Virginia ALERT: General Assembly Begins Jan. 13th / Buses for Lobby Day Jan. 18th

Covington, VA -(Ammoland.com)- The first day of the General Assembly is on Wednesday, January 13th. VCDL’s Lobby Day will follow on Monday, January 18th.

As president and chief-lobbyist for VCDL, my schedule explodes in January and February under normal conditions, but because of McAuliffe and Herring’s attacks on gun owners recently, it has been well into full gear for over a month now. Obama is probably going to add to my workload with an upcoming attack on private sales this coming week.

Starting immediately and running for the next 3-4 months, some of the many tasks I will be performing include:

• preparing radio and billboard advertising messages running through mid-January and February
• compiling and analyzing all the various gun bills being introduced in the General Assembly
• generating the VCDL Gun Bill Analysis document to be handed out to legislators on Lobby Day (and available to you by Sunday, January 17th)
• speaking at and/or running various meetings around the state
• championing the rights of Virginia gun owners in the media
• making sure Lobby Day preparations are on track
• gathering information for the 2016 Voting Record report, which will be released a month or so after the session ends
• attending committee and subcommittee meetings at the General Assembly whenever gun bills are going to be heard
• lobbying legislators to support pro-gun bills and to oppose anti-gun bills
• writing up legislative alerts to keep you informed as bills progress through the General Assembly and to ask you to contact your legislators when necessary

Because of this heavy workload, I will be leaning heavily on the Board of Directors and Executive members for help AND I urge our regular members to keep personal communications with me to a minimum for the next couple of months. Under normal conditions, I get hundreds of emails a day, which I can handle in about 3 hours. I simply will not have that much time to spend on emails in the immediate future. I will advise once things start to go back to normal.

HOWEVER, please contact me anytime if:

• You have something of an urgent or emergency nature that will affect Virginia’s gun owners or VCDL. If the urgent item is something that can be handled by one of our Board or Executive members, I will forward your email to them and they will respond to you.

• You wish to forward a link to a proposed article or other item for VA-ALERT (these I forward to EM Brandy Polanowski and Charles Young to be compiled into future Updates or, if urgent, I put in an alert myself)

• You wish to arrange for an interview by the media or you are a member of the press with questions

I will ask Jim Snyder and Dennis O’Connor to work with Brandy and Charles to do the weekly Updates, while I will concentrate on the more focused, urgent, and timely alerts.

We are in a serious battle for our rights and the attacks are coming from multiple directions. If we stick together and fight back, we will prevail.

Lobby Day is Monday, January 18th.

BUSES FOR LOBBY DAY, JANUARY 18TH

The buses, all of which also have restrooms, are already half full. If you want to come by bus, here is the information, including how to pay and make reservations:

NOTE: In the afternoon ALL BUSES pick up at 2 PM on Bank Street by the entrance to the Capitol for their return trip.

ROANOKE / LYNCHBURG / GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND BACK

Roanoke

Pick up, drop off location: Park-and-Ride, I-81, exit 140

• Pick up time: 4:30 AM
• Return time: 5:30 PM

Lynchburg

Pick up, drop off location: City Hall, 900 Church Street, Lynchburg VA 24504

• Pick up time: 5:40 AM
• Return time: 4:20 PM

FAIRFAX / FREDERICKSBURG / GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND BACK

Fairfax

Pick up, drop off location: Park-and-Ride at Fairfax Government Center, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax VA 22035

• Pick up time: 5:45 AM
• Return time: 4:20 PM

Fredericksburg

Pick up, drop off location: Gander Mountain, 3708 Plank Road, Fredericksburg VA 22407

• Pick up time: 6:45 AM
• Return time: 3:15 PM

VIRGINIA BEACH / HAMPTON / GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND BACK

Virginia Beach

Pick up, drop off location: HRT Silverleaf Park-and-Ride, 4300 Commuter Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23462

• Pick up time: 5:45 AM
• Return time: 4:15 PM

Hampton

Pick up, drop off location: Hampton Coliseum, 1000 Coliseum Drive (pass lights on Coliseum Drive, make first right into parking lot)

• Pick up time: 6:30 AM
• Return time: 3:30 PM

IMPORTANT: RSVP YOUR SEATS NOW

To reserve your seat(s), please send an email to:

• [email protected]

In the subject line put “Bus reservation for x, party of y, where x is the pickup location (Roanoke, Lynchburg, Fairfax, Fredericksburg, Virginia Beach, or Hampton) and y is the number of people in your party.

In the body of the email put your name, name of others in your party, and your phone number (cell phone is preferred).

COST

To help cover the cost of these buses, we have a *suggested* contribution of $25. It’s more important that we have a big turnout than it is to cover the cost of the buses, so if you can’t afford the $25, just contribute what you can.

To made the donation for the bus with a credit card, click on this link:

• https://mobipledge.mobi/vcdl/webpledge

PRE-LOBBY DAY DINNER, SUNDAY, JANUARY 17TH REMINDER

VCDL will have a pre-Lobby Day dinner again this year and there is still room for more reservations!

Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016 beginning at 6:30 pm at:

• The Hibachi Sushi and Supreme Buffet
  • Westland Shopping Center
    8087 W Broad St, Henrico, VA 23294
  • (804) 270-7799
  • https://hibachisushiandsupremebuffet.com

Yes, they have crab legs on Sundays : ) Parking is great. Holstered open carry is not a problem there ever – please no long guns.

Sunday buffet is $10.95 + tax + gratuity.

We have arranged for a 10% discount on your entire ticket for all VCDL members. Show membership card or completed application at restaurant to qualify. We will have membership applications on hand.

We have room for about 70 people, so we will need to get RSVPs.

RSVP to: [email protected]

In the subject line, put “Dinner” and then the number in your party. Put your name and phone number in the text of the email.

Thanks to Board member Dale Welch for making the arrangements.

About Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (VCDL):

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.

For more information, visit: www.vcdl.org.