Tag: gun violence

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CPD Chief says crime rates lower overall despite recent spike in gun violence

Charlottesville Chief of Police Michael Kochis vows to address recent surge in gun violence. Photo by Eze Amos.

Readers’ concerns over the recent spike in shootings in downtown Charlottesville have not gone unnoticed, but they belie a substantial overall drop in violent crime in the area, says city police. 

According to data available on the City of Charlottesville’s website, there have been 112 calls for “shots fired” in the city so far this year, compared to 138 in the same amount of time in 2023, a reduction of just under 19 percent. There has been a single homicide in Charlottesville this year, compared to four by this time last year. 

Charlottesville Chief of Police Michael Kochis says that while the improved numbers are good, people’s perception of safety is equally as important.

“I’m careful how I talk about numbers,” he says. “The statistics are important, but it’s also important how people feel … These shootings are happening at five o’clock in the afternoon when the kids are home from school and out on the street … It’s important how people feel and whether they feel safe.”

Kochis attributes the recent spike in gunshots heard throughout the city to an ongoing operation to stop two different groups from their cycle of continuous violence.

“We believe many of the recent calls for shots fired and gun arrests are connected to two groups who have been retaliating against each other,” he says. “We’re conducting an ongoing operation to find the people who are committing these crimes and put a stop to [them].” So far, the Charlottesville Police Department has made five arrests and removed 10 guns off the street, including two AR-style rifles, several pistols, and a modified, fully-automatic Glock.

The latter weapon Kochis refers to was part of an arrest made on June 13 at Tonsler Park. Richard Michael Sanders, Jr., of Charlottesville, was arrested on two counts of possession of a concealed weapon and three counts of possession of a firearm in a city park, both misdemeanors, as well as one felony count of possessing or using a machine gun. Sanders was also arrested a month ago for carrying a firearm on city property. 

Two others were arrested in connection with the incidents: Damillion Diggs, arrested on June 12, was charged with two counts of possession of a scheduled I or II narcotic and two counts of possession of a firearm by a nonviolent felon within 10 years. Police seized two AR-style rifles, an AR-style pistol, and three handguns in the arrest.

Malik Luck, of Charlottesville, was arrested in connection with the shootings on June 17, when two separate incidents of gunfire were reported within five minutes of each other. A third outbreak of gunfire was reported later that evening, resulting in a total of 81 shell casings recovered from multiple weapons between the three incidents. Luck faces charges of malicious wounding and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, which is itself a felony, as well as a misdemeanor count of reckless handling of a firearm. 

After three shots fired calls in a single day, CPD issued a press release vowing an increase in manpower to bring the incidents to an end. 

“CPD is continuing its operation into recent gun violence within the City,” the release read. “The operation is being expanded by adding additional resources and personnel. The operation is focused on individuals who are illegally possessing firearms and committing acts of violence within our community. The CPD is working closely with the Charlottesville Commonwealth Attorney’s Office to identify, arrest, and incarcerate those who continue to prey on our community.”

Kochis said that his department was not only increasing patrols, but building trust and working with the community to help restore peace in downtown.

“It’s very much an ongoing operation, and we’re increasing patrols in the areas where the shootings have taken place at the times that they have been taking place,” he says. “We’re also trying to build trust and better relationships within the community. It’s more than just patrols—it’s about being present.” 

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Making a difference

The nonprofit B.U.C.K. Squad is currently working to secure several grants in order to place 10 to 15 more violence interrupters in each of the city’s predominantly Black neighborhoods this summer. Supplied photo.

Following the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, gun violence spiked across Charlottesville, particularly in the city’s predominantly Black neighborhoods. There were four gun homicides in 2020—a notable uptick from the two homicides in 2019 and one in 2018. By the end of the year, the Charlottesville Police Department had responded to 122 shots-fired incidents. This rise in gun violence continued into 2021, with multiple shootings taking place in or near public housing communities. However, the year ended with zero homicides. 

The city has the B.U.C.K.—Brothers United to Cease the Killing—Squad to thank for this drop in gun-related deaths, says its Executive Director Herb Dickerson. Since last January, the nonprofit squad has intervened in conflicts, attempting to talk down clashing groups before they start shooting.

