Before the dust from the election had settled, Virginia Democrats rolled out SB16. A comprehensive assault on the second amendment rights of its law-abiding citizens, complete with bans and the confiscation of firearms. But before the bill can be introduced, the state’s cities and counties rebelled.
Related: What New Hampshire Republicans Can Learn from The GOP Washout in Virginia
The newly elected legislature isn’t even seated yet, and the state has something of a civil war on its hands.
Chesapeake City Council members unanimously voted to designate the city as a “Second Amendment Constitutional City” — a symbol of support for protecting gun rights. …
At least 20 Virginia localities, including Gloucester County, have passed resolutions in recent weeks saying they would oppose new state gun laws and refuse to use public funds to restrict Second Amendment rights.
The Democrats, feeling a bit pinched politically, are still planning to introduce their wretched bill but with one change — a grandfather clause.
Governor Ralph Northam (D.) and incoming Senate majority leader Dick Saslaw (D.) said they will no longer pursue their marquee plan to ban the possession of “assault weapons.” Instead, they will include a provision to allow Virginians to keep the firearms they already own. The reversal comes before the newly elected Democratic majority has even been sworn in, after a majority of the state’s counties declared themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries.”
Jazz Shaw frames the optics for us.
If they had moved forward with the full ban anyway, both the logistics and the political optics appeared daunting. If local law enforcement wasn’t going to go around collecting firearms they would have needed to dispatch the state police to do the job. And then there’s always the possibility that they might run into somebody holding to the “cold dead hands” philosophy. A dead firearms owner with no previous criminal record would make for a terrible headline for the Governor.
Virginia is still for Gun Grabbers. The rest of the law is still alive and well and they plan to advance it.
Northam mentioned universal background checks, banning the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, restoring the law that limits purchases to one gun a month, and a red flag law that would empower a court to temporarily remove a gun from a person deemed to be a risk to himself or others.
And SB64 is likewise in play. That bill would make it illegal for more than one armed person to “assemble” anywhere for range practice, safety training, or even parades. All proposed laws these cities and counties say they will not enforce.
Good for them. But it would be better for Virginians if they’d not elected the Democrats in the first place — a lesson we need to heed here in New Hampshire. You’ve seen what they did knowing a Republican governor would veto most of it, and they lacked the override votes in the House and Senate.
Picture them without those barriers.
It would look a lot like Virginia right now (or New York or California have for years). Only, I have no faith that any county or city in the Granite State would have the B***s to declare itself a sanctuary be it gun bans, speech bans, or any other sort of nonsense.
Instead, keep things simple. Save on court challenges. Keep the government out of your life (well, a bit less in it). Stop electing Democrats.
Just do it.
| Hot Air
