Last fall, voters in Virginia told pollsters in poll after poll that gun safety was their top issue. That played out in the election, in which Democrats took full control of the state's government. Now that they're governing, the big changes they promised are starting.
Out of the gate, the legislature’s Joint Rules Committee approved a ban on guns at the state Capitol complex in Richmond. That means no guns in the General Assembly offices or at the state Capitol as of midnight Friday, Jan. 10. "Our goal has got to be to keep everybody safe," said Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn. "And that's exactly why we're doing what we're doing."
There's a gun rights rally scheduled at the Capitol for Jan. 20, so keeping everyone in the vicinity safe is undoubtedly at the forefront of planning for the new legislature. There's already been one gun rally at the Capitol, calling itself the "God. Family. Guns" rally.
Despite the overwhelming vote by the people of the state for sane gun laws, or maybe because of it, gun rights activists have been getting loud and threatening. Dozens of localities in the state have voted to call themselves "Second Amendment sanctuaries." Activists took over a Virginia Beach City Council meeting last month, trying to get the city to declare itself a "sanctuary," an issue that was not on the agenda. Last May, 12 people were killed and four were injured in a mass shooting in that city. Nonetheless, the city council voted this week, 6-4, to declare itself a "Second Amendment Constitutional City," short of the "sanctuary" gun fanatics were clamoring for.