VCDL Lobby Day MUST-READ UPDATE 1/17/21
From VCDL VA-ALERT:
Lobby Day 2021 is on MONDAY, January 18!
1. Links for tracking the buses on Monday and information on merging with caravans
2. Information hearing and watching VCDL’s Lobby Day 2021 speakers on Monday
3. How to get breaking information and updates during Lobby Day
4. Important notes for those who might decide to be on foot on Lobby Day
5. Radio frequencies for connecting with Lobby Day main-caravans and sub-caravans
6. Restaurants open in Richmond on Lobby Day
7. Lawyer talks about Richmond “event” gun ban
8. Credit where credit is due: VA Homeland Security Secretary Moran acknowledges VCDL’s peaceful 2020 Lobby Day during interview
9. Coverage of Mailchimp’s treachery in dropping VCDL from is mail server right before Lobby Day
10. Articles on Lobby Day
11. Keep an eye out for ambulances in Richmond on Lobby Day
12. Note for those leaving from Hampton
- Links for tracking the buses on Monday and information on merging with caravans
You can track the four main-caravan buses as they head toward Richmond by clicking here: http://vcdl-bus.org
There is a dropdown menu that will allow you track an individual bus’s route. You can also use these direct links to the four buses:
Fairfax Bus 1:
http://vcdl-bus.org/Fairfax
Hampton Bus 2:
http://vcdl-bus.org/Hampton
Emporia Bus 3:
http://vcdl-bus.org/Emporia
Staunton Bus 4:
http://vcdl-bus.org/Staunton
NOTE: The links will not be functioning until Monday morning.
The tracking will help those in sub-caravans, as well as individual vehicles, to time merging with a passing main-caravan. For merging with sub-caravans, see item #5. “Radio frequencies for connecting with Lobby Day main-caravans and sub-caravans”.
If a sub-caravan is more than 10 minutes late passing your location and you can’t communicate with the caravan (see item #5), then start your drive to Richmond following the routes VCDL has provided. You should be able to track the main caravan using the URLs provided above. If you don’t have a smart phone or iPad, etc., then head for Richmond if the main-caravan is more than 20 minutes late.
NOTE on VCDL flags, etc: starting points and many waypoints will have a person distributing flags, signs, magnets, and stickers, but not all of them. If you haven’t got any of the VCDL items yet, then put your own pro-gun decorations on your vehicles just in case there are no VCDL items available at your waypoint. If you have two flags on your vehicle and someone doesn’t have any decoration, you might consider offering them one of your flags.
Here is the link, once again, to the starting point and waypoint locations, the approximate times the caravans will be at those locations, and the routes the caravans will follow: https://vcdl.org/LD2021Routes/
- Information hearing and watching VCDL’s Lobby Day 2021 speakers on Monday
The invited speakers can be heard starting Monday morning on your way to Lobby Day on the VCDL Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfjb__SDLZWOnZd4zlLX-xg/playlists
Once the playlist is ready, it will appear automatically.
For those that can only listen and not watch (such as a person driving alone), here where the podcast will be published Monday morning: http://vcdl.podbean.com
Here is a list of the incredible speakers we have this year:
Delegate Nick Frietas
Liberty Doll
Cam Edwards (will be attending Lobby Day)
Dan Wos
Erich Pratt (GOA – will be attending Lobby Day)
Suzanna Hupp
Jared from Guns and Gadgets (will be attending Lobby Day)
Jill McDaniel from the DC Project
Karen Greenhalgh
Bobby Dyer (Virginia Beach Mayor)
Senator Bill DeSteph
KotaBoy32 Tactical
Lance Allen
Scott Lee (Richmond radio personality)
Rev. Kenn Blanchard (author of “Black man with a gun”)
(Richmond radio personality Jeff Katz’s speech wasn’t received in time due to technical difficulties)
- How to get breaking information and updates during Lobby Day
You can get breaking information on your smart phone while you are in your vehicles by subscribing to VCDL on Twitter (https://twitter.com/VCDL_ORG), Mewe (https://mewe.com/p/virginiacitizensdefenseleague-mewepage), or Instragram (https://www.instagram.com/vcdl_official/).
