Virginia Is Ground Zero in the War over Gun Control

When Democrats won control of both houses of the Virginia Legislature November 5, 2019, Virginia gun-owners got a rude wake-up call. Now that wake-up call is spreading to gun-owners throughout the rest of the 49 states.

In July 2019, Gov. Ralph Northam proposed a package of eight proposals that would tighten Virginia's gun laws, known as some of the least restrictive in the country. Currently, Virginia's gun control measures of merit ban the sale of firearms only to high-risk individuals and those convicted of domestic violence. However, the proposals would turn the least restrictive into what some would call dangerously restrictive, a premeditated strike against the Second Amendment. Northam's proposed package calls for legislation:

• Requiring background checks on all firearms sales and transactions. The bill mandates that any person selling, renting, trading, or transferring a firearm must first obtain the results of a background check before completing the transaction.
• Banning dangerous weapons. This will include bans on assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, bump stocks and silencers.
• Reinstating Virginia's successful [sic] law allowing only one handgun purchase within a 30-day period.
• Requiring that lost and stolen firearms be reported to law enforcement within 24 hours.
• Creating an Extreme Risk Protective Order, allowing law enforcement and the courts to temporarily separate a person from firearms if the person exhibits dangerous behavior that presents an immediate threat to self or others.
• Prohibiting all individuals subject to final protective orders from possessing firearms. The bill expands Virginia law which currently prohibits individuals subject to final protective orders of family abuse from possessing firearms.
• Enhancing the punishment for allowing access to loaded, unsecured firearm by a child from a Class 3 Misdemeanor to a Class 6 felony. The bill also raises the age of the child from 14 to 18.
• Enabling localities to enact any firearms ordinances that are stricter than state law. This includes regulating firearms in municipal buildings, libraries and at permitted events.

Incoming Democratic speaker of the House of Delegates Eileen Filler Corn said gun control is a top Democratic priority for 2020 as she was recently interviewed for Fox News's On the Hill. This puts the Democrat majority squarely in the middle of a groundswell of activism. As Virginia becomes ground zero for virulent gun control activists, such as Moms Demand Action, they are met by the equally fierce Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), who are determined to protect Second Amendment rights. While Virginia is home to the National Rifle Association (NRA), the VCDL grassroots organization, founded in 1994, is taking the lead in the fight against the legislation. This fight, while still predominantly Virginia-focused, is turning into growing national movement via social media, as word is spreading to gun-owners across the country. The concern is that what happens in Virginia could soon be coming to a state near you, or your own state, via legislative initiatives.

The gun control topic has become so impassioned that VCDL is mounting a 50,000-plus lobbying effort slated for January 20 in the Richmond capital, the day the Democrats assume power. However, the battle is also being fought throughout the state, county by county, city by city. In response to Governor Northam's statement that...

Read more: HERE