When it comes to extreme and unconstitutional gun control laws, no state in the Union has been more focused on destroying the Second Amendment than the state of Virginia. Under the “leadership” of Gov. Ralph Northam and the Democrat-controlled legislature, Virginia has become a shining example of the tyrannical ambitions of gun control extremists in both parties.
The gun control agenda of Northam and his band of merry minions is so extreme that the Tazewell County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors exercised their rights under the U.S. and Virginia Constitutions and refused to enforce a state red-flag law. The Board declared their county a Second Amendment sanctuary in December 2019, and they passed a resolution to create and maintain an armed militia to protect the county against government tyranny.
Needless to say, representatives in the Virginia legislature weren’t all too pleased with Tazewell County:
“I would hope they either resign in good conscience, because they cannot uphold the law which they are sworn to uphold, or they’re prosecuted for failure to fulfill their oath. The law is the law. If that becomes the law, you don’t have a choice, not if you’re a sworn officer of the law.” ~ Rep. Gerry Connolly
“I’m not the governor, but the governor may have to nationalize the National Guard to enforce the law. That’s his call, because I don’t know how serious these counties are and how severe the violations of law will be. But that’s obviously an option he has.”
~ Rep. Donald McEachin
Unfortunately, the unconstitutional gun control agenda in Virginia continued to march on. As reported by Gun Powder Magazine, several bills — seven in all — aimed at destroying the Second Amendment have received Gov. Northam’s signature this year. Some of the worst are:
- Senate Bill 70 and House Bill 2 impose mandatory fees on private sales of firearms. Not paying fees on these sales would subject individuals to criminal penalties. Sales between friends, neighbors, or hunting companions are not exempt from Virginia’s new universal background check law.
- Senate Bill 69 and House Bill 812 place limits on an individual’s right to purchase a handgun. Now, prospective gun owners are limited to only one handgun purchase a month.
- Senate Bill 240 and House Bill 674 are “Red Flag” gun confiscation orders that allow for the seizure of a person’s firearm without due process. Dubious allegations are all that’s needed for law enforcement to confiscate firearms under this law. In passing this law, Virginia became the 18th state in the nation with red flag laws on the books.
- House Bill 9 penalizes gun owners who either lose or have their firearms stolen if they don’t report them within a 48-hour time window of being lost or stolen.
According to a Richmond.com report, Virginia government isn’t content with only destroying the constitutionally protected right of their citizens to own a gun, they want to destroy EVERYBODY’s Second Amendment rights, which is why they are taking their extreme gun control agenda to Washington.
Sens. Mark Warner, who is running for re-election, and Tim Kaine have introduced the “Virginia Plan to Reduce Gun Violence Act of 2020,” a bill that would enact most of Virginia’s new gun control legislation nationally, including the state’s new “red flag” law, a one-handgun-a-month law, and the required reporting of lost and stolen guns. In a statement, Warner said:
“Too many communities across the Commonwealth have been affected by gun violence. That’s why earlier this month, Virginia led the charge by adopting reasonable measures to help prevent future tragedies. Now it’s time for Congress to act.”
Now, before you start telling me how the Kaine/Warner bill doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming law, let me remind you that Trump and the GOP have adopted most, if not all, of the Far-Left’s gun control agenda as their own.
As a candidate in 2016, Trump’s far-left anti-Second Amendment approach to gun control was obvious to everyone not drinking the orange Kool-Aid. Following the Orlando, Florida nightclub shooting in June of that year, Trump announced his intention to look for new ways to keep certain people from legally purchasing a firearm.
Trump’s anti-gun extremism was kicked up a notch in February 2018 following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL when he began pushing several Democrat-friendly anti-gun measures, such as raising the age to 21 to buy a rifle, expanding background checks, and banning bump stocks “with or without” Congress — he decided to do it without Congress in December 2018 with the stroke of his pen ala Barack Obama.
In a “bipartisan” meeting held at the White House after the Florida shooting to discuss gun control, Trump responded to a suggestion that due process rights needed to be protected by saying police should be able to take guns “whether they have the right, or not.” He further stated the government should always “take the guns first, go through due process second.”
The idea of seizing guns without due process — a violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments — on the national level has become quite popular under a Constitution-shredding law known as the Extreme Risk Protection Order (aka ERPO or red flag law). The law allows citizens to anonymously petition a judge for an order giving police authority to seize all firearms from people deemed a threat to themselves or others … by force if necessary. No warrant. No arrest. No charges.
In 2018, Sen. Linsey Graham co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Richard Blumenthal that would have given federal courts jurisdiction over the states to seize guns. Graham has also adopted a red flag idea suggested and promoted by Sen. Marco Rubio where the federal government would use taxpayer money to bribe states to pass ERPO laws of their own. In other words, pass a red flag law, get a government check!
By the way, de facto President Ivanka Trump is a big fan of Lindsey’s red flag law, and daddy supports her agenda.
Back to Marco Rubio for a moment. Last year he teamed up with Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) to co-sponsor the Threat Assessment, Prevention, and Safety Act of 2019 (TAPS Act), a law I refer to as a red flag law on steroids. Rubio’s TAPS Act would encourage law enforcement to give EVERYONE a personal threat assessment (adults and children) and single out those they deem as future threats. That information would then be used as a pre-crime excuse to “stop dangerous individuals before they can commit an act of violence.”
While it’s tempting to dismiss the Virginia gun control situation as nothing to be concerned about, it should serve as another reminder of how dangerously close we are to the destruction of our once-great Republic. It should also motivate us to prepare to do what we must to defend our God-given rights against the tyrants out to destroy them.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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