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was incorporated as VCDL in May 1998(dropping the word ‘Northern’ from itsname). We started with 5 members in thefall of 1994 and now have over 3,300members. In addition, we have over6,000 subscribers to our free VA-ALERTe-mail system.VCDL believes that to win the fightto restore our rights, we have to go onthe offensive and make use of the bestlobbyist, the voter. VCDL rejects theapproach of focusing on a defensivebattle until ’the time is right.’ Even if youwin 95% of the defensive battles, youlose 5%. Over time, this defensive war ofattrition slowly whittles away our rightsuntil we have none. The time isn’t goingto magically become right to introducepro-gun legislation. Instead, we have tomake the time right. And we do that byconstantly pushing a pro-gun agenda:getting pro-gun legislation before theGeneral Assembly, getting voters tocontact their legislators, and houndingany locality that violates the law. Even ifwe win only 5% of our pro-gun agendaeach year, we are advancing our rightseach and every year, instead of losingthem bit by bit.VCDL doesn’t have a paid lobbyist.Instead, we rely upon the voters ineach legislative district to contact theirlegislators. Voters are very effectivelobbyists that legislators do listen to.VCDL has been a key player in gettingmany of Virginia’s pro-gun laws passedPhilip Van Cleavepresident of the Virginia CitizensDefense League (VCDL)Photograph courtesy of:Philip and the VCDLand anti-gun bills defeated. For example,it was a bill put in on our behalf thatgave Virginia full firearms preemption,wiping out all local gun control exceptfor discharge and hunting regulationsback in 2004.VCDL serves as a watchdog againstlocalities violating the rights of gunowners. In 1999, Fairfax County enactedan administrative rule banning guns in alltheir government buildings, which wasnot allowed under Virginia law. We tookthem to court and won handily, with thejudge ordering them to remove the ‘Noguns’ signs. Fairfax lost so badly thatthey didn’t even appeal. We have takenon police abuse of gun owners, mostrecently in Manassas, Virginia whereeight officers pressured a restaurantowner to kick out seven gun owners whowere peaceably enjoying a meal. Thegun owners were openly carrying theirhandguns, as is the law in Virginia whenin an establishment that serves alcoholfor on-premise consumption. The policedidn’t like that the gun owners knewVirginia laws better than they did andsought vengeance by getting the gunowners publicly removed.Over 150 angry VCDL membersand supporters showed up at the nextManassas City Council meeting andpolitely, but firmly asked City Council tofire at least three of those officers. TheMayor said at the start of the meeting thathe had never seen so many people showup for a City Council meeting. In fact, hehad to get the fire marshal to make anexception to allow all those people inthe meeting room at one time! Video ofmany of the VCDL members speaking atthat city council meeting are on the VCDLwebsite at: http://www.vcdl.org/Tonys/mcpd.htmlVCDL has a Petition for Rule Makingin front of the Department of the Interior,asking the DOI to allow gun owners tocarry in national parks for self-defense,as long as the state where the park islocated allows such carry. See: http://www.vcdl.org/index.html#PRMVCDL has also been protectingVirginia gun dealers from the frivolouslawsuits that New York City Mayor,Michael Bloomberg, has brought againstthem. As I write this, we are gettingmajor press on VCDL’s “BloombergGun GiveAway,” which is a drawingfor a free firearm. To participate in thedrawing, all one has to do is spend$100 in any of three gun stores inVirginia. Unfortunately, the drawing isgoing to be over by the time that yourreaders see this. Depending on whathappens down the road, we may haveanother such drawing. VCDL also has alegal defense fund for the dealers underattack by Bloomberg. You can contributeby going to our web site at http://www.vcdl.org/index.html#DefenseFund. Fora grassroots gun organization of allvolunteers, we have been busy.On March 11th, 2007, “The RoanokeTimes” ran an editorial written by Mr.Christian Trejbal, an editorial writerfor their “New River Valley Bureau,”entitled “Shedding Light on ConcealedHandguns,” in which they published thelist of Virginia’s concealed carry permitholders. The backlash on the USCCAwebsite was enormous. What kindof reaction did your organization getthat day?In the 12 years I have been involvedwith VCDL, I have never seen anythingeven close to that reaction. I receivedaround 700 e-mails and 30 phone callsin a single day asking VCDL to helpshut down that database. The passionand anger from gun owners over whatThe Roanoke Times did was somethingto behold.Besides just everyday permit holders,I received calls from police officers andfederal forensic experts who were onthat list and had many criminal enemies.Many calls were from females who30 Concealed Carry Magazine www.usconcealedcarry.comVolume 4 - May/June 2007