Gun Advocates Plan Giveaway In Protest

By TIM CRAIG The Washington Post

Published: May 14, 2007

RICHMOND, VA. - A gun rights organization is planning a "gun giveaway" this week inside a Fairfax County, Va., government building to protest New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's efforts to crack down on illegal gun sales in Virginia.

On Thursday at the Mason District Government Center in Annandale, the Virginia Citizens Defense League will hold a drawing for a semiautomatic pistol, a hunting rifle and ammunition to raise money for two gun shops against which Bloomberg has filed suit.

Many at the "Bloomberg Gun Giveaway" probably will be armed. League members routinely lobby the Virginia General Assembly with guns on their hips.

Fairfax County officials are furious about a gun event staged in a government building, but they can't do much to stop it. The General Assembly won't allow local governments to ban the possession of guns in public buildings.

"These people have concealed-weapons permits, and we know they are packing, but they are legal," said Fairfax Supervisor Penelope Gross, D-Mason. "I swore to uphold the law, whether I like it or don't, and I don't."

The Citizens Defense League is trying to raise money for Bob Moates Sport Shop in Richmond and Old Dominion Gun and Tackle in Danville. The legal challenges stem from Bloomberg's effort to prove that Virginia is a major contributor to violent crime in New York.

According to a lawsuit filed a year ago in federal court in Brooklyn, the city alleges that Bob Moates and Old Dominion Gun illegally sold guns to Bloomberg's undercover agents. They were conducting "straw purchases," in which a person fills out a form and buys a gun for someone else.

Philip Van Cleave, president of the Citizens Defense League, called the Republican mayor "a vigilante."

Bloomberg spokesman Jason Post responded: "We will not for one second back away from our tough law enforcement efforts against illegal guns, which have made New York the safest big city in the country."