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Paul W. Moog, Jr. of Virginia is the designated recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for February.

In nominating Moog for the Award, John Michael Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director, said “Paul is an energetic American who is determined to combat efforts to undermine the right of law-abiding individuals to keep and bear arms.

“As founder and executive director of the Northern Virginia Citizens Defense League, Paul has spearheaded the development of a local gun rights organization which is beginning to have a significant impact in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

“His efforts serve as an example for others around the country who would like to do something in their own areas in the effort to preserve and promote the traditional right of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms.”

Formed in 1994, the Northern Virginia Citizens Defense League (NVCDL) has about 200 members. It is a non-profit, all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to defending the civil rights of all Virginians. The membership considers the right to keep and bear arms an essential civil right.

Since its founding, NVCDL

– has picketed a local sheriff’s gun buy-back program;

– been instrumental in reforming Virginia’s discriminatory concealed weapons law into a “shall issue” CCW permit system;

– forced Fairfax County to comply with the Virginia CCW law by eliminating the personal history form, the police interrogation of applicants, and the imposition of excessive fees;

– helped stall anti-gun legislative proposals in the last session of the state legislature;

– saw to it that Fairfax County Police revamped the Department’s “Firearms Safety Presentation;”

– distributed pro-self-defense literature at the Stand for Children Rally in Washington, D. C.;

– helped fund a lawsuit against Fairfax County for violation of a League member’s privacy during the CCW application process;

– engineered a change in Fairfax County’s hunting laws to exempt persons lawfully carrying firearms for personal safety from county hunting restrictions;

– developed a list of products which members should not buy because the products’ distributors evidenced aggressive anti-gun rights behavior; and

– produced and distributed “GUNS SAFE LIVES – 2.5 Millions Defensive Uses Each Year” bumper strips available for one dollar each from NVCDL, P. O. Box 821, Alexandria VA 22313.

NVCDL maintains a world wide web page and e-mail alert network to keep members and other interested parties informed of the latest developments in Virginia relating to the right to keep and bear arms. The web page may be visited at www.nvcdl.org. It contains information on

– legislative updates (federal and state);

– media alerts;

– links to firearms related sites;

– recommended reading; and

– exposes of anti-gun organizations.

Moog says that “when we started NVCDL in October of 1994 I would have scoffed at the notion that our little group of five activists would have expanded to over 200 members and supporters in less than two years. I would also have scoffed at the notion that we would be able to help reform Virginia’s discriminatory concealed weapons law in our first year of existence.

“Because of our efforts, bureaucrats and politicians routinely monitor our world-wide-web page in hopes of anticipating our next move.

“Our monthly meetings, newsletters, e-mail alerts, and phone tree assure that all members are kept informed of the latest issues regarding individual liberty.”

Born in 1961 in Pennsylvania, Paul grew up in the Washington, D. C. area, completed his schooling in Washington, D. C. public schools, was an electronic technician in the United States Navy from 1981 through 1988, now works as a computer analyst with the U. S. government and lives with his wife, Heidi, in Alexandria, Virginia.

Congressman Virgil H. Goode, Jr. of Virginia is the designated recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for January.

In nominating Rep. Goode for the Award, John Michael Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director, said that “this Virginia lawmaker, throughout his public career, has demonstrated repeatedly and forcefully his commitment to the individual right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.

“Recently, when my wife and I were talking with the newly-elected Congressman Goode, a Democrat, and his wife during a reception in Washington, D. C., Goode said that ‘we need a permit to carry concealed law for Washington, D. C.’

“Of course I agreed and volunteered to introduce him to Congressman Clifford B. Stearns of Florida, a Republican. Rep. Stearns, himself a CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Awardee, is the author of legislation which would allow the holder of a permit to carry a concealed firearm issued by any state to carry concealed in any state.

“Congressman Goode was happy with the prospect of meeting Congressman Stearns and so I introduced the two Representatives to each other. It seems that, as a result, we now will have in Congress bipartisan support for the federal reciprocity permit to carry concealed concept.”

Goode, as Virginia State Senator, was the chief sponsor of Virginia’s concealed carry legislation. The 1995 Personal Protection Act, adopted after a spirited fight by legislators favoring restrictive gun control, set standards so that Virginia’s law-abiding citizens would have a fair chance of obtaining a concealed carry permit regardless of the locality in which he or she lived.

Prior to the Virginia law, it was almost impossible in many jurisdictions in Virginia to get a concealed carry permit.

