It turns out it was Virginia State Senator Dave Marsden who called gun rights advocates “children” on a hot mic at a public meeting over the weekend. But calling them “children” was just the beginning. Things just got worse. Much worse.
Marsden is in support of Democrats’ planned rollbacks of Virginia gun laws at the behest of anti-gun PAC man Michael Bloomberg:
I am pleased to have the endorsement of the hardest-working grassroots organization on the planet, @MomsDemand.
These upcoming elections in November will determine whether VA is able to pass life-saving measures to curb gun violence. It's up to you. Can we count on you to vote? pic.twitter.com/3FnuUfvJQy
— Dave Marsden (@SenDaveMarsden) August 19, 2019
Democrats are calling for, among other things, a ban or curbs on AR-15s, gun rationing, limits on ammo magazines, and a red flag law – a bill that would take guns away from people on the word of a third person who labels them mentally ill.
So it was not an accident or an oopsie when Marsden said in a radio interview on Wednesday that the people who were “emotional” about losing of their Second Amendment civil rights were “mentally ill.”
“I’ve been having this experience for weeks. I’m getting calls day and night,” he said. “Obscene, vulgar, threatening phone calls. I mean, we’re not talking a couple, well over a hundred.”
He was asked if he’d regretted sending a letter to constituents who had written him about the gun rollbacks saying “too many of your members appear to have mental health issues.”
“But, but there are very unstable people and this is worrisome. What I was telling people was that the responses from people who show the signs of having mental health difficulties.”
Here’s a look at that gobsmacking letter, which Marsden admitted sending:
Screenshot/Reddit
Marsden said, “They were disturbing and indicative of mental health issues among many 2a supporters.”
I ask you to join me in support of Mr. Buttigieg. I believe he is the right person for this unusual moment in our nation’s history. pic.twitter.com/IPjeMuFCDq
— Dave Marsden (@SenDaveMarsden) September 16, 2019
The influential state senator told the “Mornings on the Mall” hosts that “It’s unacceptable behavior. Nobody else does that.”
Do you ever hear anyone talk about the obvious mental illness of Antifa members? When they surrounded Fox News’s Tucker Carlson’s house, was there a discussion of their mental health? Out loud, I mean. Comments are based on what they do. Is someone threatening to take away their First Amendment rights because of the crackpottery that pours forth from their pieholes? Or is the suggestion that they be curbed based solely on the violence they commit?
But here we have a lawmaker who can erase a law-abiding person’s Second Amendment rights based on someone else’s “proof,” Marsden says. Nobody wants homicidally mentally ill people with guns. But Marsden seems to see “mentally ill” people everywhere, especially people who don’t like the guilty-until-proven-innocent “red flag laws”:
“And what concerns me is that when we bring up red flag laws where someone who is showing mental instability and making an issue with the gun that they possess is that a number of folks in the 2 A community don’t want us to be able to address that person showing signs of mental distress who has a weapon and is making reference to using it.”
Listen to the interview yourself. It starts at 3:3:40.
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