Democratic leaders in Virginia promised a new Virginia if they won the Virginia House and Senate in November. The votes had hardly been counted before Democrats began pre-filing legislation that highlighted their legislative priorities. At the top of the list was gun confiscation, with Democrats introducing an “assault weapons” bill that would have criminalized possession of many common rifles, shotguns, and pistols, as well as most standard-capacity ammunition magazines. The backlash from Virginia’s citizens has been furious.
Numerous counties and cities in Virginia have passed resolutions declaring themselves to be Second Amendment sanctuaries, meaning that those counties have vowed that their law enforcement officials will not enforce any new unconstitutional gun control legislation coming from Richmond. Numerous sheriffs in those counties have also announced that they and their departments will not comply with any new gun control. Right now over 90 localities in Virginia have announced that they are Second Amendment sanctuaries.
Those counties are taking a page from the left’s playbook, with numerous counties and cities across the country having named themselves immigration sanctuaries. Those localities have declared that they will not cooperate with federal immigration authorities in arresting, detaining, or deporting illegal immigrants. But now that the shoe is on the other foot, and counties are declaring that they won’t comply with unconstitutional gun control, Democrats are crying foul.
Governor Northam, who has used the issue of gun control to deflect attention away from his blackface scandal, has declared that localities that don’t enforce new gun control could face consequences for their actions. What exactly those consequences might be are unclear, but they could include cutting funding for those localities’ police departments.
Whether that will sway any localities from changing their positions is unclear, as the huge crowds showing up to county government meetings have made it clear that Virginians are unhappy with gun control. It will be very interesting to see whether Virginia Democrats continue with their gun control push when the legislature meets in January, or whether the huge amount of public backlash will cause them to hit the pause button on their efforts to disarm Virginians.
This article was originally posted on Red Tea News.