In 2021, Dickerson says the squad intervened in about 79 incidents. So far this year, that number has been 46.

“The whole thing is developing relationships within these communities, and letting folks know what you’re attempting to do to help [the] guys with these guns and selling drugs. There is another way,” says Dickerson. “Our personal experience and reputation proves that you can do different.”

In October, City Council donated $50,000 to the squad, which helped compensate its dozen members, as well as increase its patrols in predominantly Black neighborhoods. However, the $50,000 has now run dry, forcing the group to rely on private donations to stay afloat. 

“The $50,000 [was] a good start. We got the message out about what we’re doing, and people started supporting us,” says Dickerson. “You can’t get a person to go out in the streets at 2 o’clock in the morning for free—it just wouldn’t make sense to put their lives on the line.”

Councilor Michael Payne and then-mayor Nikuyah Walker voted against the $50,000 donation. Payne specifically cited concerns councilors had heard from the Public Housing Association of Residents and the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority. B.U.C.K. Squad founder Pertelle Gilmore severed all ties with the squad last June.

“The draw with the squad is that a lot of them are from the streets… Some of them deal with a lot of trauma, and just have personal issues,” squad board chair Kimberly Hayes told C-VILLE in October. “[Gilmore] and the squad came to an agreement that they thought it would be best that he deal with his issues.”

In response to these concerns, the squad created an accountability and grievance policy last year. It has also developed an “open relationship” with CRHA Director John Sales, says Dickerson.

“Some of the folks that were against us are family members of drug dealers,” claims Dickerson. “They don’t want us around because they’re benefiting from what these folks are doing.”

Under Dickerson’s leadership, the squad has continued to connect conflicting parties with the community resources they need, like mental health care and job opportunities, and continually follow up with them to make sure they do not turn back to violence. 

“When you get to know them, they don’t really want to shoot these guns anyway,” says Dickerson. “Most of them are just trying to drive attention to themselves,” especially those whose fathers are incarcerated. 

“They just don’t have no understanding of what life is really about, and how you can sustain your life,” he adds.

In addition to gun violence, the squad receives calls on its 24-hour hotline (365-4187) related to domestic violence, substance abuse, missing children, and other emergencies. 

But the squad has not had the capacity to intervene in and prevent every shooting in the city. In fact, last year, amid a nationwide upswing in gun violence, CPD responded to over 250 reported shots-fired incidents. This year, there have already been several shootings, including at Fry’s Spring Beach Club in March. Two men sustained non-life threatening injuries, and police collected more than 100 cartridge casings at the scene. (Two men have since been arrested in association with the crime.)

“This is not just isolated to First Street or West Haven,” says Dickerson. “Anybody can get killed.”

In Charlottesville and across the country, gun violence is only expected to rise over the summer.

“There’s longer days. People are drinking more, smoking marijuana more, using drugs more,” says Dickerson. “That’s the catalyst for gun violence.”

The nonprofit is currently working to secure several grants in order to hire 10 to 15 more violence interrupters, so it can place a team in each of the city’s predominantly Black neighborhoods this summer.

To tackle the root causes of gun violence, the squad also aims to expand its community programming. It plans to continue hosting youth events this summer, and will also work to prevent recidivism. In collaboration with Piedmont Virginia Community College, member Bryan Page recently developed a 12-week re-entry program that connects formerly incarcerated people with job training and mentorship. Around 4,500 people are scheduled to be released from Virginia prisons this summer. According to Virginia Department of Corrections’ figures, about 3,200 of those releases are due to a new state law expanding the earned sentence credit program—Dickerson expects over 100 to be returning home to Charlottesville.

“The first 72 hours are the most important hours of a person getting out of jail. That’s when he’s going to choose what direction he’s going to go in,” says Dickerson. “A lot of these guys are going to be re-incarcerated…if they don’t have certain avenues they can travel to get their life together.”

With additional funding, the organization plans to offer mental health services, career development, financial planning, grief counseling, vocational training, and other critical programs, as well as establish a permanent physical headquarters—including mediation centers and wraparound services—in the near future.

To learn more about or donate to the B.U.C.K. Squad, visit bucksquad911.org.

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Squad drama

The B.U.C.K. Squad has held child-focused community events in recent months. Supplied photo.

