By Paul Lathrop | Contributing Editor
Last week the Virginia Citizen’s Defense League received a bit of a surprise when they were informed by the state government that the Lobby Day slot they had occupied for 17 years had been given to an anti-gun group.
WRIC News reported that when Philip Van Cleve, President of VCDL tried to reserve the traditional 11 am slot they had long occupied, he was informed that the slot had been reserved by the gun control group Virginia Center for Public Safety.
In a statement to members, Van Cleve wrote that “VCDL was told years ago that an application to use the Bell Tower for an event more than six months out would not even be accepted. We have followed that rule, booked six months out, and gotten the 11 am slot for 17 years. This year, when we applied exactly six months out, we were told that the 11 am slot was already booked! In fact, every slot was filled except the 6 am and 6 pm slots.”
Van Cleve continued. “We got a copy of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) document containing the applications that had been accepted by the Department of General Services (DGS) for Lobby Day on January 18, 2021. Lo and behold – the 11am slot had been requested by Andrew Goddard and Lori Haas with the Virginia Center For Public Safety (a gun-control group with ties to Michael Bloomberg). Here’s the kicker – DGS accepted the application, which had been filed OVER A YEAR IN ADVANCE (January 14, 2020)! That was even before the VCDL’s 2020 Lobby Day event!”
In response, VCDL is changing tactics. They are planning to have a huge “Trump Train” type of event with thousands of vehicles traveling from all parts of the state converging on Richmond on January 18th.
“VCDL’s lobbying effort on January 18 is going to consist of thousands of vehicles in four major caravans coming from the corners of the state and all of them headed to Richmond,” Val Cleve stated “We will post the times the various caravans should be passing key locations so those along the routes can join the caravans as it passes by their area.”
