Buzz Hayes Photo

The Old Dominion, famously the site of many historic battles for America’s freedom, including pivotal campaigns during the American Revolutionary War, the Civil War and even the War of 1812 is again shaping up to be an epic battleground over the fight for gun rights. With a thinly elected Democrat majority in both the state senate and legislature this past November, the anti-gun political party was quick to drop as many as 47 gun-control bills for consideration and so far, every single Democrat has supported them along party lines.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in all the years I have been lobbying for VCDL,” writes Philip Van Cleave, the Virginia Citizen’s Defense League President in the organization’s most recent VA-ALERT sent to members and email subscribers.

Most recently, and perhaps most alarmingly, the Virginia house passed the assault weapons ban Friday on a straight party line vote.

NBC 4 Washington reports:

The Virginia House of Delegates approved an assault weapons ban on a party line vote Friday.

Fairfax County Democratic Del. Dan Helmer’s bill would end the sale and transfer of assault firearms manufactured after July 1, 2024. It also prohibits the sale of certain large capacity magazines.

“This bill would stop the sale of weapons similar to those I and many of the other veterans carried in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Helmer said.

He reminded lawmakers about tragedies across the country in which assault-style weapons were used.

“Our schools, our community centers, our college campuses, our nightclubs and our shopping malls are not war zones,” he said. “At least they shouldn’t be.”

Arguing against the measure, Culpeper-area Republican Del. Nick Freitas, who was a special forces weapon sergeant in Iraq, said the focus of legislation should be on criminals, not guns.

“If you take a weapon and you put it on a desk and you don’t touch it, no one gets assaulted,” he said. “People do assault other people, and that should be the sort of crime that we are actually going after. But again we’re going after inanimate objects.”

While the bill would not impact assault weapons manufactured before July 1, it does prohibit younger Virginians, those under age 21, from owning, selling or transferring assault weapon regardless of manufacture date.

Freitas said he fears if this bill becomes law, even greater restrictions could be ahead.

“Ultimately, I don’t agree that this is going to save lives and I also don’t agree that this is where it’s going to stop,” he said.

The Virginia Senate has not taken a floor vote on its version of the bill. If it passes the House and Senate, it goes to Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who could veto it.

In a recent address, Youngkin called Virginia’s current gun laws “some of the toughest in the nation.”

“He’s asking the General Assembly members to hold accountable those criminals that commit crimes with guns by lengthening and making more severe the penalties in order to keep criminals off the streets,” a spokesman added.

If Democrats have their way, many of the firearms available to citizens at gun shows such as this one held at the Dulles Expo Center in Fairfax County, Feb. 2-4, will no longer be legal. Doug Howlett Photo

According to the VCDL, additional bills on the table in Virginia, all proposed and supported by Democrats alone, include laws that would:

  • Make carry of an air gun on school property a felony
  • Take away gun rights for 5 years for a simple assault (a misdemeanor)
  • Require new and renewing CHP holders to be fingerprinted.
  • Make it illegal for anyone under 21 to buy any kind of firearm – handguns, rifles and shotguns.
  • Put a 5% tax on guns and ammunition to fund a “gun violence intervention program.”
  • Require a 5-day waiting period on purchasing a firearm.
  • NRA and USCCA instructors would no longer be allowed to teach gun safety classes to get a CHP, which jeopardizes gun safety across the state.
  • NRA license plates would no longer be available. “How petty and vindictive is that?” Cleave says.
  • Prohibit concealed carry in restaurants that serve alcohol.
  • Make legally owned (and very expensive) auto sears illegal.
  • Ban carry in hospitals, emergency rooms or other places that provide mental health or developmental services.
  • Require a 3-day waiting period for purchasing a firearm.
  • Make it illegal to carry an “assault weapon” in a public location, including even roads and sidewalks.
  • Make unserialized guns, even those made before 1968, illegal, which can greatly impact the collectibles and antiques firearms markets.
  • Take away a person’s gun rights for 5 years for a second offense of drunk driving.
  • Take away the gun rights of a person living in the home with someone else who happens to be the subject of a red flag gun ban.