Last December, 32-year-old Jamarcus “Buck” Washington was found dead in the South First Street public housing complex, a victim of rising gun violence in Charlottesville’s predominantly Black neighborhoods over the past year. Pained by his friend’s murder, Pertelle Gilmore contacted his mentor Herb Dickerson, and recruited a handful of people in the city’s Black community to intervene in conflicts before they turned into deadly shootings. The group met with Washington’s family, and received permission to name themselves the B.U.C.K. Squad, an acronym for Brothers United to Cease the Killing.    

But now Washington’s father, Darnell Burton, is accusing the squad of dishonoring his son, claiming it is misusing donations.

“I thought they were going to use the money donated to them to do a good thing for my son,” says Burton. “But [the money] is not being used properly.”

“They’re buying all kinds of sweatsuits, traveling, going out to eat—just personal stuff,” he says.

Burton thinks the group does not focus enough on gun violence among adult men, pointing to several events the B.U.C.K. Squad hosted for children in public housing communities over the past few months.

“Kids is not out here killing each other,” he says. “These are adults killing each other.”

Burton also accuses multiple members of not answering his calls, and refusing to give his family any financial support. He urges the squad to change its name—and says if members refuse, he will sue them.

“Stop using my son’s name and honor my son. They’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” he says. “I want this to stop as soon as possible.”

B.U.C.K Squad associate director Herb Dickerson claims the accusations are based on “no facts whatsoever.” Though the group started off as a volunteer effort, it has received enough donations from the community to pay members a bi-weekly salary.

“We don’t have access to no money, at no time ever,” says Dickerson. All donations are immediately turned into the group’s accountant, Tommy Everett, who then distributes the paychecks. Most of the money received goes toward salaries, but the group is also saving to purchase a physical headquarters.

“We live just like everyone who works and has a job,” Dickerson says. “[Burton’s] thinking that we’re making a lot of money, when I work two full-time jobs.”

In response to Burton’s gripes with the group’s custom gear, Dickerson says their shirts were made for free by member Bryan Page, who designs clothes professionally.

Dickerson says the squad invited Burton to become a member and participate in their work, but he hasn’t shown up. They also gave his family a significant amount of support after Washington’s death, when Burton told Dickerson he could not afford to pay for his son’s funeral.

“I spoke to my director [at The Haven], the funeral home director, and some people in the community that would help,” Dickerson says. “Me and Pertelle raised $14,000 to give [Washington] the burial that the family wanted…and we arranged the funeral.”

“To this day, we haven’t seen where that money even went. That hasn’t gone towards the funeral at all,” he adds. “And we never got a thank you.”

Though the squad’s every day work involves talking down groups of young men, its members hope to end the cycle of violence in Black communities by hosting events and programs for kids.

“Our main focus is the children, because if you can catch them at an early age, you can reclaim their brain to think another way, other than what they see in the streets or in their household,” says Dickerson. “And we work with all of the adults…to direct them to the right resources that can help them.”

Dickerson emphasizes that the squad does not plan on changing its name, which is now copyrighted. However, he says they would try to give Burton additional financial support if he came to them with a specific financial request, like rent assistance.

“We’re not using Buck’s name—we’re using Brothers United to Cease the Killing. This is just an [acronym] for that,” he says. “We don’t owe [Washington’s family] anything. If anything, they owe us.”

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Making change: CHS teens talk with March for our Lives co-founder Jaclyn Corin

Jaclyn Corin will speak at the Tom Tom Festival on Tuesday, April 9, at The Paramount Theater. Publicity photo

By Charlie Burns, Kyri Antholis, Susannah Birle, Connor Jackson, and Anabel Simpson

Recently, a racist online comment threatening many of our peers at Charlottesville High School with an “ethnic cleansing” closed all city schools for two days. While some students brushed the threat off as a joke and went back to school on Monday without a second thought, others struggled to focus on classwork, and dozens of students joined a walkout organized by the Black Student Union. For many, it was a moment to consider our own role in the community, as both activists and students.

A few of us on the staff of the Knight-Time Review, the CHS newspaper, were given the opportunity to interview Jaclyn Corin, 18, a survivor of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting and a major organizer of the March for Our Lives protest and Never Again movement against gun violence. She’s coming to town on Tuesday to headline the Tom Tom Festival’s Youth Innovation Summit, just a few weeks after another Albemarle teen threatened to shoot up Albemarle High School.

