THE CHURCH MILITANT
Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
More than 20 lawmakers have penned letters to the Obama administration expressing anger over its recent decision to waive certain counter-terrorism measures aimed at preventing potential terrorists from easily entering the United States in order to assuage Iran.
The letters from members of Congress come days after the Obama administration promised Iranian leaders it would veto newly passed initiatives tightening the U.S. visa waiver program to close loopholes that have enabled a number of terrorists to enter the country legally.
The new measures would bar individuals who have recently traveled to Iran—the leading state sponsor of terrorism—from participating in the visa waiver program, which eases travel for those from 38 member countries.
Iran expressed anger over the laws, claiming that they violate the recent nuclear accord and could force Iran to abandon the deal before it is even enacted.
Secretary of State John Kerry said in a recent letter to Javad Zarif, the country’s foreign minister, that the administration would ignore the enhanced counter-terrorism measures.
In two separate letters sent Tuesday to the Departments of State and Homeland Security, lawmakers described this action as unconscionable and noted that Iranian actions have been responsible for killing a number of Americans.
“While we understand that Iranian officials have expressed their anxieties to you that this new provision could undermine business opportunities in Iran by international investors, it is beyond belief that those concerns would supersede a newly-enacted U.S. law designed to protect the American people from terrorism,” wrote 20 members of Congress, including Republican Reps. Bob Dold (Ill.), David Joyce (Ohio), Ron DeSantis (Fla.), and Mark Walker (N.C.).
The law, which the president has already signed but has threatened to waive in order to calm Iran, “clearly denies eligibility for the visa waiver program to individuals who have traveled to a country that is ‘designated by the Secretary of State’” as a top global sponsor of terrorism, they wrote.
The lawmakers maintain that “there is no legitimate justification to create a special exemption for Iran from an anti-terrorism an security law that was specifically designed to include Iran,” they wrote. “Iran does not get to veto U.S. security measures.”
Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) independently sent his own letter to Kerry on Tuesday, warning that the administration’s actions “would put U.S. citizens at risk.”
Responding to a comment by Zarif calling the new laws “absurd” and questioning whether “anybody in the West [has] been targeted by any Iranian nation,” Pompeo included a partial list of Iranian-sponsored terror attacks that have killed Americans.
At least 500 U.S. troops were killed by Iranian explosive devices in Iraq between 2005 and 2011, Pompeo wrote. Another 19 U.S. service members were “murdered and hundreds of others injured” in a 1996 terror attack in Saudi Arabia that was sponsored by Iran.
Iran also continues to imprison at least five American citizens.
“Waiving these visa requirements is not in our country’s national security interests,” Pompeo wrote. “The administration cannot allow individuals who are not American citizens, and who have connection to, or have traveled to designated state sponsors of terrorism, such as Iran, to come to our country without doing something as simple as applying for a visa.”
Pompeo, in a statement issued after he sent the letter, called the administration’s actions “wrong and dangerous.”
“Terrorists including Zacarias Moussaoui, the twentieth 9/11 hijacker, and Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, both took advantage of the U.S. visa waiver program to enter our country,” he said. “For Secretary Kerry to pander to Iran’s Foreign Minister, as it appears he did when he promised to waive U.S. visa restrictions regarding Iran, is wrong and dangerous. The largest state sponsor of terrorism shouldn’t get to dictate U.S. visa policy.”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Gun sales are soaring once again in the US, with shoppers taking advantage of the holiday season to allay their fears of terrorism and potential gun control measures.
Figures for November show that the FBI carried out some 2.2 million background checks on potential sales of guns.
The figure constitutes a 24 percent increase on figures recorded this time last year, and is the seventh consecutive month to see a record number of checks.
As we previously noted, on Black Friday, a record 185,345 background checks were processed by the FBI.
In October, the FBI carried out1,976,759 Instant Background Checks.
While the figures do not represent a one to one calculation for gun sales, they are considered a reliable indicator of overall gun sales. Sales between private parties are not subject to background checks.
