Virginia Beach gun control protest
Courtesy WTKR

With control of the state legislature flipping from red to blue, Virginia democrats are planning an ambitious agenda of gun rights restrictions and confiscation laws once they officially take control in January.

Twenty-two counties (and counting) have declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries. Last night. the VCDL rallied outside a meeting of the Virginia Beach city council.

Many people were wearing “Guns Save Lives” stickers at the rally.

Leaders with the group Virginia Citizens Defense League say they don’t want gun control imposed on law-abiding gun owners. President Philip Van Cleave and Executive Member Brendan Mooney addressed the passionate crowd.

Former Congressman Scott Taylor was among the supporters.

“I feel very strongly, very deeply about protecting the Second Amendment right,” said [former Congressman Scott] Taylor. This is indicative about people who care about their Second Amendment rights. I guarantee you there are Republicans, Independents, Democrats, people who aren’t politically active but want to protect their families and their property, and that is why they are here and you are seeing this across the Commonwealth.”

– Margaret Kavanaugh in Huge crowd of gun rights supporters show up to Virginia Beach City Council meeting

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41 COMMENTS

  1. Bloomberg’s version of “gun safety legislation” is confiscate all the guns.

    Everyone with a brain thinks “gun safety” is what you practice when you go to the range or go hunting!

    • Gun safety is a small lever or button on one or both sides of a firearm. I would have thunk everyone including popeye an snuffy smiff

  2. Why would any politician see what’s happened with New York, Chicago, Detroit and LA and their gun control policies and say “that’s a great model, let’s try that”.

    • Because that’s not what they’re thinking. The whole gun thing is to take away the opposition. Then only THEY, and their body guards, will have guns, not you. Most elites think that any restrictive laws will not affect them. Look no further than the Teflon Clintons. Anyone else would have been in prison long ago.

      • Or Mini Mike, who hired his entire security escort from his days as Mayor of NYC as his personal body guards. Since they are all retired LEOs, LEOSA allows them to carry concealed firearms.

    • forp,

      Why would Progressives still advance gun-grabbing? Because it feels good to their voting base, is virtuous (as far as they are concerned), and reinforces their power. The United States Constitution, state constitutions, timeless standards of right-and-wrong, and what is actually effective — all irrelevant.

      Next question?

    • NYC doesn’t belong with those other cities. Although 2019 saw a pretty big increase in murder rate (55%), the murder and overall violent crime rate in NYC is a bit lower than the average for the rest of the country, not higher.
      NYC proved that it’s not about guns. It’s about culture. It’s about what the hyper-local population is willing to put up with. NYC’s crime rate was high, and then the local population had enough and turned it around.

        • It was a mix of a lot of things you all hit on. Community had enough and was more willing to work with the police. The police went after a lot more crimes at all levels but especially lower levels. Prosecutors offered less generous plea deals. Legally questionable (at best) search and seizure methods we’re tolerated. And we packed the jails so full we started to transfer prisoners to other facilities. Didn’t hurt that the target male age 14-23 demographic aged out and shrank by proportion either. But with our recent bail reform we could easily see a replay of the 90’s