In talking to Corin, we were moved by her courage in coping with the tragedy in her hometown, and her ability to create action out of her experiences. Her tenacity is especially inspiring for us as students still reeling from the threat of racially charged violence. In her eloquence and insight when speaking on gun control, school safety, and mental health, Corin reminded us that we, as students, can influence society and create change.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

C-VILLE: In Charlottesville, obviously, we’ve had a lot of tension in and out of our school since August 12. What advice would you give to student activists on how to build on media attention and create real change as a teenager?

JACLYN CORIN: That’s a packed question! In regards to the media attention, I would say consistency is key. If you’re constantly doing actions and protests and event building with communities, the local news will pay attention. And it’s also about relationship building with local media and with other organizations that might have more clout in the community.

And in regards to just overall advice to teenagers who want to get involved, the first step is that of course one individual has so much power but there’s even more power within a group of people that share a similar desire and the same hunger for change. So I would urge all teenagers to start having conversations about what’s going on in their community, what they want to see changed, and go from there.

What inspired you to found Never Again and March for Our Lives, and what were the stages in building that?

The day after the shooting, I had this immediate urge to do something productive with my time. I realize now that my activism was my coping mechanism. It was the way that I would distract myself after experiencing the unimaginable. And it was really just about not wanting anyone else to have to experience the feelings that I was feeling and that so many families in that community were feeling.

That’s kind of why my immediate action was to organize a lobbying trip up to the capital in Tallahassee. And by the next day I was doing interviews. I was being very active, because I knew that a lot of people weren’t ready to do that and I wanted to make sure that the media wasn’t creating a story for us, that we were telling our own story.

We were really reflecting on how the country reacted after Sandy Hook, and…that nothing really happened after that. We wanted to make sure that something happened after this shooting. And that kind of led us to saying okay, we have to not only mobilize our community but mobilize the entire country against this issue, because it has gone on long enough.

And, you know, we continued after the march by connecting with a bunch of local organizers, registering tens of thousands of voters, having conversations with people that both agree and disagree with us. And we’re still working a year later, building a huge chapter network of youth organizers and pushing legislation.

How has Parkland changed as a community?

Parkland was the safest community in Florida, and I was so, so privileged to live in a community where I could walk down my street and feel safe and not have to worry about the possibility of getting shot. After [the shooting] there’s always this feeling of uncertainty, of, you know, not being safe. And this tragedy not only traumatized the 3,000-plus people that were in school that day, it also directly affected the family members and friends.

What’s so difficult, and what people often forget, is that a lot of places shootings occur can be avoided, but we can’t avoid school. We now have to walk past the building where it occurred every single day.

I think we always reflect on how lucky we are to be alive, and on moving forward to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

What do you think would be the most effective way for schools now to ensure that students are safe at school, until [gun control] legislation and policies are changed?

The biggest thing I think schools can do to support their students is to do preventive health care measures, meaning actually having mental health care providers in schools and not just guidance counselors who do scheduling, and educating students on where they can go for that support. Mental health is just as important as physical health.

And also I just want to emphasize we need to make sure that we don’t put metal detectors in our schools, [police] in our schools, because that doesn’t do anything except make students feel unsafe, and increase the school to prison pipeline. There’s so many situations that show that a good guy with a gun does not always stop a bad guy with a gun.

You’re not just a high school student anymore, you’re an activist—how do you balance that?

It’s definitely a weird experience. March for Our Lives was the first thing I thought about, every day, and I started to burn out a little bit, and then I understood that I need to make time to be a normal teenager, because that’s what I need to do for self-care. Because I also have a lot of trauma that weighs me down every single day.

There’s also level of celebratizing, and I want to make sure we always share our platform. We experienced gun violence in Parkland one day in our lives, and there are people who experience it every day in their communities. There’s a lot we need to keep doing to make sure that they’re being amplified and everyone understands that gun violence is not just mass shootings.

What change have you seen, and do you feel optimistic about the future of gun control legislation in this country, or frustrated by the lack of action?

