I have yet to see Virginia or national media name the gun rights hysteria in Virginia for what it is: a budding rightwing proto-terrorism movement. Instead they give it the cowardly “both sides” treatment while gun rights groups call to establish local militias and prepare for a violent uprising.
Their Facebook pages are peppered with death and terrorism threats that moderators incite, while doing nothing to tamp down the worst of them. While the more PR-savvy gun advocates tout the lack of bloodshed at the Richmond gun rally in January, gone unreported are the many expressing disappointment.
The “Second Amendment Sanctuary” hysteria here in which boards of supervisors of locality after locality cave to roomfuls of bullying, shouting gun extremists isn’t evidence of the idea’s popularity so much as it’s simply evidence of fear for your family’s safety when your neighbors make death threats.
Here are recent screencaps from the public FB page of just one or two of many such groups in Virginia, so multiply these by god knows how many: