collected, utilized for the purpose of shooting at regulation targets with firearms capable of being held, aimed and fired with one hand. Shotguns and rifles (long guns) are not included in this definition.

Sussex also plans to "grandfather" in existing ranges, meaning they will not have to apply to continue operation but there is no mention of how expansion or changes to the range would affect the grandfather status. VSSA is still opposed to the proposed change eventhough existing ranges are grandfathered and urges all gun owners that live or shoot in Sussex County to attend the public hearing tonight at 7:00 PM. The hearing will be held in the Sussex County General District Courtroom located at 15080 Courthouse Road in Sussex.

You can read the complete proposal and explaination as it will be presented to the Board by clicking here.

Chesterfield Defers Vote on Bowhunting Ordinance

Dozens of citizens turned out last night at the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors meeting to express their concerns with a proposal that would limit shooting a bow and arrow to not closer than 600 feet from a building or residence. Most of those speaking were opposed to the ordinance.

One of those speaking in opposition was Kevin Carroll who was representing the Virginia Deer Hunters Association. Carroll told the Board:

This ordinance, as it's penned right now, would hamstring the ability for us to control and manage the deer growth in Chesterfield County, and it's already exploding in the Midlothian District.

Of course there were some that supported the ordinance. Resident Jennifer Lemler went a little overboard in her description of what the situation is:

In my neighborhood, kids run and play in the yards and the woods that border the yards, as it should be. I don't want to put blaze orange on them in order to go out in the backyard.

Commonsense was on display in most of the comments however with many residents talking about the hazard of deer/car collisions and how the proposed ordinance may cause these to increase. It was such commonsense that caused the Board to put off a vote on the ordinance for 90 days to further study the proposal.

Current policy in the county is to allow property owners to shoot bows and arrows on their property as long as they do not cross onto their neighbors property without permission. This allows people to cull deer that come on their residential property which has become an increasing issue in many parts of the county. It also allows things like Boy Scouts to practice archery in their back yard. If the proposal to limit shooting of bows and arrows is limited to areas that are at least 600 feet from another building or home, it will have consequences beyond what is intended. There is likely a compromise that can address the safety issue and still allow residents to address increasing deer populations in suburban areas.

VSSA will continue to monitor this issue.

You can read the Richmond Times Dispatch article here.

Update: The Times Dispatch reported that the vice president of the Home Owners Association (HOA) hired a bow hunter. That was also posted here. That is incorrect and has been removed from the post. It was a resident that hired a hunter and Mr. Molloy, the vice president of the HOA, stated that the HOA was adamently opposed to residents hiring hunters to control the deer in the neighborhood.