When the Goode proposal was being debated in Virginia, R. Cort Kirkwood columnized in the Arlington, Virginia COURIER that “those who don’t want citizens to carry guns might explain how crime will increase if more citizens carry guns. Criminals will always commit crimes, but law-abiding citizens will not, and their newly-won liberty to protect themselves isn’t likely to cause more crime. More shootings, however, are another matter. If and when Mr. Goode’s bill becomes law, more shootings may indeed occur, but it is unlikely those shooting will be defined as ‘crimes’ in the sense of predator and prey. Where citizens are prepared to defend themselves as the rule rather than the exception, criminals will fear being shot dead while plying their trade…

“Aside from the obvious advantage an armed man has if he must defend life and limb, he also has the undying respect of those who see the bulge under his jacket, which says, in the words of the old cliche: ‘Don’t tread on me.’

“Those words don’t mean much to those who want to live in a risk-free community where people no longer know how to use, and in all likelihood fear, firearms. But what those folks don’t understand is that a measure of danger always accompanies liberty, and no society is truly free unless its citizens have a right to defend themselves. Accidental shootings will occur, but for the same reason we do not curtail the right of the press because a newspaper might err, we should not curtail the right of free citizens to defend themselves.”

As a Virginia State Senator, Congressman Goode voted against banning certain shotguns on the grounds that they could be used for self-defense purposes. He also voted against then Governor Wilder’s “one-gun-a-month” registration scheme.

Born October 17, 1946 in Richmond, Virginia, Goode, a Baptist, holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Virginia. He lives with his wife Lucy and one child in Rocky Mount, Virginia.

Congressman Jay Dickey of Arkansas is the designated recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for November.

In nominating Rep. Dickey for the award, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director John Michael Snyder said “the pro-firearms owners rights movement in the United States owes Congressman Jay Dickey a vote of gratitude and thanks for his successful leadership of the effort to curtail the anti-gun activities of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”

Under the directorship of Dr. Mark Rosenberg, NCIPC was using funds to promote the anti-gun agenda. He even stated he “envisions a long term campaign, similar to tobacco use and auto safety, to convince Americans that guns are, first and foremost, a public health menace.”

Dickey initiated an appropriations move to take $2.6 million, the exact amount spent by NCIPC on so-called “firearm injury research,” and reprogram it within the CDC budget.

By the time Congress adjourned last month, the moneys in question had been earmarked specifically for traumatic brain injury research.

“This is a great achievement for Congressman Dickey and the individual right of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms,” said Snyder, “and he is most deserving of this CCRKBA Award.”

During the congressional debate on the issue, Rep. Dickey said “this is an issue of federally funded political advocacy. We have here an attempt by the CDC through the NCIPC, a disease control agency of the federal government, to bring about gun control advocacy all over the United States through seminars, through the staff members and through the funding of different efforts all over the country on this one issue, to raise emotional sympathy for those people who are for gun control. It is a blatant attempt on the part of government to federally fund lobbying and political advocacy. Rather than calling violence a disease and guns as a germ, these people should be looking at the other root causes of crime: poverty, drug trade, gangs, and children growing up without parental support, and the cruel trap of welfare dependency. Those things have more to do with crime control than trying to come at it from a disease definition.

“Ownership of guns by itself is what this particular amount of money is going to. It is not a public health threat. In fact, the violence related to guns has been found to be going down to the extent of two-thirds, where we actually have a 173 percent increase in the number of guns in the United States. So it is obviously not a public health threat, because we are doing this through education and training and not through a discredited study program by the CDC through the NCIPC.

“Some quotes that exist from one of the officials that we pay federal money to, what we need to try to do is to find a socially acceptable form of gun control. Experts from Harvard and Columbia medical schools have reviewed the work on firearms that this agency has done with federal money and have stated that it displays an emotional anti-gun agenda and are so biased and contains so many errors of fact, logic and procedure that we cannot regard them as having a legitimate claim to be treated as scholarly or scientific literature. So this is discredited by authorities. It is not something we should be doing.”

Congressman Dickey was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. After graduation from Pine Bluff High School, he attended Hendrix College for one year on a basketball scholarship. He then transferred to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where he made the Razorback basketball team and was given a full athletic basketball scholarship, only to contact polio in the spring of 1960, almost ending his athletic career. He fully recovered from polio in time to have an undefeated season with the tennis team as its No. 1 player, marry Betty Clark of Walnut Ridge, and enter law school. He graduated with a B.A. Degree from the School of Arts and Sciences in 1961 (combined degree) and from the School of Law in 1963.