FBI stats also show that almost 20 million firearms related checks have been carried out in 2015, with one month still to be calculated, the overall figure should surpass 2013’s record of 21,09,273 checks.
Gun sales and concealed carry permit applications in the US have continued to spike in the days following the terror attacks in Paris, and San Bernardino, according to gun store owners.
“Ever since the Paris attacks, we’ve had a lot of customers coming in,” Eric Wallace, manager of Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, Georgia told TODAY.
“Buying first guns, buying guns to protect their homes, their families, and themselves.”
“Like any good husband, I asked for the list of Christmas items that you’d like to have and one of the items was a firearm,” gun owner Louis Cole told reporters, adding “Above jewelry was a firearm.”
In addition to the terrorist threat, President Obama has not tried to hide the fact that he intends to introduce gun control legislation via executive fiat. There can be no doubt that this is driving higher gun sales.
Last week, White House communications director Jen Psaki told Bloomberg that within a matter of “weeks, not months” Obama will review recommendations for executive orders provide to him at request by the Department of Justice.
The DOJ continues to work on options to allow Obama skirt around Congress on the issue and effectively counter lawsuits that pro-Second Amendment rights groups have prepared.
According to Psaki, Obama is planning a “range of steps that can be taken as it relates to the people who have access to guns [and] how people gain access to guns,” and that he “will not be satisfied” unless some kind of action is taken on firearms before the end of his term.
In an effort to protect Second Amendment rights, GOP presidential hopeful Rand Paul has introduced legislation intended to block any effort by the incumbent president to enforce gun control by executive action.
On Black Friday the FBI processed 185,345 gun background checks, the most ever recorded in a single day. In November there were 2,243,030 background checks, one of the highest on record. For the first 11 months of the year, the FBI processed nearly 20 million gun background checks, and that was before the San Bernardino massacre.
Now it’s winter, and Christmastime, one of the periods of highest demand for guns and their accessories. With momentum growing to own and carry a gun continuing through the end of the year, 2015 is likely to set a new record in background checks.
For the record, the NICS (the National Instant Criminal Background Check System) has processed more than 222 million background checks since 1998.
Those checks are only a vague approximation of the number of guns sold, as many are still purchased and sold privately, and others are often purchased in multiples by existing gun owners. But it is proxy for the gun ownership revolution that continues under Obama’s watch.
That revolution is now reflected in data showing that more than half of all homes in America have a gun, estimated to be between 100 million and 160 million homes. The best estimate of the actual number of firearms owned comes in at about 250 million.
It’s also reflected in the stock performance of Sturm Ruger and Smith & Wesson during the year, with their stock prices rising by 77 percent and 134 percent respectively.
It’s also reflected by the increasing number of women owning firearms, forcing even the anti-gun New York Timesto comment on their “rising voice” in the movement last year. According to the Times from February, 2013:
A growing number of women are learning to use firearms and hone their skills.
Women’s participation in the shooting sports has surged over the last decade, increasing by 51.5 percent in target shooting from 2001 to 2011, to just over five million women, and by 41.8 percent for hunting, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.
Gun manufacturers are marketing their wares toward that increasingly important segment, offering smaller frames, custom colors (with pink often a favorite), and accessories such as the high-end concealed carry Salmon Kiss leather handbag offered by Cobra Firearms for $350.
There are many reasons to explain the continuing surge in enjoying Second Amendment rights, including the desire for self-protection in an increasingly violent society, the fear of stricter gun laws as promised by President Obama in his last year of his second term, and just the general feeling of uncertainty that is increasingly pervasive as society continues to move away from its permanent foundations.
For some women, however, ownership of a firearm is a statement of independence and personal power, as expressed by Tina Wilson-Cohen, a former Secret Service agent who founded She Can Shoot in Virginia. With women-only chapters spreading across the country, she says that most of them have joined because “they’ve been a victim at one point of their life, of stalking or date rape or domestic violence, or they have just felt so vulnerable, and they want to feel competent and [that] they can protect themselves.”
