Free Republic

A new Romney ad out this morning uses two isolated sentences from the Obama’s speech to portray the president as demonizing business owners, continuing a push Romney and the Republicans have been making for a week. As Mason Adams noted earlier this week, a full reading of Obama’s remarks makes it apparent that the president was arguing that government has a role in building the infrastructure – roads, bridges, schools — that support commerce.

Here we go again...the libs at the Roanoke Times want to make Concealed Carry information available to the public view.... It's almost inevitable that Virginia lawmakers will allow the public less access to records on who has a state permit to carry concealed handguns. The hullabaloo this newspaper stirred up in March, when a Roanoke Times editorial writer produced a column that included a link to the online database, pretty much assures a legislative reaction. What thoughtful Virginians, including gun-rights advocates, should oppose vigorously is legislative overreaction. And that is what came out of the State Freedom of Information Advisory...

1. Roanoke Times will no longer allow any gun shows to advertise in their paper!!! 2. MMM has its protest at a church instead of the Richmond gun show 3. This is TOO FUNNY! The Daily Press accidentally gives VCDL yet ANOTHER great plug! ************************************************************* 1. Roanoke Times will no longer allow any gun shows to advertise in their paper!!! ************************************************************* Every time that I think the Roanoke Times has sunk as far as the toilet will let them go, they seem to find a new dent in the porcelain. Because of the Virginia Tech massacre, WHICH HAD NOTHING TO...

Earlier this year, Virginia’s Roanoke Times newspaper came under intense scrutiny and near-universal condemnation after its editors made the irresponsible and dangerous choice to post a searchable database of Virginia’s Right-to-Carry permit holders on its website. In doing so, the paper provided anyone with access to the internet (including criminals) the name, home address, and permit issuance and expiration date of more than 135,000 Virginia permit holders. Thankfully, after hearing from outraged, law-abiding gun owners and non-gun owners alike, the paper prudently decided to remove the database from its website and not repost it, citing a “concern for public safety.”...

The Roanoke Times announced on its on-line site today it is offering voluntary buyouts to 21 eligible employees. The statement says the offer is part of the company's plan "to maintain The Roanoke Times' fiscal integrity". The statement from publisher Debbie Meade reads in part, "we anticipate a need for a reduction in our workforce to occur sometime this year. Prior to conducting any involuntary workforce reductions that might be needed, we are making a voluntary retirement incentive offer." Those who take it would begin retirement on September 1st. Meade says the paper has eliminated or frozen 27 positions. It...

Today is the start of Sunshine Week, the annual week in which we reflect on the importance of open government and public records. To mark the occasion, I want to take you on an excursion into freedom of information land. We're going to find out who in the New River Valley has a concealed handgun permit. I can hear the shocked indignation of gun-toters already: It's nobody's business but mine if I want to pack heat. Au contraire. Because the government handles the permitting, it is everyone's business. There are good reasons the records are open to public scrutiny. People...

The Roanoke Times has decided to remove the online database of registered concealed handgun permit holders from its website. The newspaper is requesting the Virginia State Police, which provided the information, verify the data. “When we posted the information, we had every reason to believe that the data the State Police had supplied would comply with the statutes. But people have notified us that the list includes names that should not have been released,” said Debbie Meade, president and publisher of The Roanoke Times. “Out of a sense of caution and concern for the public we have decided to take...

The *****TREMENDOUS***** pressure that you guys just put on the Roanoke Times was of a magnitude that even I had never seen before. It was akin to watching a nuclear bomb go off. The Roanoke Times has taken the CHP database off their site, using as an excuse that some of the data perhaps shouldn't have been made public: how about the home address of the Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court for starters? The truth is that they owe gun owners a sincere and front page apology for having a massive lapse in judgement. It would also be...

I am starting to get more intel on the Fredericksburg Freelance-Star. Turns out they have four radio stations in the area and even a phone book business. Oh, and FLS's radio stations have some competition from a local AM station. ;-) The AM station isn't aiding criminals and endangering the lives of law-abiding permit holders. This is getting better all the time. VCDL will have a booth at the Fredericksburg gun show this weekend - stop by and say hello. **Also let me know if you would be interested in helping VCDL picket the Freelance-Star's customers.** Here is another story...

Threats of violence, litigation and legislation sprang up after a list of people allowed to carry concealed weapons was released. The Roanoke Times will not re-post a list of gun owners on its Web site, even after being told amid continuing public furor that releasing the information does not violate state law. First published Sunday, the database of more than 135,000 people allowed to carry concealed handguns has become the most controversial content in roanoke.com's history -- sparking threats of violence, litigation and legislation. One day later, the list was removed from the site because of concerns that state...