We’ve seen dozens of state laws be passed that align with the March for Our Lives mission and will help save lives, but unfortunately we haven’t seen a lot of action on the federal level. [But] I am very optimistic. Just yesterday, I went to a hearing in D.C. around extreme risk orders [preventing people at high risk of harming themselves or others from accessing firearms.] The most encouraging thing is these conversations are happening.

At the same time, we need to make sure we keep up the pressure because this is not something that can be swept under the rug, it’s urgent. Every day over a hundred people lose their lives, and 40,000 people annually lose their lives to gun violence.

It’s definitely a difficult thing to understand this is going to take a while, but we have organizers all around the country that are pushing for legislation in their states and we have to make sure we keep calling out legislators and making sure they’re actually listening to their constituents.

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In brief: School walkouts, vegan dating, butt whupping and more

Students at Charlottesville High school were among thousands of teenagers who participated in the March 14 National School Walkout to demand gun control legislation. Eze Amos

Walking the walk

Exactly one month from the day that a gunman shot 17 people to death at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, local students and their peers across the nation said they wouldn’t stand for that—so they walked.

March 14 marked the first National School Walkout, where thousands of students left their classrooms at 10am to demand gun control legislation.

As a seemingly endless current of teenagers streamed out of Charlottesville High School, 17 students lay motionless with their eyes shut tight, while holding signs made of red paper and black letters that spelled out the names of each victim of the Parkland shootings.

“We’ve become numb to the fear,” said senior Fré Halvorson-Taylor into a bullhorn to about 700 of her peers. She was reading from a statement that she wrote with Albemarle High School student Camille Pastore, and that representatives from Monticello and Western Albemarle high schools approved.

“The idea was that it would be read at all the surrounding schools or otherwise disseminated to the Charlottesville community,” Halvorson-Taylor says.

Over at Monticello High, teenagers also flooded out the front doors of their school, but the students who organized their walkout asked for 17 full minutes of silence as the group walked, one minute for each person killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

And as those same names were read at Albemarle High School, an all-female acapella group sang Coldplay’s “Fix You.”

Among the many signs held there, several said the same things: “Enough is enough. Arm us with books, not bullets,” and “We care, but do you?”

Students at AHS remind that they’re the school massacre generation. Photo Natalie Jacobsen

Several local students are organizing buses to Washington, D.C., for the March For Our Lives this weekend.

A dozen area activist groups, such as the local chapter of Moms Demand Action and the Charlottesville Coalition for Gun Violence Prevention, have organized a sister event at the Sprint Pavilion from 2-4pm on March 24 to demand that the lives and safety of young people in schools become a priority.

“I don’t know what to say but that. That was a thorough butt-whupping.”—UVA Coach Tony Bennett after the historic loss of his No. 1-seeded Cavaliers to No. 16 seed UMBC in the first round of the NCAA tournament

City settles FOIA lawsuit

Charlottesville will give freelance reporters Jackson Landers and Natalie Jacobsen redacted copies of police operational plans for August 12 as part of a settlement of their Freedom of Information Act request and lawsuit. The reporters also asked for Virginia State Police plans, but the state argued March 13 in court against turning plans over because they may reuse them. Because they worked so well the first time?

Legislative success

While the General Assembly killed all bills that would allow Charlottesville to better control another Unite the Right rally, it did pass a bill carried by Delegate Steve Landes that will allow Albemarle to regulate parking on secondary highways.

Meat market

New research from meal delivery service Food Box HQ says Virginia singles are among the least likely in the nation to date vegans. In a recent survey, 38 percent indicated that they would not consider dating someone with a diet sans animal products.

New historical society head

Coy Barefoot File photo

After Steven Meeks abruptly resigned as executive director of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society last month, the organization’s board of directors named journalist, author and historian Coy Barefoot as his successor.

Jogger dies

Andrew J. Yost, a 49-year-old who was struck by a sedan while out jogging around 8:30pm February 19 in Barboursville, succumbed to his injuries at the University of Virginia Medical Center on March 10. Driver Guy Wilde, also 49, was charged with one felony count of hit and run.