And this is just “some” of what the rabid gun-hating Dems have proposed.

Gun Owners of America President Erich Pratt speaks at the recent VCDL Lobby Day, Jan. 15. Doug Howlett Photo

Speaking with Cleave during the VCDL’s recent Lobby Day event, in which members and other gun owners listened to speakers such as Republican gun-rights champion Del. Nick Freitas, Gun Owners of America President Erich Pratt, Guns & Gadgets YouTuber Jared Yanes, Cam Edwards from Cam & Co. and others after visiting with their legislators, he stressed Virginians need to remain vigilant.

“The concern is despite all of the attacks looming against gun-owning Virginians, that people won’t take the threats seriously because they figure (Governor) Glenn Youngkin will veto them,” Cleave told me. Others in the know echoed that concern.

But as these laws march closer to approval, it is only Youngkin who can ultimately defend liberty for Virginia. And he is only one man. The Democratic Party threat will not go away. If gun owners wish to protect their rights well into the future, they need to work harder to get freedom-respecting legislators elected in every election going forward.

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90 COMMENTS

  1. And here is why, regardless of other factors, I never vote for Democrats at any level, ever. The leaders in the Virginia legislature know Gov. Youngkin will veto these nonsensical bills – but that’s why they’re passing them in the first place. They want the governorship back and painting Youngkin as a “gun nut extremist” who doesn’t “care about children’s safety” is a sure fire way to get the blue knuckleheads and action moms in northern VA to vote D next election. The dividing lines in this country really aren’t racial or ethnic, it’s urban versus rural, the wealthy versus everyone else. And the Donkey Party is leaning hard on that divide.

      • This is an example of the way TheLeft believes in watering The Tree of Liberty.
        …. as they push us ever closer to showing what the actual process is.
        And it won’t be something to be looked forward to, but it is coming.

        • “So I am confused. I it a 3 or 5 day waiting period they want to implament?”

          It’s three dimensional math. Find a local Dimwitocrat to show you how it make sense.

        • It’s simple math, not geometry. There’s a three-day waiting period before the five-day waiting period begins. This does not include weekends or holidays — business days only. Let’s say you buy on a Friday, and the following Monday is a holiday. The three-day wait begins on Tuesday. Then the five-day wait starts on the following Friday and end on the subsequent Thursday. Then you can pick up your penis substitute on Friday, 14 days after you bought it. No one needs a gun that badly that they can’t wait a few days.

        • Oops, I tripped the censor. Allow me to attempt a second time:

          Your comment is awaiting moderation
          It’s simple math, not geometry. There’s a three-day waiting period before the five-day waiting period begins. This does not include weekends or holidays — business days only. Let’s say you buy on a Friday, and the following Monday is a holiday. The three-day wait begins on Tuesday. Then the five-day wait starts on the following Friday and end on the subsequent Thursday. Then you can pick up your [male member] substitute on Friday, 14 days after you bought it. No one needs a gun that badly that they can’t wait a few days.

        • The word “p-e-n-i-s” offends the robot, but the human moderators are okay with it? Something here just doesn’t add up.

        • “Something here just doesn’t add up.”

          What doesn’t add up is this anonymous commenter who calls itself “Math teacher”.

  2. Considering the Democrat voting base is mostly made up of the wealthy and those they made dependent upon the wealthy, I can only surmise that the Dems have effectively become a neo-fascist party. Before some wikipediot says “nuh-uh yOu HavE tO be rIGht wiNg to Be a fAscISt” remember, who’s the biggest proponent of corporatism? Who demands absolute loyalty to party ideals? Who pursues the most wars? If NPR is calling us anarchists for wanting personal agency, then what does that make them?

