More than 40 counties across the Commonwealth of Virginia have declared themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries” as Democrats now in control of the State Assembly are promising to introduce a laundry list of new gun control laws starting next month.
It translates to something of a “civil war” between energized Virginia gun owners and anti-gun Democrats led by Gov. Ralph Northam. Their gun control agenda includes such things as returning to a one-gun-a-month restriction, so-called “enhanced background checks” and bans on so-called “high capacity magazines.”
Opposition to the Northam-led agenda has been building momentum in the southern and western parts of the Old Dominion. At public meetings all around the state, hundreds of angry gun rights activists, apparently jarred from lethargic political slumbers, have been showing up to tell local lawmakers to not comply with any new gun control. According to the Virginia Citizens Defense League, on Tuesday, 11 counties joined the growing movement, signaling trouble ahead for Democrats in Richmond.
Many, if not most county supervisor boards have voted unanimously to adopt sanctuary resolutions, according to published reports. In some cases, citizen turnout for meetings has been so heavy that they had to be moved to larger venues.
Virginia has joined a national movement of largely rural counties to declare “Second Amendment sanctuary” status. Other states where this is happening include Colorado, Idaho, Texas, Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico, Washington, Nevada, Wyoming and Alaska. Four of those states—Kansas, Wyoming, Alaska and Idaho—are total sanctuary jurisdictions according to a report at Wikipedia.
Virginia Sanctuary activists are on the warpath. For example, some residents in southwestern Buchanan County have been demanding Northam’s resignation as governor. Earlier this year, Northam was heavily criticized over a blackface scandal with images allegedly of him as a young man that appeared in a school annual. He survived that only to capitalize on the Virginia Beach mass shooting to resurrect a failed gun control agenda.
Virginia Democrats were able to secure the Assembly majority due to a low voter turnout last month. Less than 40 percent of eligible voters reportedly cast ballots, a situation activist Virginia gun owners are not likely to let happen again.
