The Commonwealth of Virginia has a strange history with gun laws. What I mean is that depending on who is in power, it’s either uber pro-gun or uber anti-gun, and those seem to swing faster than a screen door in a tornado.
After the recent elections, though, it’s clear the state is headed deep into the anti-gun side of things, with a plethora of gun control proposals already introduced, and there being little doubt of more to come.
Which brings us to Lobby Day in Richmond. That’s the annual gathering of gun rights advocates outside the state capitol as they lobby lawmakers for gun rights.
And the turnout this year was better than it’s been in a while, apparently.
Standing just outside the iron fencing surrounding Virginia’s Capitol in downtown Richmond on Monday, Alexandria resident Gerald Vandendries hoisted a semi-automatic rifle and scanned the crowd gathering for Lobby Day — an annual ritual for gun rights supporters that carried renewed urgency this year.
“We’re hoping to just kind of give Democrats a friendly reminder that this is our right,” Vandendries said. “Our Constitution very specifically says our rights shall not be infringed. They do not have the right in any way, shape or form to dictate to us, the civilian population, what we can or cannot own.”
Monday’s pro-Second Amendment rally, organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, drew nearly 1,000 people to the Bell Tower in Capitol Square.
Attendance was noticeably higher than in recent years, reflecting concerns among gun owners as Democrats once again control both chambers of the General Assembly and the governor’s office — a political alignment many supporters said felt familiar.
In early 2020, when Democrats gained unified control of state government for the first time in more than two decades, lawmakers enacted sweeping changes to Virginia’s gun laws, including universal background checks, a one-handgun-a-month purchasing limit and a red-flag law allowing courts to temporarily remove firearms from people deemed a danger.
The legislation, signed into law by then-Gov. Ralph Northam, triggered fierce opposition and drew tens of thousands of gun rights supporters to Capitol Square for Lobby Day that January, though the demonstration remained peaceful.
That history framed much of the message Monday, as speakers and attendees warned that a similar legislative push is again taking shape — and urged supporters to respond not only through rallies but by engaging in elections, local government and the courts.
Of course, this particular piece claimed the measures being opposed were part of a “gun-safety agenda,” which tells you where the writers’ and editors’ loyalties lie.
Still, it’s true that the turnout was greater than in recent years and that the legacy of the 2020 Lobby Day was something that fired up folks in the Old Dominion State.
The truth is that the new ruling regime in the state is vehemently anti-gun and would love to turn the state into a reflection of California, New York, or New Jersey within the span of just a couple of years.
If they’re not stopped, Virginians will see their gun rights not eroded, but eviscerated within the two years before the next election comes about. By then, how many innocent people will die in the name of “gun safety” that has nothing to do with safety?
That’s not hyperbole, either. Guns save lives. Gun control, on the other hand, costs them.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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