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Opinion

A-list: Virginia’s GOP legislators stay NRA strong

U.S. Senate hopeful Corey Stewart’s campaign stunts included giving away an AR-15 at a gun range in 2016. In February 2017, he held a rally in Charlottesville in support of keeping the Robert E. Lee statue in Emancipation Park. EZE AMOS

It’s disappointing that the Virginia legislature didn’t see fit to advance even a sliver of new restrictions on guns, militias and racist, reactionary mayhem during the current session. Not a single bill drafted in response to August 12 made it through for consideration in the other chamber, nor did some 60 gun control-related bills.

Plainly, GOP loyalty to the gun lobby trumps outrage over the terrifying presence of self-described militias on Charlottesville’s streets last summer. Certainly, the NRA appreciates it that way, expressing late last month its thanks to the House and Senate committees and NRA members “who voiced opposition to these dangerous attempts to restrict our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.”

Disappointing, for sure, but unsurprising considering the near-victor in the Republican gubernatorial primary last year included an AR-15 giveaway in his arsenal of campaign stunts. Yes, Virginia, with the slaughter at Virginia Tech only a decade in the past, Corey Stewart was giving away a semi-automatic weapon to a lucky supporter at the end of 2016.

Leaving aside whether Stewart lacks empathy for the families of those victims and the survivors of the Tech trauma, the chair of the Prince William Board of Supervisors and 2018 U.S. Senate hopeful is certainly tuned in to the values of some Virginia voters. Recall that Stewart lost the Republican nomination to Ed Gillespie by a slim 4,537 votes.

Still, even a gun guy like Stewart, similar to his former boss Donald Trump, can’t ignore the mounting public pressure to do something real about the scourge of gun violence across the United States. “I think teachers and students are sitting ducks right now,” he told a Norfolk TV station after Parkland. His proposal? It’s straight out of the NRA playbook: arm teachers. Not any teachers—just the ones with good dispositions. Feel better now?

(By way of contrast, note that Tim Kaine, the Democratic incumbent senator who was Virginia’s governor at the time of the Blacksburg massacre that left 32 dead and 17 injured, is openly emotional about what he calls “the worst day of his life.” The NRA grades him an F.)

Stewart, who earns an A rating, is not the only NRA darling running for office this year. The 5th District’s own Tom Garrett has has taken a couple of Gs from gun lobbyists. He too is an A student of the Second Amendment.

The thing about Virginia’s lax gun laws is this: They don’t affect Virginians alone. Inconsistent regulations on background checks and ownership across the country leave everyone vulnerable to gun violence. As my colleague Scott Weaver described in this paper 10 years ago, Virginia is a leading source for guns in New York City, for example, where firearms restrictions are much tougher. In turn, New York City is a leading source for drugs in Virginia. Well known in law enforcement circles for decades, this channel of illicit transaction has earned I-95 the moniker Iron Pipeline.

Maybe it’s a reach to hope that Corey Stewart and Tom Garrett will give a flying pickle about the perils of Virginia’s gun laws for people in other parts of the country since they seem unmoved by the dangers closer to home. But as the students in Parkland are demonstrating, there’s a reckoning a-coming for any lawmaker who denies the interconnectedness of the gun violence. The question in Virginia and across the country is: How long will it be before voters teach politicians a lesson about school shootings?

Yes, Virginia is a monthly opinion column.

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Close to home: Charlottesville reacts to Orlando massacre

Someone fired a gun on the Corner Saturday night. File photo: Martyn Kyle

 

A shot rang out in front of Eddy’s Tavern on the Corner after a dispute had taken place within the establishment Sunday, June 12 at 1:34am. Not even 30 minutes later, rounds of gunfire were unleashed in Orlando, an assault that is now lamented as one of the worst attacks since 9/11, and the deadliest mass shooting in American history.

The incident at Eddy’s began to brew with a noticeable disagreement between two people that broke out into a dispute near the patio, according to a release. Several minutes later, a gunshot was fired outside the restaurant. Charlottesville Police officers on foot patrol quickly responded and were met with a huge crowd at the scene, but the suspect, described as an African-American male in his early 20s with a stocky build wearing a white tank top, had already fled.

“Police were here right away for everyone’s safety,” says James Tharpe, head chef at Eddy’s. “No hysteria, no running, nothing like that took place. We still had our doors open because it was before 2 in the morning, but we [also] kept doors open so the police could come in and speak to individuals.”