    • The fascist left. Commun-ism was bought out by corporate billionaires and smothered. Social-ism is DOA. Witness Canada and the dictator there.

      antifa are the modern SS. And dacian and miner49er are willingly serving the wealthy.

      • And having to wear a control collar in exchange for a few scraps off the table.

        Do they really think their masters trust them that much?

      • Pot is not actually a medication. Are you saying Catherine needs to cut back or increase her pot intake?

      • I guess people can call themselves whatever they want, but the core value of a libertarian is respect for the personal autonomy of others. They tend to be individualists. Socialism is fundamentally collectivist, authoritarian in practice. So a libertarian socialist would be like an atheist Christian.

      • The libertarians crossed the Rubicon. When they nominated an anti-civil rights candidate for a president and vice president. Now they have done exactly what the democrat party has done for decades now.

        That is something that republicans have never done.

        I have never said the republicans and the democrats are the same. But people like you have.

      • I, myself, find fringe uber libertarians, socialists and conservatives to be unhinged fanatics. I think that’s what he’s complaining about.

    • Ah, I see that you mean the American Libertarian Party (LP), not libertarians. They are not libertarians. And that’s not a “no true Scotsman” argument. The LP is perfectly fine with frank authoritarianism, kind of Democrat light.

      And we small l libertarians don’t necessarily go in for pot and butt sex, perhaps not even at a higher rate than the general population. As a matter of principle we tolerate other people doing their thing, provided it stays among consenting adults.

      Now, I’ll acknowledge that libertarians who can’t go a full minute without mentioning Ayn Rand are pretty darn annoying. But if you are a religious conservative, I’m guessing things are going to get worse for you in this country before they get better (if they don’t just keep getting worse). Given that, do you want to spend time pissing at people who are all in for defending your right to worship and live how you want?

  4. So much for the Bruen decision. How much you want to bet that most of the proposals don’t pass????

    • Eventually they will all be ruled unconstitutional, BUT it’s just the tediousness of the process. Just frustrating!

      • They, the “Lawfare-types”, bankrolled by fake Jew and moser Michael BloomBilliions are trying to bankrupt us and Pro-2nd organizations, they use OUR tax dollars to fight in court and we have to spend OUR hardearned money fighting to keep and expand OUR Constitutionally guaranteed rights. I’d wish the dimuntive despot and former NYC temple priest/Sadducce BloomBilliions and everyone of his ilk into a cornfield if I could.

    • DUNDERHEAD, hence my proposal to sure each and every member of any legislative body that passes such unconstitutional laws. If we hit your buds in the pocket book, it will send a message.

    • The only history that matters to you is THE PARTY’s version of history.

      Photoshop will be a very popular program for party apparatchiks. Makes deleting unpersons from official photos much easier.

  5. o far, every single Democrat has supported them – brain is not required to be a democrat

    Not an item in that laundry list is Constitutional (pass the Breun test)

    • *pending extensive and expensive legal challenges that will be paid by gun owners and citizens in general to resolve with no negative outcome on the laws’ proponents past losing and narrow restrictions placed on various segments of the government in the short term.

      Long term yes you are correct

    • neiowa,

      No, but I would definitely say that LACK of brain is, if not required, at least certainly the Party standard.

  6. These people are crazed fanatical metro leftist nut jobs!!!!! 47 antigun bills??!?!?!!??!?!?!?
    The courts are striking down military style rifle bans, that’s the trend, but NOOOO like in NY, Mass, Ca, Ill, NJ, these clowns just keep drawing up these bills like the court rulings don’t matter. IF they want to live in countries which have barely any gun rights and people are mostly disarmed, they need to move to Canada, Australia, and Great Britain. here we have a constitution which protects gun rights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Crazed fanatical metro leftist nut jobs indeed.

      “This bill would stop the sale of weapons similar to those I and many of the other veterans carried in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Helmer said.