According to Women and Guns magazine, an arm of the Second Amendment Foundation, there are at least 12 million women gun owners in the country, with other estimates approaching 20 million.
The momentum is spawning new avenues of marketing as well, including GunTV, the late-night home shopping channel starting in January, which will offer firearms and accessories to gun enthusiasts seeking detailed information before making a purchase without having to visit a gun store.
The momentum is also being driven by attacks on guns and gun owners by anti-gun media, especially including the New York Times. The establishment’s voice broke a 95-year tradition in early December by removing all doubt in its front-page editorial about what the anti-gun movement is trying to accomplish:
It is a moral outrage and national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency....
It is past time to stop talking about halting the spread of firearms, and instead to reduce their number drastically — eliminating some large categories of weapons and ammunition....
Certain kinds of weapons ... and certain kinds of ammunition, just be outlawed for civilian ownership ... it would require Americans who own those kinds of weapons to give them up for the good of their fellow citizens.
Not only do an increasing number of Americans not trust the New York Times or its opinions, those Americans increasingly don’t trust their government either. The latest poll from Pew Research Center shows that less than 25 percent of Americans trust the government always or most of the time, with 75 percent saying they trust the government only some of the time, or never.
With the president promising additional restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms during his lame duck year in office, with the anti-gun media now making it abundantly clear what their objective is, and with states increasingly allowing their citizens to obtain concealed carry permits, these are all the incentives needed to continue to drive the ownership of firearms by private citizens. That momentum will likely accelerate as long as the attacks on freedom — both personal and political — continue.
It is that time of year again. The time of year when the Department of Homeland Security and the Fear Factory in Washington D.C. doles out things like “credible threats” and a tweaking of the terror alert system. Most American’s are taking it very seriously this year as President Obama and the traitors occupying the nation’s capitol have doubled down on the infusion of potential jihadi terrorists flowing into the United States. And while Obama and his family vacation far away from the maddening crowd.
In addition to the terrorist threat, President Obama has not tried to hide the fact that he intends to introduce gun control legislation via executive fiat. There can be no doubt that this is driving higher gun sales. Last week, White House communications director Jen Psaki told Bloomberg that within a matter of “weeks, not months” Obama will review recommendations for executive orders provide to him at request by the Department of Justice.
According to Psaki, Obama is planning a “range of steps that can be taken as it relates to the people who have access to guns [and] how people gain access to guns,” and that he “will not be satisfied” unless some kind of action is taken on firearms before the end of his term.
In an effort to protect Second Amendment rights, GOP presidential hopeful Rand Paul has introduced legislation intended to block any effort by the incumbent president to enforce gun control by executive action. Relegating the President’s potential action to an advisory position. Stock up folks. “Interesting times” are upon us.
In an NPR interview yesterday, the president claimed that the overriding factor contributing to increased fear of terrorism among Americans is ‘media saturation’.
Asking about Obama’s strategy to combat ISIS, NPR host Steve Inskeep asked “What is the public missing?” adding “And I say that simply because, according to polls, you don’t have very much approval for it.”
“Well, I think what’s fair is, post-Paris, you had a saturation of news about the horrible attack there, and ISIL combines viciousness with very savvy media operations,” Obama replied.
“And as a consequence, if you’ve been watching television for the last month, all you’ve been seeing, all you’ve been hearing about is these guys with masks or black flags who are potentially coming to get you, so I understand why people are concerned about it.” the president added.
In several recent polls, increased numbers of Americans have said they now fear the threat of terrorist attacks.
Obama added that while the attacks constituted a “legitimate” story the media coverage was all about getting ratings.
“Look, the media is pursuing ratings,” he said. “This is a legitimate news story. I think that, you know, it’s up to the media to make a determination about how they want to cover things.” he said.
Last week, the president admitted to a closed meeting of journalists that he did not fully understand the reaction to the Paris and San Bernardino terror attacks, saying that he didn’t watch enough TV news to take it in.
