Virginia gun owners and Second Amendment advocates across the nation can heave a small sigh of relief after a controversial assault weapons ban died in the state Senate, but increasingly draconian antics by Democrat legislators mean we can’t put our feet up and rest just yet.
After Democrats dominated the Old Dominion’s state government in January, they got right to work pushing several aggressive proposed unconstitutional gun regulations.
Perhaps the biggest push from Gov. Ralph Northam and his Dem cronies was for Virginia House Bill 961, which would have effectively banned semi-automatic weapons as well as suppressors and magazines with a capacity greater than 12 rounds.
Northam originally wanted most handguns and shotguns to fall under the “assault weapons” category with no grandfathering clause, allowing for an outright gun confiscation.
So much for “listening to the voices of Virginians” as he promised in response to the state’s massive pro-Second Amendment rally last month!
The display of over 20,000 lawfully armed, peaceful Virginians may likely have been a motivating factor behind the bill being somewhat watered down and amended to include a grandfathering clause for firearms and suppressors.
Earlier this month, the House Public Safety Committee amended and passed the bill, but not before pulling some sickening totalitarian tricks.
In a shocking video shared by Big League Politics, committee members booted peaceful citizens testifying against the bill from a committee hearing.
The committee, which the NRA-ILA describes as being “bought and paid for” by anti-gun presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, only gave the dozens of activists who showed up for the vote Friday morning a combined total of five minutes to speak:
“According to those in the room, Virginia State Police formed a riot line between the public and the committee and gave the public 30 seconds to leave or be arrested. Shortly after the room was cleared the committee came back into session with an empty chamber to consider additional gun control measures,” Labiosa Liberty PAC wrote, according to Big League Politics.
This is exactly the tyranny our Founding Fathers, many of which in the great state of Virginia, fought against. Patrick Henry would be spinning in his grave!
“Though the committee amended the bill to allow citizens to keep affected firearms and suppressors they lawfully owned prior to the ban, confiscation is undoubtedly still the end goal of Michael Bloomberg and he will continue to work toward this end,” the NRA-ILA wrote. “There is no option for citizens to keep their lawfully acquired magazines with capacities greater than twelve rounds, forcing millions of Virginians to dispose of their property, become a felon, or surrender it to the government.”
Thankfully, a handful of moderate Democrats in the Senate joined Republicans in voting down the bill—for this year, anyway.
Virginia’s anti-Second Amendment Democrats aren’t going away any time soon, but neither are the tens of thousands of folks who peacefully rallied, the 90% of the state’s counties (which contain 40% of the population) who voted to become “Second Amendment Sanctuaries,” or the men and women who are waking up each and every day to the fact that their liberties will be stolen from them if they don’t stand up and fight.
If you are in Virginia, now is the time to get active in local Second Amendment advocacy groups and get to know your elected representatives and remind them that Virginians will not suffer tyrants!
This article was first published on the Activist Mommy website, and is republished with permission. You may not use, copy, distribute, publish, syndicate, sub-license and transmit the whole or any part of such material in any manner and in any format and/or media without the permission of the original publishers.
Picture by Anthony Crider – Flickr, CC BY 2.0, Link. Picture cropped.