The panel is expected to form a work group to examine whether the General Assembly should restrict public access to concealed handgun information. By Laurence Hammack 981-3239 A state senator who heads an open records council is calling for a study of whether the identities of Virginians who have permits to carry concealed handguns should remain public. Sen. Edd Houck, a Spotsylvania County Democrat who chairs the state's Freedom of Information Council, made the request in the wake of controversy generated by The Roanoke Times. Earlier this week, the newspaper published and then pulled from its Web site a database...

VCDL Update 3/19/07 - Defending your right to defend yourself 1. VCDL's "Bloomberg Gun GiveAway" in the news again, another mayor jumps ship! 2. Governor signs second gun bill (another put in for VCDL) 3. Richmond Museum of Fine Arts playing games with gun owners! 4. Jittery Trejbal calls in bomb scare 5. Long story on Roanoke Times debacle, VCDL quoted 6. Let's contact Landmark Communications about the Roanoke Times!! 7. And you can tell the Roanoke Times Classified Department you are boycotting them 8. Roanoke Times privacy policy - what a joke! 9. Why did he move here? What...

The Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council will study whether it can restrict access to the list of people with concealed-handgun permits. By Michael Sluss (804) 697-1585 RICHMOND -- A state advisory council will examine the possibility of restricting access to information about Virginians who are licensed to carry concealed handguns, responding to a controversy sparked by The Roanoke Times. The Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council on Monday created a subcommittee to study the protection of "personal identifying information." Among other things, the group will consider the merits of allowing public access to a state police database listing the...

IRRESPONSIBILITY It's very unfortunate for gun owners that the Roanoke Times (RT) has acted so irresponsibly with respect to the CHP holder list. The RT's reckless actions have endangered lives, as there are people on that CHP list who are under threat from violent ex-spouses or from criminals they have helped put in jail. I have been returning calls from concerned gun owners and the stories are heartbreaking and intense. One woman's mother wakens at the slightest sound in the middle of the night and she calls the police and her daughter. She is living in constant fear that the...

First Amendment rights collided with Second Amendment rights in the recent brouhaha. Open records on gun permits It didn't take long for Sunshine Week to turn stormy. At 9:15 last Sunday morning, just a few hours after The Roanoke Times was dropped on doorsteps and shoved into paper boxes across the region, Scot Shippee fired the first shot in what would become the newspaper's biggest Internet controversy. In an online discussion forum, Shippee blasted the paper for posting on its Web site a database that included the names and addresses of everyone in Virginia licensed to carry a concealed handgun....

NEW YORK The Roanoke (Va.) Times announced Friday it is seeking job cuts via buyouts. It has already eliminated for frozen 27 positions. The paper posted on its Web site, Roanoke.com, the following memo from Publisher Debbie Meade. * As you know, over the past several months we have discussed the need for The Roanoke Times to transform itself in order to remain competitive in the marketplace. Like the media industry as a whole, we’re taking steps to reinvent our company to remain relevant to our existing customers and to seek out new customers in new markets. We’re dealing with...

Falwell's judgment day The Rev. Jerry Falwell died Tuesday. A lifetime spent judging others has ended. The Rev. Jerry Falwell met with his maker Tuesday. We hope he was embraced by a loving, forgiving God. Falwell did enough judging for any one man here on Earth during his 73 years. His most dramatic proclamation -- one for which he would apologize but that cost him many supporters -- came in the days following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Falwell blamed it on gays, lesbians, feminists and liberals. He commonly attacked these groups as being responsible for the moral...

Lessons learned in database incident More discussion and thought should have gone into the decision to publish a database of concealed carry holders in the state. We heard from literally thousands of people after our decision two weeks ago to post an online database of people in the state permitted to carry concealed handguns. Many people presented rational objections. Many others responded with personal threats of violence and acts of intimidation -- responses we declined to publish. The difficulty we've faced since is how to respond to the rational objections without validating the abusive tactics and attacks waged against this...

It didn't take long for Sunshine Week to turn stormy. At 9:15 last Sunday morning, just a few hours after The Roanoke Times was dropped on doorsteps and shoved into paper boxes across the region, Scot Shippee fired the first shot in what would become the newspaper's biggest Internet controversy. In an online discussion forum, Shippee blasted the paper for posting on its Web site a database that included the names and addresses of everyone in Virginia licensed to carry a concealed handgun. Shippee wrote that if the newspaper was so committed to public information, it would only be fair...