Obama has used this line consistently, saying he only learns of events from TV news, often as a way of pleading ignorance on negative revelations.
The admission, reported by the New York Times, was later pulled altogether and memory holed.
In the NPR interview Obama also blamed woeful approval ratings on his ISIS strategy on a lack of communication.
“On our side, I think that there is a legitimate criticism of what I’ve been doing and our administration’s been doing in the sense that we haven’t, on a regular basis, described all the work that we’ve been doing for more than a year now to defeat ISIL,” Obama said.
“So if people haven’t seen the fact that 9,000 strikes have been carried out against ISIL, if they don’t know that towns like Sinjar that were controlled by ISIL have been taken back, or that a town like Tikrit that was controlled by ISIL now has been repopulated by previous residents, then they might feel as if there’s not enough of a response.” he added.
“So part of our goal here is to make sure that people are informed about all the actions that we’re taking.” the president said.
Remember in the summer of 2013 when the Obama administration was on the precipice of attacking Syria and toppling Bashar Al-Assad?
Twitter was flooded with images of US service members expressing their staunch opposition to being forced to act as Al-Qaeda’s air force.
Reports at the time also confirmed that top military officials were dead against air strikes.
Now an explosive investigation by Seymour Hersh has revealed that the Pentagon was engaged in a secret revolt against the Obama White House.
A highly classified DIA and Joint Chiefs of Staff report predicted that arming the rebels and toppling Assad would lead to the rise of ISIS.
The Pentagon knew that Obama was arming Islamic extremists and that the so-called moderate Free Syrian Army had evaporated.
But the Obama administration didn’t want to hear the truth and deliberately buried the report.
So the Pentagon bypassed the White House entirely and handed intelligence on the same jihadists who Obama was arming to Germany, Israel and Russia.
This intel was then passed directly to Assad, who used it to turn the tide against the jihadists, almost certainly saving Syria from being completely taken over by the Islamic State.
The bottom line is that many of the top brass in the Pentagon knew Obama’s policy would lead to an even bigger disaster than we have now, and they took decisive action to derail it.
The secret measure was also partly a payback after Assad had helped fight Al-Qaeda after 9/11 and Syrian intelligence had stopped an Al-Qaeda attack on the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
The US military also defied Obama by deliberately providing the rebels with outdated weapons, according to Seymour Hersh’s Pentagon source.
But this was derailed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, who gave ISIS jihadists modern weaponry in order to help them overthrow Assad.
In his report, Hersh also drops the bombshell that Turkey’s support for ISIS is because Erdogan wants to restore the Ottoman Empire.
He shares virtually the same goal as ISIS, who want to establish an Islamic Caliphate, or empire, stretching into Europe, just as Muslim crusaders did before the Christian crusades.
This report is stunning because it confirms why the Obama White House refused to properly target ISIS for 15 months.
In his obsession with isolating Assad, Obama knowingly armed ISIS and, along with Turkey, allowed the terror organization to build its Caliphate.
Now elements of the Pentagon are in open revolt against this insanity, and will continue to be should Hillary Clinton capture the White House.
In so many ways, 2016 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for the future of the Middle East, the future of radical Islam, and the future of the free world.
“In the United States, we do not have a king, but we do have a Constitution. We also have the Second Amendment, and I will fight tooth and nail to protect it,” Sen. Paul said.
RAND PAUL RE-INTRODUCES BILL TO KILL OBAMA GUN CONTROL
GOP presidential hopeful Rand Paul has introduced legislation intended to block any effort by the incumbent president to enforce gun control by executive action.
Paul’s legislation, named the Separation of Powers Restoration and Second Amendment Protection Act, would render any action on gun legislation by the president which circumvents Congress as “advisory only” in nature.
Paul’s bill would apply to “any execution action on gun control that either infringes upon congressional authority or potentially violates the Second Amendment.”
The bill then mandates that once an executive action has been classified as “advisory only,” it would require Congress to pass it in order for it to take effect.