Another report of gunshots occurred around 5am Sunday on Cherry Avenue. And less than a week earlier on June 7, officers were dispatched to Gordon Avenue. Students were notified of the gunman threat on Gordon and were instructed to avoid the area.

A public safety substation debuted in January on the Corner as a resource to help students who find themselves in high-risk situations.

“The reception area exists as a place for students that need to get home or if they don’t feel safe,” says Jerry Leon, substation program coordinator. “We can provide escorts for them, we can call cabs for them. Reception is here 24/7.”

Virginia is no stranger to gun violence and the Orlando nightclub shooting has now displaced the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre as the deadliest shooting by a sole gunman within the United States.

“It’s a terrible crime,” says Delegate Rob Bell. “Obviously we’re keeping these families in our prayers. It’s a terrorist incident on our soil,” Bell says he’d need to know more details about the Orlando investigation when asked about legislation to prevent this from occurring in Virginia.

“We are stunned by this senseless act of violence because Orlando could have been any one of our communities,” says 5th District congressional candidate Jane Dittmar. “It is a reminder of how easy it is for people who have deadly intentions to shoot Americans in a church, a school, a movie theater and now a nightclub. This was not just an attack on Floridians, it was an attack on all of us—on what defines us as a country.”

The shooter, Omar Mateen, pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State over a 911 phone call before committing the mass shooting. According to the New York Times, Mateen had been the subject of two investigations with the FBI for possible links to terrorism prior to the catastrophe, yet he was still able to legally purchase an assault weapon and held a firearms and a security-officer license.

The Islamic Society of Central Virginia strongly condemned the recent shootings in Orlando in a statement. “This attack does not represent the values or teachings of the Islamic faith or of the Muslim community and we stand united against any and every criminal act of this sort. We send our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the deceased at this extremely difficult time.”

Cville Pride is hosting a candlelight vigil at 7:30 pm tonight at the Free Speech Monument on the Downtown Mall.

 

 

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From the Oval Office: Obama responds to local’s letter

Jay Varner, a local writer and professor, received a handwritten letter from President Barack Obama. Photo by Martyn Kyle

After a friend was one of the estimated 13,393 people shot and killed in America last year, Batesville resident Jay Varner wrote to eight political representatives about the increasing threat of gun violence. Last month, he received a handwritten response from the president of the United States.

The August 26 on-air slayings of WDBJ7 reporter Alison Parker and photojournalist Adam Ward made Varner feel helpless, enraged and upset, he says. Last spring, he met Parker and her then-boyfriend and later fiancé, Chris Hurst, at Roanoke’s Hollins University where Varner was a visiting professor. One of Varner’s previous students, a current WDBJ7 employee, had attended a reading that Varner was giving, and brought the couple with her.

“We kind of immediately hit if off,” Varner says. “Alison was such a vibrant person.”

So they kept in touch on Facebook, and months later, when he learned that two WDBJ7 employees were murdered while filming a live segment at Smith Mountain Lake, he immediately thought of the reporter, her fiancé and his former student—all three of who he knew worked the morning shift at the station.

“I started to shake and nearly fell to my knees when I saw the location,” he wrote in the letter addressed “Dear Mister President.”

Varner, who teaches classes at UVA, PVCC and JMU, says he wrote to ask what he should tell his students when they ask what today’s leaders are doing to end gun violence.

“What are you going to do about this? Have you now seen enough of your constituents gunned down?” Varner wrote. “Have you sent enough condolences and issued enough statements expressing sadness over such tragedies? Have you seen enough grieving friends and family walk shell shocked through the aftermath of bloodshed?”

Some representatives responded, including Senator Creigh Deeds, who was stabbed several times in the face by his mentally ill son who shot and killed himself minutes later, but the only person to answer Varner’s question directly was President Barack Obama.

After opening the letter—written on a cream-colored, high-quality card with an azure letterhead at the top—Varner says, “First, of course, I was shocked,” and also “surprised that the president of the United States had responded to something I had written.”

The president reads 10 hand-picked letters in the Oval Office each night, according to a statement on the White House’s website by Mike Kelleher, the director of presidential correspondence. Obama sometimes chooses to write back.

In his response to Varner, Obama wrote:

“Thank you for your letter, and your passion. Tell your students that their President won’t stop doing everything he can to stop gun violence. And don’t fill them with cynicism—change isn’t easy, but it requires persistence and hope.”