      “SIMILAR TO.” They both have triggers. See? Similar. (nods slowly)

  7. It has already happened in Washington state. Next, they want to limit gun purchases to one a month. It was voted on by a strict dem legislator membership. We now also have an assault weapon ban that allows me to keep what I already have, however I cannot buy or sell one. Blatantly unconstitutional, but they are doing it anyway. .

    • …however I cannot buy or sell one.

      OR! likely will one to a family member upon death.

      So they get destroyed by The State? Yet another non-ban/confiscation long game to eliminate private ownership.

      I have a friend in WA. I may have misheard this, but under current laws if you die, your spouse has 60 days to register / transfer your guns to themselves to prevent becoming a felon. While they are dealing with grieving the death of their life partner…potentially terrified financially…and if they even WANT the guns.

      So, one or many, they all go in the chipper? Along with any cash value they might have had that might help you survive your remaining time.

      Pure evil.

      Any WA resident to confirm this?

  8. “Ultimately, I don’t agree that this is going to save lives and I also don’t agree that this is where it’s going to stop,” he said.

    There is plenty of evidence going back decades that AWB’s don’t save lives and no, this is absolutely not where they’ll stop.

    Why do so many state legislatures act like they’re in a bubble of time and place and oblivious to the outside world and past events?

  9. Time for the MTFGA (Make Tar & Feathering Great Again) ‘group’ to be applied to these anti-gun agenda politicians.

      • Ouch.
        That burns, removes flesh when removed, and causes serious infection issues during the healing process.
        Can be fatal.

    • We should revive ancient Rome’s practice of “prescription”, from what I’ve learned it was quite effective.

  10. It’s odd that no one on the right is articulating the impact of the Dobbs decision on elections nationwide. Even NewsMax is giving every statistic other than abortion creating a false hope for the right. Dobbs/abortion is why the dims were able to take back the VA legislature and why they will reclaim the governorship at the end of Youngkin’s term. It’s also why Trump will lose in 2024.

    • Yup dims are bad. From the cradle of the confederacy to the so-called land of Lincoln. And beyond. Murdering babies is their mantra.How about a new uncivil war?!?

    • So just jump on board with killing babies because it’s more convenient that way. Should I sell my soul to the devil too?

      • Yes, that is exactly what we must do. Sell our souls to ensure freedom and a better life for our children and our children’s children. There is no other way.

  11. Marxists are a disease that never goes away. I can’t figure out why most people seem to be so stupid that they fail to realize this.

    • The problem is people need to chew on these issues as people did 125 years ago. Everyone use to discuss the constitutionality of issues before the beginning of this last century. Davey Crockett’s impassioned speech against deficit spending led to the failure to pass a early deficit spending bill. The universities started educating people on socialist ideas. Once Wilson became president we were done for!! Prohibition enforcement expanded the police powers of states and federal government. Then Roosevelt came along during the depression and government took over “rescuing” the people, and after that people had surrendered their self sufficiency and became passive consumers. We are in a mess today because of it where people EXPECT the government to do everything for them!!

  12. Exactly, and now the political analysts say the polls show the economy has taken over as the biggest concern surpassing abortion. But we lost suburban women on the abortion issue only, and because the dems have absolutely NOTHING to run on but disaster, they plan on driving this issue. Quite frankly the republicans tend to be free choice and libertarian on every issue but abortion. While I think abortion is personally moral violation and leads to social moral decay, it’s up to the woman and her husband, if she married, to make that choice. Abortion is a symbolic women’s issue around male oppression of women. Republicans wading into that issue smacks of fanatical male misogamy to women, and we will only lose in that issue!!

    • Where does this attitude come from?
      In my experience it’s always the women who want kids and the men just go along with it for the sex but actually birthing the kid is a product of male oppression?

      Somebody explain this to me and my brother-in-law who’s stuck with three kids he didn’t want or my buddy with five he didn’t want.

      Every instance of marriage and birth in my life is an example of women wanting kids and man not (still paying for it) and somehow this whole issue is one of male oppression? Bullshit.