The bill also outlines that it is within their power for a “state official, member of Congress or person affected by an executive action on gun control to launch a civil lawsuit.”
The legislation will be fast-tracked through the Senate and is expected to be made a priority after the Christmas recess.
In a statement released Monday, Paul said, “In the United States, we do not have a king, but we do have a Constitution. We also have the Second Amendment, and I will fight tooth and nail to protect it.”
Here is the full bill: (SEE ORIGINAL ARTICLE)
Obama has not tried to hide the fact that he intends to introduce gun control legislation via executive fiat.
Last week, White House communications director Jen Psaki toldBloomberg that within a matter of “weeks, not months” Obama will review recommendations for executive orders provide to him at request by the Department of Justice.
The DOJ continues to work on options to allow Obama skirt around Congress on the issue and effectively counter lawsuits that pro-Second Amendment rights groups have prepared.
According to Psaki, Obama is planning a “range of steps that can be taken as it relates to the people who have access to guns [and] how people gain access to guns,” and that he “will not be satisfied” unless some kind of action is taken on firearms before the end of his term.
in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The Virginia attorney general announced on Tuesday that he would unilaterally eliminate gun carry reciprocity agreements with 25 other states on Feb. 1, a move that will affect millions of Americans.
Attorney General Mark R. Herring, a Democrat, released a statement with the details of the action he is taking.
“To ensure Virginia’s law and safety standards for concealed handgun permits are applied evenly, consistently, and fairly, I have recommended the State Police terminate the reciprocity agreements with 25 states whose laws are not adequate to prevent issuance of a concealed handgun permit to individuals that Virginia would disqualify,” Herring said. “The State Police has accepted that recommendation and has begun sending letters to the 25 states informing them that as of February 1, their permits will no longer be recognized by Virginia.”
He called the move a “commonsense step” and said it would make Virginia police safer. “To me, this is a commonsense step that can help make Virginians and our law enforcement officers safer by ensuring that our concealed carry laws and safety standards apply to everyone in Virginia, whether they are a resident or a visitor,” he said. “Strong, consistent enforcement of Virginia’s laws and safety standards can prevent disqualified people who may be dangerous or irresponsible from utilizing a concealed handgun permit, and it’s what the law requires.”
The attorney general did not provide examples of those with out of state gun carry permits who have committed gun crimes in the Commonwealth.
Virginia State Police spokesperson Corinne Geller said the department doesn’t have any statistics on such crimes.
“That’s not something we readily track,” she said.
Herring said a large number of states with which Virginia has reciprocity agreements do not employ the same standards for issuing permits as Virginia does.
He said his office determined 25 of the 30 reciprocity agreements would need to be vacated. Those states are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Once Herring’s order goes into effect on Feb. 1, 2016, Virginians will not be able to carry in many of those states and gun carry permit holders from those states will not be able to carry in Virginia.
The only state permits Virginia will continue to honor are those from West Virginia, Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah.
Open carry without a permit by anyone who can legally possess a firearm will continue to be legal for both residents and non-residents.
Some states whose permits will no longer be honored in Virginia may still honor Virginia permits depending on their state gun laws. The attorney general identified Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee as states which would continue to recognize Virginia’s permit.
Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wyoming will no longer honor Virginia’s permits due to the attorney general’s actions.
The Virginia State Police said the change was a normal part of a continual process of review that involves both the agency and the attorney general.
“This is a consistent process for the State Police and the list consistently changes,” spokeswoman Geller said, “because, obviously, the laws change. … So we’re consistently reviewing [the agreements] with states all across the nation. We’ve been doing it ever since the reciprocity agreements came into effect back in the mid to late 90s.”
Geller could not remember the last time a state reciprocity agreement was canceled. “I’d have to check with our legal office to see if we’ve got that on file,” Geller said. “I’m not sure.”
Geller said the State Police had no specific plan beyond information posted on their website and media reports to inform Virginia residents or the residents of the 25 states in question about the change.
When asked again about the scale of the change to reciprocity agreements, Geller said, “It’s significant.”