Jay returned to Pine Bluff to practice law with his father. Early in his law career, he was asked to represent the Arkansas Fox and Coon Hunters Association against the Game and Fish Commission over the issue of the running of dogs. That series of suits took place around 1968. He won the suit and there is no such restriction on the use of running dogs.

In 1972, Jay began his business ventures with the purchase of a Baskin Robbins franchise in Pine Bluff. He currently owns two Taco Bell restaurants and Condray Sign & Advertising Company in Pine Bluff. Jay is the father of four children, John, Laura, Ted and Rachel. He is a familiar participant in local 5K runs. He was first elected Representative for the Fourth Congressional District in Arkansas in 1992. He serves on the House Committee on Appropriations.

Michael Patrick Sessa of the Detroit, Michigan area is the designated recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for July.

In nominating Sessa for the Award, Alan M. Gottlieb, CCRKBA Chairman, said “Mike has worked hard and long in Michigan for the pro-gun cause. He has done all kinds of great things to promote the individual right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms, and has been unstinting in support of our freedoms.

“One of the most remarkable things he has done is originate the Gun Owners of Macomb County and coordinate annual pro-gun rights freedom rallies at the Freedom Hill County Park in Sterling Heights, in suburban Detroit, sometimes attracting thousands of participants.

“This year, the rally, called GUNSTOCK ’96 PLUS, attracted at least a thousand participants, and those of us whom Mike invited to speak were most heartened by the experience.

“The survival of freedom in Michigan and indeed throughout the United States is dependent directly on the efforts of dedicated people like Mike and many others like him all across America.

“Mike most certainly deserves the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award.”

Mike, 35, is employed by the American Team, a plastics injecting molding company, as a Secondary Operations Processing Manager, and has worked for the same company for 15 years.

The eldest of four children of Michael C. and Marlene J. Sessa, Mike, a high school graduate, is continuing his education with college level courses.

At age 10, Mike was introduced to high power rifles. During the next 25 years, he developed into an expert (non-rated) rifleman, shotgunner, black powder shooter and archer. Utilizing all of the shooting sports, he says, he became an accomplished hunter. He also says that, at a very early age, he became aware of the “politically correct” anti-hunting, anti-Second Amendment fringe faction, and has been fighting them ever since then.

Mike is Vice Chairman of the Macomb Coalition of Republicans, Vice Chairman of the Macomb County Young Republicans, a Member of the Republican Liberty Caucus, and a Republican Party Precinct Delegate.

Mike says he has worked many political campaigns at all levels, and has been successful, he says, in getting his father elected County Commissioner since 1988, and himself elected county wide as a Trustee for Macomb County Community College in 1994. Both father and son are up for reelection this year.

He is a member of the Second Amendment Foundation, the National Rifle Association of America, the Firearms Coalition and Gun Owners of America.

Mike informed POINT BLANK that he himself started the pro-gun, grassroots, politically active Gun Owners of Macomb County. Based in southeast Michigan, the organization is expanding on a statewide basis. Mike said that the group’s “impact on the political system is exactly as calculated – devastating to the political elite!”

Mike says “the Gun Owners of Macomb County group has been blasted by irate anti-gun politicians, left wing groups such as ADL and Morris Dees’ Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.”

He says “you wear these attacks as badges of honor in your fight to preserve freedom and liberty. We’ve been attacked by these organizations not because we have broken any laws, not because we’re racist or anti-semitic, but simply for vocalizing and organizing against bad public policy and attacks on fundamental individual rights.”

Mike also operates his own fax networking system known as the Minute Man Fax Network, which he describes as “a state-wide instant information forwarding system which reaches over two hundred political activists in Michigan. Its impact on Michigan politics is dramatic. The recipients of Minute Man communications could be referred to as a Rapid Deployment Force of Political Activists.”

Sessa says his goal in life is “the elimination of liberalism within one generation of Americans.”

Congressman Jim Ross Lightfoot of Iowa, a CCRKBA Congressional Advisor, is the recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for June.

In nominating Rep. Lightfoot for the Award, John Michael Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director, said that the Iowan “has been a consistent congressional supporter of the individual right of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms. Recently, he voted to repeal the Clinton ban on semiautomatic firearms and multiple capacity ammunition feeding devices.

“In 1994, he voted against the Brady Bill. He also voted against the Clinton so-called ‘crime bill’ which included the ban on semiautomatics.

“Last year, as Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Treasury, Postal Service and General Government, Rep. Lightfoot requested the General Accounting Office to look into three aspects of BATF operations: its policies regarding use of force, its treatment of firearms dealers, and whether BATF databases fall within guidelines set by Congress.

