A Democratic legislature makes a big difference. All those public mass shootings and the most marked indifferent emotion the Republicans politicians have ever been able to muster are— thoughts and prayers; to the point that it’s become a snide pushback against their cold, rigid, uniform reaction. Along with the fact that for Republicans, no time is ever a good time to talk about gun policy and legislation.
Then, the long awaited blue wave finally arrived for Virginians in 2019.
Finally! —
The full consequences of the Democratic Party’s victory last night in Virginia won’t become apparent for months or even years to come. By winning both houses of the state legislature, Democrats have turned the state totally blue for the first time in 26 years. They’ll have a chance to pass major new gun laws in the backyard of the Fairfax-based National Rifle Association, to more than double Virginia’s minimum wage, and to solidify their electoral gains by reversing Republican gerrymanders through redistricting two years from now.
And of course, we dreamed.
The voters wanted specific things from the new legislatures. Some of the specifics involved:
According to a new poll out from the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University, voters also support passing the Equal Rights Amendment, increasing the minimum wage and decriminalizing marijuana possession.
The blue wave and the Democratic legislature has had real results in Virginia. There has been a push for ERA, and then it was approved:
Gov. Ralph Northam planned on reintroducing eight bills related to guns and the safety of communities and families. Three gun measures were passed along party lines:
SB 35, which would allow localities to ban guns from public events, actually would repeal the current law that restricts localities from enforcing ordinances that would prohibit the purchase, possession, transfer, ownership, carry, storage, or transport of firearms or ammunition.
SB 69, amends the current law, only allowing Virginia residents to purchase one handgun a month, or in a 30-day period.
And, SB 70 requires a background check on all private transfers of firearms.
All three bills were passed along party lines.
Democrats said they were reasonable measures that would improve public safety while respecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners. They said the public had made clear by voting for Democrats in recent elections that new gun laws were needed.
One person even went so far as to support ‘civil disobedience’ if assault rifles are banned. In response, others began to try to declare their county and city as Second Amendment sanctuaries. Virginia’s AG determined that these sanctuaries had no legal effect.
Conspiracies abounded. Some had to do with a purported “New World Order” gaining strength, wherein the conspiracy minded feared that the UN was behind all the gun legislation in it’s supposed long expectation of disarming America:
Generating passion, hysteria and even personal threats, the ugly movement has driven throngs of people to show up at boards of supervisors meetings. Their numbers are remarkable — 400, 800, even 2,000 in attendance.
Getting back to Gov. Northam’s gun proposals and the Republican reaction:
More than 100 counties, cities, and towns have declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries and vowed to oppose any new "unconstitutional restrictions" on guns.
A pro-gun rally is scheduled for the capitol on Monday, but a judge has upheld a complete weapons ban for the event and Virginia will be under a temporary state of emergency until Tuesday at 5 p.m.
That pro-gun rally is set for Monday, the official day to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. On that Monday, thousands of pro-gun activists will converge upon Virginia’s capital city. With that in mind:
The event, hosted by Virginia Citizens Defense League, is expected to draw thousands of armed demonstrators, some from out of state. Organizers have said they hope to hold a peaceful event.
But Northam said officials have heard reports of "out-of-state militia groups and hate groups planning to travel from across the country to disrupt our democratic process with acts of violence." He said they "are coming to intimidate and to cause harm."
More:
Northam said he will declare a state of emergency in Richmond from Friday evening through Tuesday evening. Under the order, city, state and Capitol police will form a unified command, state employees are encouraged to stay home for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and all weapons will be banned in the Capitol Square.
"It makes no sense to ban every other weapon but allow firearms," Northam said. After the emergency expires Tuesday, most firearms will be allowed on the grounds. Virginia is an open-carry state.
Northam said the decision was a response to threats, some of them made online in forums hosted by hate groups and white nationalists. The governor called on rally organizers to dissuade out-of-state groups from coming to the rally and encouraged a "peaceful day" for Virginians.
"Unfortunately, they have unleashed something much larger – something that they may not be able to control," he said.
As Richmond gets ready for the rally:
Capitol Police Chief Steve Pike said his agency, Virginia State Police and the Richmond Police Department have established a “unified command” that will share law enforcement duties on Monday.