- Important notes for those who might decide to be on foot on Lobby Day
As you probably are aware, there are “No guns” signs on certain parts of Richmond streets with tiny print indicating that the signs don’t apply unless there is a permitted event happening nearby or there is an event that should have been permitted happening nearby.
We don’t know of any events that will be happening in Richmond on Monday, but if enough people accumulate in an area with such signs, it could be construed as an “event” and then the signs will be applicable.
THAT SAID, if there is an “event” going on near a posted area, the Richmond police will advise you to leave that area and to move to another location. Don’t argue, simply comply and move. That should be the end of it. Most of Richmond is sign-free.
So if you walk into an area with signs and are visibly armed, you may or may not be asked to leave. [sigh] If “unconstitutional laws” was in the dictionary, Richmond’s gun-ban at events would be the perfect example.
- Radio frequencies for connecting with Lobby Day main-caravans and sub-caravans
Anyone wishing to contact the VCDL Lobby Day Caravans to wish them well on their trip, or to coordinated joining in, may contact them via FRS CH3/3 (462.6125 MHz /PL Tone 74.4 Hz).
Licensed amateur operators (Hams) may utilize 147.555 MHZ with no PL Tone or 445.9625 PL Tone of 167.9 for both transmit and receive. You may also track the location of the main and sub caravans on the APRS.fi website by looking for stations with the comment “VCDL CARAVAN TO LOBBY DAY!” Please understand that not every caravan will be capable of communicating on every listed frequency.
Trap Canterbury
KB8ABJ
- Restaurants open in Richmond on Lobby Day
Here is a list of restaurants that we had confirmed would be open on Monday (checked as of January 10). Be sure to thank any restaurants you go to for being open and tip them well. Gun-controllers, true to form, have called the restaurants on that list and, lying through their teeth, said that people attending Lobby Day are all racists and they shouldn’t serve us:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aCawr7VSZsl1m4sbTLH8FFq0xX3Xo9qzP-0IH82z9uQ/edit?usp=sharing
- Lawyer talks about Richmond “event” gun banFirearm attorney Gilbert Ambler talks about driving armed in a vehicle or walking around on Monday. There is way less than a snowball’s chance in hell of anyone in a vehicle being bothered by Richmond Police when just driving in a caravan and obeying traffic laws. The Supreme Court has ruled that having signs or stickers about guns on your vehicle does NOT give police probable cause to pull you over to check for guns. In the one in a trillion chance that it does happen to you, Gilbert discusses what to do (and VCDL would likely file suit):
- Credit where credit is due: VA Homeland Security Secretary Moran acknowledges VCDL’s peaceful 2020 Lobby Day during interview
As long as Brian Moran, Homeland Security Secretary, and I stay away from politics, we get along just fine. My experience with him is that he is very personable. We ran into each other last year pre-COVID at a movie theater and had a pleasant conversation. In a recent radio interview on WRVA, Secretary Moran appropriately credited VCDL with the very peaceful Lobby Day we had last year. VCDL is discussed starting at the 6:00 minute mark:
https://newsradiowrva.radio.com/media/audio-channel/sec-brian-moran-january-15-2021
- Coverage of Mailchimp’s treachery in dropping VCDL from is mail server right before Lobby Day
https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/mailchimp-boots-gun-rights-group/
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/mailchimp-vcdl-second-amendment
- Articles on Lobby Day
https://bearingarms.com/cam-e/2021/01/12/vcdl-lobby-day-rally-continue/
11. Keep an eye out for ambulances in Richmond on Lobby Day
The Virginia Commonwealth University police chief asked me to remind everyone in the caravans that the Medical College of Virginia (MVC) is an active hospital on Broad Street that frequently has emergency vehicles arriving there. Please keep an eye out for ambulances and move out of their way as soon as possible.
- Note for those leaving from Hampton
Member Scott W. sent me this email:
I recon’d the Hampton starting location. That parking lot is ideal. It’s better to come in on Convention Center Blvd which is off Armistead Ave. Some of the entrances to the Convention Center & Coliseum parking lots are usually gated off. Convention Center Blvd is not. Those not familiar with Hampton mostly assume you can just get into the Coliseum parking lot easily from Mercury Blvd / Coliseum Drive. But that’s not always the case.