Virginia Republicans and gun rights activists were caught off guard by the holiday announcement and are still deciding what to do in response. They expressed skepticism that the attorney general’s move is legally permissible and harshly criticized the move.
“I had no hint,” said Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. “No hint anywhere that there was a review anywhere or that anything was going to change.”
“We’re going to want to look at the criteria that they used [to review the agreements] and I bet you we find criteria in there that doesn’t apply.”
“We were surprised to see that,” Bill Howell (R.), Virginia speaker of the house, told the Washington Free Beacon. “I find it interesting that the attorney general said he was going to take the politics out of the attorney generals when he’s really injected them in an even greater way than we’ve seen in recent time.”
The speaker went on to say he is not convinced the attorney general has the power to void all of the 25 reciprocity agreements he is targeting. “We’re doing research on this right now but there’s probably about half the states, maybe more than that, we have written agreements with and I don’t think the attorney general or anybody can just go in and abdicate a written agreement,” Howell said. “So the number of states it impacts may be a lot less than what we’re seeing right now.”
Howell also indicated that the Republican majorities in the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate are looking at legislative action to reverse Herring’s order. He said that any legislative option would likely have to overcome or outmaneuver a veto by Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D.), who recently enacted a number of gun control measures through executive action.
Gun rights activists warned that the attorney general’s move puts millions of Americans in greater danger.
“Some woman with a child who’s under a death threat by an ex-spouse from Tennessee who comes into Virginia is effectively disarmed so that some politician can look like he’s done something,” Van Cleave said.
The National Rifle Association called the attorney general’s action “dangerous and shameful” in a statement.
“Plain and simple, this is putting politics above public safety,” said Chris Cox, head of the 5 million member gun rights organization’s lobbying arm. _____________________________________________________________
Virginia Refuses to Honor Concealed Carry Permits From 25 States
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Virginia's Democrat Attorney General Mark Herring announced Tuesday that the Old Dominion State will no longer recognize concealed carry permits from 25 states that had previously been recognized. The move has angered many who feel it is an end-run around the right to keep and bear arms. There may be political fallout for Herring, as well.
Many states honor other states' concealed carry permits. Sometimes reciprocity is required (state A will honor state B's permits only if state B will honor state A's permits). Some states will honor other states' permits regardless of whether the other states honor theirs. This allows a concealed carry permit holder from one state to carry his weapon concealed when traveling to other states.
Virginia currently recognizes concealed carry permits from 30 states, allowing those visitors the same level of personal protection they enjoy in their own states. It is good for tourism and other business; those who take seriously their ability and responsibility to defend themselves and their families take that into consideration when planning family vacations and other trips. Now, all of that is changing.
Herring said Tuesday that Virginia will no longer recognize permits from 25 of those 30 states, effective February 1, 2016. His "logic" — if this writer can stretch the word that far without it breaking — is that those 25 states have low standards for those who obtain permits leading to them issuing permits to "fugitives, convicted stalkers and drug dealers," according to a report by the Associated Press.
That is a strange claim considering that one of those states, Kentucky, performs monthly background checks on permit holders to ensure they are still qualified to hold the permit. As Concealed Nationreported, "Their rationale is simple: if a person commits a felony after getting his or her concealed carry handgun, how else will the Kentucky State Police know about it and be able to revoke his or her permit?" So if a permit holder in Kentucky fails to come up clean on the background check each month, his permit is suspended. According to Concealed Nation, any of the following is cause for immediate suspension:
• Felony conviction and/or imprisonment
• Indictment for any charge that carries with it imprisonment of up to a year's time
• Subject to a restraining order
• Renouncing U.S. citizenship
• Dishonorable discharge from the armed forces
• Documented mental illness
• Drug abuse or treatment for drug abuse
• Misdemeanor or felony charges of domestic assault
Herring said his office sent letters to the 25 states on Tuesday making them formally aware of his decision. The states are:
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
Delaware
Florida
Idaho
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Minnesota
Mississippi
Montana
Nebraska
New Mexico
North Dakota
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Washington
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Because of reciprocity agreements requiring Virginia to recognize their permits in order for Virginia permit holders to conceal carry in their states, Virginians who previously enjoyed the unhindered right of self-defense in six of those states, will no longer be able to do so. Those states are:
Florida
Louisiana
North Dakota
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Idaho
The other states (other than Delaware, Minnesota, Washington and Wisconsin — which already do not honor permits from Virginia) will presumably continue to allow Virginians who hold a permit to conceal carry in their states.