Pike said visitors to the Capitol should expect to see temporary fencing and other security measures throughout Capitol Square. They should also expect some road closures around the Capitol, including sections of East Main Street and North 9th Street. LINK
Additionally:
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A judge on Thursday upheld a ban on firearms at a pro-gun rally scheduled for next week in Virginia, rejecting a request from gun-rights groups that sued to overturn it.
The Virginia Citizens Defense League and Gun Owners of America filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking an injunction against the ban, which Gov. Ralph Northam imposed for a rally scheduled to take place Monday on the grounds of the Virginia Capitol.
In her written ruling, Richmond Circuit Court Judge Joi Taylor said the governor has the authority under state law to take action related to “the safety and welfare” of the state.
Three people have already been arrested in the lead up to that march which is still two days away.
Oh, and there’s more.
I follow some Virginia politicians on twitter. Likely I would not be following any of them except that I encountered them on Daily Kos and learned their political views here, on Markos’s blog.
To my mind, these people are totally spectacular because they actually ran for office, won, and have gone on to fulfill their promises not only to their districts, but also to this state in general. They are awesome and courageous.
One of them is fellow Kossack — Lee Carter, a self described socialist.
On Twitter Lee Carter does not back away from arguments. I suspect he’s not that different in life either:
But this time is different. In recent weeks, the red-haired lawmaker and part-time Lyft driver has been the subject of a torrent of violent threats, several of which he has shared with Capitol Police, who took them seriously enough to forward them to the FBI. Not long after, Virginia’s governor, Ralph Northam, declared a state of emergency, citing intelligence reports that armed extremists were planning to storm the Capitol.
And finally:
But he’s not the only Virginia politician fearful that the protests slated for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in Richmond could result in a dangerous clash like the fatal Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in 2017.
Facing a series of death threats, Manassas Delegate Lee Carter says he will spend Monday at a safe house instead of the state house, as first reported by Gen.
The threats against Carter—a Democratic Socialist first elected in 2017—also show how an echo chamber of conspiracy theories that begin as social media posts get laundered into mainstream outlets like the Wall Street Journal, and can ultimately lead to real-world peril.
Monday’s rally is a tradition for the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a pro-gun group that lobbies each year in Richmond on Martin Luther King Jr. Day while bearing arms. But this year, a large number of armed militia groups have pledged to join the rally. Northam tweeted that “intelligence suggests militia groups and hate groups, some from out of state, plan to come to the Capitol to disrupt our democratic process with acts of violence.”
The irony, of course, is that Lee Carter is a supporter of gun rights. He supports universal background checks of course, as do 84% of Virginia voters, according to a recent poll. Some enclaves in the gun rights groups conflated two different and unrelated things.
One of Carter’s proposed legislation supports the right of public employees — namely teachers — to go on strike. Since his proposed legislation did not extend that right to law enforcement officers, some people have erroneously concluded that Carter wants to punish officers for refusing to uphold the new gun restrictions.
Its a damn conspiracy theory. Something the rightwing is really good at manufacturing.
The conspiracy theory —
Convinced that the bill’s goal is to punish sheriffs and other officials who refuse to enforce new restrictions, gun rights advocates have feverishly conflated Carter’s socialist views with an imagined plan for wholesale gun confiscation. Cam Edwards, a gun rights advocate and editor of Bearing Arms, attributes the hysteria to “folks misreading the bill,” though he admits, “there may be some who are trying to stoke fear by representing it as an attack on law enforcement.” Nonetheless, when Virginia GOP delegate Nick Freitas repeated the smear on Edwards’ YouTube show, the host declined to challenge him. “That’s on me for not pushing back,” Edwards admitted in an email. (Freitas did not respond to a request for comment.)
For Carter, the mischaracterization has become a matter of personal safety. “Now there’s a massive internet conspiracy theory that I’m working hand in hand with Gov. Northam, whom I can’t stand, the National Guard, and the UN, to go door-to-door taking people’s guns,” he explains. “It’s gotten to the point where people are openly discussing murder, and they want me and Governor Northam and Attorney General Herring to be the first ones dead.” The governor and AG have security details, he notes; state delegates do not.
Central Virginia has already experienced various incarnations of Klan rallies in 2017. During the last one, many people were injured and three people died.
I hope the one in Richmond on Monday will be handled differently, and will not become the debacle that occurred in 2017.