Gun control activists from coast to coast are cheering Virginia Democrats who have accomplished what most of them achieve only in their dreams.
Lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled legislature put the finishing touches on enacting Governor Ralph Northam’s destruction of Second Amendment rights in the state. Earlier this year, Democrats passed 5 bills, each one worse than the last, including laws that make it illegal to purchase more than one gun a month, background checks on all state gun sales, and being fined $250 for not reporting a stolen gun in 48 hours.
Yesterday, Democrats passed the two remaining items on Northam’s anti-gun agenda.
One bill will allow localities to regulate firearms in public places with the exemption of higher education institutions. The other bill will require individuals under protective orders to turn over their firearms within 24 hours and prove that they’ve done so or face being held in contempt of court for non-compliance.
The measures were passed during the annual reconvening, which allows state legislators to consider vetoes or amendments issued by the governor to pieces of legislation passed during the regular session. Under the state constitution, the General Assembly must meet the sixth Wednesday after adjournment.
It was an interesting session to be sure.
The @VASenate has now adjourned. And so ends a historic, socially distanced Virginia General Assembly Veto Session. pic.twitter.com/JbLWLtLCrD
— Jennifer McClellan (@JennMcClellanVA) April 23, 2020
How delusional are gun control advocates about these bills?
Kris Brown, president of Brady, a pro-gun safety group, hailed the passage of the bills for making Virginia “safer.”
“We are grateful that they prioritized liberating our Commonwealth from the threat of gun violence,” Brown said in a press release.
And when the next deranged citizen starts shooting up a school, we’ll be sure to thank Governor Northam for “liberating” Virginians from gun violence.
Pro-Second Amendment groups felt helpless.
Philip Van Cleave, the president of Virginia Citizens Defense League, previously told CNN that the pro-gun rights group “has been readying lawsuits for weeks to overturn some of the new gun-control laws in the courts.”
He told CNN Thursday that all the gun legislation passed this year won’t have any serious effect on crime, but “will definitely affect the law-abiding gun owners” in the state. He added that the extreme risk protection law “shreds much of the Constitutional protections we cherish in this country.”
Van Cleave pointed to the 2021 state elections as a way to “hopefully begin repealing these laws.”
Virginia’s status as a “purple” state is in danger of becoming “bluer.” The northern sections of the state around Washington have been trending Democratic for decades and now appear to have tipped the balance in the whole state toward the blue column.
The Virginia GOP better get its act together and listen to its members. Otherwise, it will be a long road back from the wilderness.
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