VIRGINIA’S BATTLE

“WHAT COUNTRY CAN PRESERVE ITS LIBERTIES IF THEIR RULERS ARE NOT WARNED FROM TIME TO TIME THAT THEIR PEOPLE PRESERVE THE SPIRIT OF RESISTANCE? LET THEM TAKE ARMS.”
— LETTER FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO WILLIAM SMITH. NOVEMBER 1787

Virginia, where patriot forefathers forever booted a tyrannical British king off soil that would become the United States of America, isn’t the first state to see a bow wave of support for Second Amendment rights, but it certainly has developed one of the highest profiles. The commonwealth’s new Democratic majority in both the House of Delegates and the Senate, burnished by like-minded leadership in the offices of the governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, began steamrolling gun control legislation through during the early days of the 2020 General Assembly session.

The legislation largely mirrored that proposed by Governor Ralph Northam immediately following the May 2019 mass shooting in Virginia Beach. There, a disgruntled city employee killed 12 people and wounded four others with a handgun at a municipal building where employees were required to be disarmed.

RED TO BLUE

Northam asserted blood priority, calling for a July 9 General Assembly special session to entertain legislation he argued was key to deterring gun violence. The Republican-controlled