Virginia Gun Proposals Infringement of Law Abiding Citizens
When it comes to gun ban proposals, I never want to hear someone say to me “that would never happen here” ever again. All anyone has to do is look and see what is being proposed in the state of Virginia and you can see that yes, it can happen here.
Governor Ralph Northam has said he would sign a host of gun control legislation promised by the new Democrat controlled legislature. These proposals, supported and funded by gun rights-hating billionaire Michael Bloomberg, include things such as gun registration, mandatory background checks on all private transfers including gifts to family members, and a total ban of commonly owned semi-automatic rifles. To make matters worse, the ban even includes common firearm parts.
An important component to this proposed law is that it does not grandfather in current owners of these common and legal types of firearms. The message of the intents of these laws is very clear – the outright confiscation of firearms, since owners would be forced to turn over their legally obtained property to the state government of face felony convictions.
To date, a total of 76 out of 95 counties, nine of 38 independent cities, and 13 townships have officially adopted Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions. This, in turn, has set off strong words of warnings from the governor and his democratic supporters, including some threats to call out the state’s national guard to enforce the laws if necessary.
So, to be clear, some Virginia elected officials have said the governor should call on the military unit in his state to forcibly take legally purchased and owned firearms away from law-abiding U.S. citizens there.
In my opinion, these laws would make Virginia a state under cruel and oppressive government and using the Virginia National Guard against law-abiding citizens would be considered cruel, unreasonable and arbitrary use of power and control. Guess what word describes those two definitions – yes you guessed it, tyranny.
Understand that to a law-abiding gun owner’s mind and the thoughts of a gun rights advocate is that the Second Amendment was put in place to ensure the citizenry would never be placed under tyranny. So, it should be no surprise that gun rights advocates and supporters of the U.S. Constitution are standing up against these types of laws. They are doing so because they consider it tyranny.
For all you naysayers out there who think an AR-15 is a military style rifle and saying these laws are not targeting hunting rifles, you are wrong. The proposals include banning of many popular hunting rifles and shotguns as well, including the Mossberg 935 Turkey shotgun, the Remington SP 10 shotgun, the Browning Bar Mark II Safari rifle, and the Remington Precision Rimfire rifle. Every one of these are common hunting rifles and shotguns.
To make this ridiculous scheme even more shameful is that the Governor also wants the taxpayers of Virginia to pay $250,000 to the Corrections Special Reserve Fund to provide for the “increase in the operating cost of adult correctional facilities resulting from the enactment” of these gun control measures.
Earlier this month, the Virginia National Guard sent a tweet that said, “We understand and respect the passion people feel for the U.S. Constitution and 2nd Amendment rights. We will not speculate about the possible use of the Virginia National Guard.”
The New Year is here, and it will be interesting to see what happens with this issue. I, along with millions of other law-abiding gun owners, will fight to stop this type of tyranny from sweeping our nation. If we don’t, it will happen here.
Randy Gibson is the CEO of RDG Communications Group, LLC, and the former director of the Tahlequah Area Chamber of Commerce and the Texas State Rifle Association.