Herring referred to his decision as "a common sense step that can help make Virginians and our law enforcement officers safer by ensuring that our concealed carry laws and safety standards apply to everyone in Virginia, whether they are a resident or a visitor." He did not cite even one case in which a concealed carry permit holder from another state had made "Virginians and our law enforcement officers" unsafe.
According to a report by The Virginian-Pilot, the Virginia Citizen's Defense League has accused Herring of making his decision as a payoff for political contributions:
The Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun-rights group, sent an email to its list Tuesday morning saying the announcement was done to pay back former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his campaign donations in Virginia legislative races this fall.
Bloomberg's Everytown For Gun Safety group spent $2.2 million for two Democrats in state Senate races.
"I've never heard of a single case of an out-of-state permit holder causing problems in Virginia," said Philip Van Cleave, president of the gun-rights group.
Whatever Herring's financial or party considerations, it is clear that this should not be viewed as an isolated incident, but instead as a "first step" in the plan to further roll back the God-given right of self-defense guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Josh Horwitz, executive director of the anti-gun organization Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV), said, "Virginia's lack of enforcement of its own standards has been irresponsible and dangerous." He added, "While the Commonwealth has plenty of room to improve their own standards for issuing concealed carry permits, the actions taken today by the Attorney General are a good first step toward making Virginia a safer place for its citizens and visitors alike."
As if disarming law-abiding citizens has ever made them safer. If that tired old theory bore any good fruit, the recent San Bernardino shooting, which claimed the lives of 14 and left another 22 seriously injured, could not have happened. California has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. Quite the contrary is true. If Californians were afforded the opportunity to defend themselves and a few concealed carry permit holders had been there to act, it is likely that the ISIS-inspired radical Islamists would have been stopped before so many lives were lost.
Certain Virginia lawmakers are ready to act to correct Herring's assault on the Second Amendment. Republican state Delegate Rob Bell — who is running for Herring's office — said the decision was just more "Washington-style overreach from a nakedly partisan attorney general." Another Republican delegate, Lee Ware, has introduced legislation to take away the power of the state police to conduct surveys, such as the one on which Herring leaned for this draconian exercise.
Herring was narrowly elected to his office in November 2013, when he managed to squeak past the Republican candidate, Mark Obenshain. He ran on a platform that included taking politics out of the office. Virginia House Speaker Bill Howell is not impressed. In a statement he released after Herring's announcement, he said, "Despite promising to take politics out of the Attorney General's office, Mark Herring consistently seeks to interpret and apply the law of the Commonwealth through the lens of his own personal, political opinions." Howell added, "He is damaging the integrity of the office he holds."
Not only is he " damaging the integrity of the office he holds," he is endangering lives to do it. As Philip Van Cleave of the Virginia Citizen's Defense League said, "People that have concealed handgun permits are trying to protect their lives, some of them are under threat. Maybe an ex spouse is threatening their lives and they are carrying a gun because they could be murdered the next time they come across that spouse. This is disarming the very people that could use a gun the most." ______________________________________________________________
“Red” Herring: Virginia AG Revokes Concealed Carry Recognition for 25 States
Published on Dec 23, 2015
Virginia’s Attorney General Herring has declared he will not honor concealed carry permits from 25 states beginning this new year. Using the threat of terrorism, he would target the most investigated and vetted individuals and revoke their license, while the Federal government brings in people from areas at war with the USA without ANY investigation of their background.