      • New York also has by far the largest police force in the country (although Chiraq and the District of Crime have a little more per capita). 3x as much as #2 Chiraq (36k v. 13k) in size and 3.5x the budget as #2 (nearly tied) L.A. and Chiraq ($4.9B. v. $1.5B) There also isn’t as much (known) corruption as some other cities, Chiraq especially. It seems like every week there is another story about some corruption scandal in Chiraq. There’s been several in Baltimore as well, but not as much. NY seems to be relatively quiet on that front. Whether that’s because they don’t have as much (especially considering their size) or they’re just better at hiding it, who knows, but it may be a factor as well.
        Another important factor for NY is their poverty rate is much lower than many other cities (Chiraq’s is pretty good too and D.C.’s is actually the best, BTW), which is and has been a well documented link to higher crime rates.
        All this is too say, there are many factors that contribute to an area’s crime rates. We can’t only look at New York’s gun laws and low crime and declare “see, it works” because it is never that simple. Now when we look at overall trends throughout the country, we start to see patterns. And the patterns (relating to guns) are that in areas with strict gun control, crime tends to be higher and vice versa. I live in Virginia, and one of the arguments we’re using to fight our new Democrat overlords is that Virginia is the fourth safest state in the country, and the only three better are Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire, all of which have Constitutional carry. That’s not to say that Va is just like those three quite, lowly populated N.E. states, but it does show that loose gun laws doesn’t automatically mean high crime. Our contrast is Maryland, who’s problems are well known, especially in Baltimore. When they instituted their strict gun control laws several years back, their crime rates started going up despite the country’s overall rate going down. They’ve implemented some other Democrat policies that likely contributed as well (such as the revolving door justice system Dems love so much). But like the safest states and their lax gun laws proving that that does not mean crime will be high, MD shows that gun control doesn’t mean lower crime, and in our (VA) case, they are not only our neighbor, but they have similar demographics as well. But again, that’s only one example, and we can’t use it by itself.
        It’s a complicated system, sample sizes have to be large to mean anything, otherwise, you can pick and choose what you want to show what you want, and the anti-gunners are very good at it. Just look at their favorite “the US has the highest gun death rate of wealthy countries” stat for a good example. We have to counter them with better, fuller stats and data.

      • having seen what was done to reduce crime stats in nyc, I guess it would be okay to share it——-just do not publish the crime report——–sure the report was taken later,–but the ‘stats’ of the crime was not given to the office fbi files, so it appears no crime, but people bleeding in the streets from a violent crime—-a friend joked that the reported stat was the a summons was issued for littering, (the blood that hit the streets),—kind of a sick joke—–but that was bloomie’s crime reduction in a nutshell————-speaking of which, I was wondering if the others democrats were being paid to drop out of the race——–a lot of unseen politics going on—–just my theory—

    • Detroit doesn’t have additional “gun control”. The current police chief encourages CCW. Pistol registration have been on the MI books statewide since the 1920’s.

  3. To little to late.

    One choice now, grab the author and cosponsors, drag them to the square kicking and screaming and tar and feather them.

    They can read, we can read. It’s treason against we the people.

  4. Yeah well, In Wisconsin A school resource officer shoots a kid AFTER the kid stabbed him and another school resource officer (different Wisconsin high school) shoots a kid who is holding a PELLET GUN to another kids head and guess what happened… The LIBERAL States Attorney General responded by calling for Universal GUN control law AND “Red Flag”, I guess he wants to restrict access to knives (how very European) which by the way seems to be working SO well in London, and pellet GUNS? Take a good look at your future Va. I still have two acres on a mountain top with an “off grid” log house in South Western Va for sale… Too far South for the Libs from D.C. but has become too far “Left” for me…

  5. Almost all states and cities run by the Libitards has or will eventually turn to shit. Look at every major city and state run by the Dimowitz for years NY, Chicago, LA. Kalifornia Michigan
    All in the crapper. So now lets add Virginia to the list. Right in line with the rest of the Slave Northeast.

    • Michigan might be a majority blue state, but so many people on TTAG don’t realize we have fewer restrictions than most states. We even have state senators recommending Constitutional carry. Our dumb pistol registration is the oldest in the nation, 1920’s. Also the Detroit Police Chief has openly encouraged legal CC.

      • Yeah, he did. After it was already to late, and they giving houses away. It was the only way cops could try and take back the city they had lost control.

  6. the sanctuary resolution has been passed in 41 Virginia municipalities as of this morning. picked up 11 yesterday. it will literally be the anti-gun progressives living in their urban echo chambers controlling guns for the whole state.

  8. Good luck Virginia, you’re gonna need it.

    – From an American stuck behind enemy lines in Commiefornia……

  9. This could get interesting. Suppose someone in a sanctuary county uses deadly force legally in self defense. However, he does so with a gun that is legal under federal law and local ordinance but illegal under state law (e.g. banned semi-auto rifle). Who is there to prosecute him? Where I lived until recently, it was the county attorney who prosecuted murders, robberies, etc., which are violations of state law. My county’s attorney was solidly in favor of self defense. He was elected by the residents of the county, not appointed by the state.