Varner says he especially appreciates the note about not being cynical.

“The more we speak up, the harder this message is to ignore,” he says. “And that’s something in the president’s response that more than just my students need to hear: Change takes hope, it takes persistence, and it means we can’t give up doing what’s right.”

On March 13, Hurst and Parker’s parents appeared on “CBS Sunday Morning” for a 90-minute show dedicated to gun violence in America.

“When my daughter, Alison, was murdered on live television, I pledged that I was going to do whatever it takes to reduce gun violence in this country,” Andy Parker said in a speech just days after her death. On “CBS Sunday Morning,” he said he believes universal background checks should be mandated for those who wish to purchase guns, and gun show loopholes that allow private buyers to purchase firearms without a background check or a record of the sale should be closed.

Vester Lee Flanagan II, the disgruntled former station employee who killed Parker and Ward and later himself, did pass a background check and purchased his gun legally.

“There are people that say, ‘Well, nothing would’ve prevented her death,’” Varner says about Parker. “Okay, maybe so. But is that a reason to not try and save the next life? Even if it’s one life?”

Click to enlarge President Barack Obama’s response.

Read President Barack Obama's response here.

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Gun crazy: The columns that we hate to write

File photo.

There’s no doubt that we have hobby horses we love to ride. Redistricting is a huge one, along with voter suppression, income inequality and the improbable perfection of Mark Warner’s teeth. But, believe it or not, we do not relish yet another opportunity to write about gun violence. Especially in a week when our patron saint Virgil Goode endorsed walking punchline Donald Trump for president, the last thing we wanted was to spend yet another column decrying America’s gun problem.

But here we are. In a year where there has been more than one mass shooting a day (defined as four or more people shot in one incident), we thought perhaps there was no level of violence that could truly shock us. But then, beginning on so-called Black Friday (the biggest shopping day of the year, and a day on which applications for new gun permits broke all previous records), two heinous acts of mass murder happened in such quick succession that they simply could not be ignored.

The first took place at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where a deranged domestic terrorist named Robert Dear killed three people and wounded nine with a semiautomatic rifle before surrendering to police. The second occurred five days later, when husband and wife Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik lay siege to a holiday party being thrown by Syed’s employer, the San Bernardino County Health Department, and were subsequently shot and killed by police.

The political response to the first attack was typical, with a chorus of politicians offering their “thoughts and prayers” for the victims and their families, but the legislative prospects for even minor gun control measures nonexistent.

The reaction to the second massacre was more vocal and varied, but only after it was revealed that the shooters were Muslim-Americans. (Syed was born and raised in Riverside, California, while Tashfeen was a Pakistani naturalized through marriage.) Then the floodgates opened, and formerly silent NRA-backed politicos rushed to label this an ISIS-style terrorist attack. Former Republican candidate for lieutenant governor E.W. Jackson, for instance, quickly tweeted: “San Bernardino shooting sounds like planned, coordinated attack. Shooters are missing. Could it be Paris-like Islamic terrorist attack?”

This twisted logic—where homegrown mass shootings are greeted with platitudes and inaction, while any attack with even a whiff of Islam about it is immediately considered an act of war (and thus an excuse to manufacture even more guns)—is just one more symptom of our country’s ongoing sick obsession with deadly firepower.

But while some Virginia politicians, like Senator Tim Kaine, were refreshingly blunt (“It’s past time for Congress to quit hiding and address what is a real sickness in this country,” he said during an interview on WTOP radio, “…but you’ve got a political class, frankly, that will not listen to the voters, because they’ve been buffaloed by gun manufacturers and the NRA.”), the consensus opinion in Congress is much closer to that of Richmond’s U.S. Representative Dave Brat, who told Politico, “At some point you have to decide as a nation what your first principles are. And the Second Amendment has been fundamental for a long time.” He then went on to perfectly demonstrate just how little compassion he—and, by extension, the entire Republican Party—has for the daily victims of gun violence in America by insisting that acting “on the basis of the Oprah Winfrey-ification of culture, of short-term feelings, that would be a very flawed model.”

On the word “feelings,” the Politico reporter noted, Brat mimicked the playing of a violin.

Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.