“In late April, Rep. Lightfoot held public hearings on BATF operations, after releasing, in his words, ‘the first of two GAO reports – regarding ATF’s use of force policies and ATF’s treatment of firearms dealers. The third report, on the use of databases, has been delayed.’

“It’s very important that Members of Congress use their federal bureaucracy oversight function in this way. That’s how to keep government bureaucrats’ feet to the fire. Rep. Lightfoot has been doing a good, solid job in Congress and certainly deserves this Award.”

According to the GAO report on federal firearms licensees which Congressman Lightfoot released, “since reaching a high point in April, 1993, the number of licensed firearms dealers sharply declined by about 35 percent, from about 260,700 to about 168,400 dealers, as of September 30, 1995. This decline occurred nationwide, ranging from a 23 percent decline in Montana to a 45 percent decline in Hawaii. A decline occurred both in applications for new licenses and renewals of existing licenses. During this period, the number of applications abandoned and withdrawn by former and prospective dealers was much higher than the number of licensed denied and revoked by ATF.

“Our analysis of ATF data showed that several factors collectively contributed to this decline. Principal among these factors were that:

“Since January, 1993, ATF has implemented efforts to increase enforcement of existing laws by closely scrutinizing firearms dealer applicants and licensees through increased inspections.

“In response to an August, 1993 presidential memorandum, ATF, in late 1993, revised the application requirements to obtain more information about applicants.

“Federal legislation passed in November, 1993 increased licensing fees, and legislation passed in September, l994 added more licensing requirements, including requiring applicants for firearms dealer licenses to certify compliance with state and local laws as a condition for federal licensing.

“In addition, state and local agencies’ enforcement of their laws may have resulted in reductions in the number of firearms dealers.”

Dennis Walker of Columbus, Ohio, the Chairman of the Peoples Rights Organization, is the designated recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for May.

In nominating Walker for the Award, John Michael Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director, noted that “Dennis, for a number of years now, has worked ceaselessly and on a volunteer basis to protect the individual right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. He has distinguished himself as a leader of the gun rights movement both in Ohio and in the Nation. He is most deserving of this Award.”

Born March 15, 1948 in Columbus, Dennis graduated from Bexley High School in 1966.

He attended Rio Grande College in Ohio for two years. He worked a variety of jobs, including factory, gas stations, bars, short order cook, catering and truck driver.

Dennis became disabled in 1985 as the result of a motorcycle accident and degeneration of the knees from jumping in and out of trucks for many years.

He attended Columbus State Community College in Construction Management for two years, maintaining a 3.7 grade average but dropped out to devote full time to the Peoples Rights Organization and the defense of the Second Amendment.

Dennis learned to shoot at the age of 12 at Camp Minnehaha, a summer camp in West Virginia. He told POINT BLANK he has hunted rabbit, pheasant and deer, “though there is not much time to do any hunting at all anymore.”

In 1989, Dennis “hooked up with,” in his words, “a fledgling group called the Peoples Rights Organization (PRO). He and others had become incensed after the Mayor of Columbus at the time, Dana “Buck” Rinehart, had come back from the 1989 Conference of Mayors “with the idea of banning semiautomatic firearms within city limits.”

While PRO gathered thousands of signatures for a referendum petition to repeal the semiautomatic ban, they did not have quite enough valid signatures. So then they filed a lawsuit against the city to overturn the ban. “In 1994, PRO won its lawsuit against Columbus and recovered attorney fees of $68,000,” says Dennis. “Dr. Stephen Halbrook is still our attorney in these matters.”

In March of this year, with Dennis’ coordination, PRO hosted the first Ohio Outdoor Sports Political Seminar, which featured national, State and local pro-gun rights activists as speakers.

Dennis also is active in the Ohio Constitution Defense Council, of which he is Vice Chairman, and is a strong proponent of a CCW law for Ohio.

His pro-gun activities were discussed at length in an article on the CCW controversy appearing in the October, 1995 issue of COLUMBUS MONTHLY. In that article, “The Right to Pack Heat,” writer Ray Paprocki wrote that “locally, the point man on the attack was Walker, with his colleagues at the Peoples Rights Organization. They turned in petitions of support and urged their members to write letters or make calls. Walker cranked up the group’s computer to target the constituents of undecided Senators with phone messages. And when Dewey Stokes testified against the legislation, the organization turned out about 200 people – many wearing NRA caps and the like – to pack the Senate committee room. At times, they heckled Stokes during his speech.”