    If the state attorney-general wanted to prosecute, he would need the state police to make the arrest without support from local cops. If an attempted arrest turned into a gunfight, I don’t know if the locals would support the state cops which they would otherwise do automatically.

    • If an arrest by the state cops turned into a gunfight, you should count on the local cops supporting their brethren in blue. “Thin blue line” and all that would prevail. They might not agree with the initial arrest, but shooting at state cops would be an altogether different thing.

  10. I wonder why Democrats in Virginia want additional laws to lock up even more young black men.

    Is Project Exile not enough? Do they now want to lock up black people not even accused of hurting anyone?

  11. Sanctuary cities and counties mean nothing. Gun rights rally’s means nothing.

    Virginia will be the test ground for the Supreme Court because it will be about gun bans not procedural laws as in the current “joke of a case” in New York. 10- 1 they refuse to hear any of the gun ban laws.

    It will be argued single shot muzzle loaders are what the Founders of the Country used so your 2A rights have not been violated. They can be used for hunting and self defense “so what is the problem”? All other modern guns will be outlawed “for the safety of the children”. Don’t laugh its coming.

    Many decades ago I remember reading a Field and Stream article back in the 1950’s. Richard Starnes was the author of a monthly column on current gun laws. He stated once a gun ban law was passed it lasted for eternity. How true his words ring to this very day over half a century later.

    The Politburo now in power could not care less about what gun owners want. They now have absolute power over the gun owners and gun owners will obey the new laws “or else”.

    Remember to stiff arm solute the police and the military, its the patriotic thing to do when they take your guns and remember they are all you need to protect yourself from yourself.

    And remember Komarades believe the Democommies when they say “Socialism Virginia style will make you free” Famous last words. Its going to be a rough ride in 2020 so buckle up and “Bury thy weapons” its your only and last choice.

    хороший день для тебя

    • “It will be argued single shot muzzle loaders are what the Founders of the Country used so your 2A rights have not been violated.”

      In that case, freedom of speech applies only to a manual press powered by a human arm, freedom from police searches without a warrant won’t apply to telecommunication using electricity, meaning the cops can have your phone and internet records anytime they want. Etc.

      Look, this was covered in the ‘Heller’ decision 10-odd years back. The framers understood technology advances with time, and rights follow along with them…

    • The Politburo now in power could not care less about what gun owners want. They now have absolute power over the gun owners and gun owners will obey the new laws “or else”.

      Or else what?

    • This bears repeating over and over again. A vote is far more effective than a hundred bullets. When you bring your family and friends and their families and friends to the polls with you it makes a real difference.

      I laughed when the Dems suggested making Election Day a national holiday. That would be the worst thing they could ever do. Republicans tend to have jobs. Give them the entire day off, they will be at the polls.

  15. crime in NYC is NOT going down. it is just reported differently. first it was lots of crimes with guns. now it is increasing with knives ( I guess they feel safer that it is not a gun) . still violent crimes. and it is also moving from the city into the suburbs. where I live. and still , there are crimes with guns. many of them. although England surpasses the city with the murder rates. and they are a utopia that has no guns.

  16. Don’t thunk county resolutions or regulations for lack of better word, trumps state statues. Course then again I ain’t no shark.

  17. it’s the same as any other democrat/socialist ploy. “it didn’t work there (pick one) but it will work here!” “it didn’t work then (pick one) but it will work now!” “give us another chance! it will work, it has to work! it’s only common sense!”

    and it never works. never.

  18. Virginia is done. The battle is already over, not as yet to come, as many of you are claiming here. There IS no fight ahead for you, the fight already happened. It was on the first Tuesday of last month. You lost, because you stayed home instead of voting.

    And the NRA, which spent $270,000 on clothes for Wayne, only put $300,000 into that fight. I can’t even tell who was more lackadaisical here: Virginia gun owners, or the NRA. It’s a toss-up.

    At any rate, it’s over. They won. Elections have consequences. Now get ready to turn in those guns. You’ve earned it.

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