Richmond, VA — Gun owners in Virginia had no clue how what was coming for them when the Democrats won control of their legislature last November. The anti-gun left didn’t waste a minute before ramming gun control down their throats.
Watching what happened to Virginia has been a rude wake up call for gun owners across the country. But Virginia politicians aren’t letting up just because the legislature is adjourned.
Two weeks ago, the anti-gun mayor of their capital city proposed an ordinance that would ban guns at any protests or rallies. The ban would “prohibit bringing a gun to, or adjacent to, a street, sidewalk, alley or other public right-of-way at a permitted event or one that requires a permit under city code.”
Mayor Levar Stoney made the proposal and several memebers of the City Council voiced support for the proposal. Still, on Thursday, August 19th, they voted to shelf the discussion until their next meeting. That follow up meeting is scheduled for September 8th.
When gun owners heard about the proposal they weren’t impressed. The very next weekend, and again on Tuesday, August 18th, gun owners held a rally in support of their gun rights.
Unsurprisingly, no people or property came to any harm as a result of the 2A protest — in stark contrast to the protests of the ‘anti-gun’ left in the last three months. The ones where they shot at innocent people or beat innocent people nearly to death.
But the Mayor was undeterred. In public statements, Mayor Stoney took the leftist line that’ if a gun is present, people aren’t safe.’
“I just think that if you’re going to a public event, you should be able to go there and enjoy yourself, go there for your cause, and not feel under constant threat because of individuals walking around with an AK-47,” said Stoney.
Incidentally, since late May, Richmond had seen multiple protests that ended in violence and destruction. Finally weary of the chaos, armed citizens began to attend the anti-police and anti-racism rallies. Shockingly, the riots with armed citizens present didn’t devolve into chaos and violence!
Imagine that!
Additionally, Mayor Stoney ignored the fact that more than 25,000 gun owners rallied on the Capital Grounds in January — most heavily armed — and nobody was hurt.
In fact, tens of thousands of gun owners left the square cleaner than they found it.
Not Everybody Was Silent
In addition to the 2A rallies, some gun owners showed up at the City Council meeting to voice their objections and concerns with the proposal. One of those voices was Cheryl Nici-O’Connell, a former police officer.
Nici-O’Connell said she carries a gun to protect herself, and that this ban would have “unintended consequences” if adopted.
“What you are doing in essence is setting up a pool of potential victims, because law-abiding citizens are always going to follow the law,” she said.
Amen! Hence the reason these 2A rallies don’t end in violence and destruction — while the left’s protests across the country have left hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in their wake.
Preemption Laws Are A Memory
This ban wouldn’t even have been possible if not for Ralph Northam’s new anti-gun legislature. The new Democrat majority tossed out Virginia’s previous preemption laws, which wouldn’t allow a city to pass any gun control laws that nullified state law. So on July 1st, cities could propose and pass their own gun control, and barely a month later, the Democrat leaders of Virginia’s capital are already going after gun rights.
Thanks to Mike Bloomberg’s purchased majority, the hard left has taken the gloves off!
Fight Like Your Kids’ Rights Depend On It!
This is the pattern of the left: big leftist donors dump money into a state trying to unseat weak and moderate Republicans to give the anti-gun crowd the majority.
Once they’ve accomplished that, they can pass all the gun control they want — and allow individual cities run by leftists to do the same.
Gun owners, the NRA isn’t coming to save us. It’s time to STAND UP and GET LOUD and GET MEAN in fighting for our gun rights — before they’re gone for good.
Take it from Virginia. It’s now or never.