        • Well, these are the same people that cannot define what a “man” or a “woman” is, let alone tell the difference.

    • The abortion ruling isn’t the problem. Giving people rights when they didn’t earn them is the problem. White male altruism has been a monumental failure. We gave rights to every group who asked for them (after fighting a revolution to secure the rights for ourselves) and now the nation is suffering from a majority of people who treat “their rights” like something a teenager expects to be given from their parents just because they want it. They didn’t earn it for themselves, so they don’t value it. They are hollow entitlements and the political machine is forced to manufacture a new grievance to satiate their petulant voters. There can never be true equality between givers and takers, one always has the advantage. We stopped being a nation of people who took our rights and became a nation that is given our rights.

      • The Constitution gives all Americans rights, dumbass. Are you in favor of dumping it, including the 2A?

    • Being for unlimited, on demand abortion is libertarian? That kind of depends on whether you regard an unborn baby as a person with rights, doesn’t it? This one is complicated if you do regard an unborn baby as a human being.

  13. I love history I love the museums and the battlefields in the old dominion. I was stationed twice at Ft Eustis in the tidewater area. I witnessed Civil War battle reenactments. Really amazing things. I’m so glad to have witnessed all of it.

    But I decided to retire to kentucky instead of Virginia after my army service.

    And boy did I dodge a bullet!!! Virginia has fallen.

    I used to listen to WNIS in norfolk. It’s owned by the Sinclair family. That much hated Sinclair radio network, that left wing hollywood actors complain about.

    For those that don’t know it, it’s pretty much a libertarian radio business. Back in the 1990s the owners certainly were. And Mr. Sinclair would come on and answer questions about 4 or 5 times a year.

    Back in the then Congressman Ron Paul of Texas was almost a regular guest every couple of months. And the radio station had several self described libertarians as permanent radio hosts.

    Some of those libertarian callers and radio hosts were proud of not voting. Since they always say the democrats and the republicans are the same.

  14. There is a simple solution to end Far Left Pr0gre$$ive Democrat control of local, state, and federal government: Conservative people must have a LOT more children and raise them with Conservative education and values. That is guaranteed to end Democrat control. The only down side is that it will take at least 20 years for that solution to work.

    • Nobody wants to say it, but it’s true. The @theist, the h0m 0sex u#l, the so ci @lis t communists. The progressives, all of them do not have children. Because children interfere with them having a good time.

      Which is why all of them want to flood the United States with illegal aliens.

      Because conservatives will simply reproduce them out of existence. Over time.

      • None of that matters when you can import millions of potential new voters every year who immediately proceed to make anchor babies who will statistically be likely to vote for Democrats.

        There’s a reason the first priority of the Puppet Admin was to open the border.

    • No, the solution is to leave. If you think we’re going to out breed the chicano invasion, you’re delusional. That’s the reason why it’s happening in the first place. They are literally creating a new American populace. When your government shows that much contempt for you, it’s time to prepare an exit strategy. Like minded Americans should begin by leaving blue states and then begin looking for smaller foreign nations that we could basically move to in massive numbers and recreate the government and society as we see fit. Leave Europe and find a New World.

  15. Good point, I keep forgetting it’s a plan to wipe out American culture and overwhelm conservatives!!

  16. if they pass a law that no one under 21 can buy a gun because they are not “mature” or “responsible” enough then voting should be pushed back too!

    • …and driving, having children/getting married, or signing contracts….the slope can be as slippery as we want it to be 😉

    • Embrace the power of “and.” They hate guns and their owners. The larger part of their hate is a natural reaction to the sanctimony of owners who believe that they have the “right” to possess weapons that are only useful in killing others.

  18. They treat the late teens early 20’s according to their agenda. They can serve in the military and vote but aren’t responsible to buy certain guns. They are encouraged to live with their parents and not grow up and assume responsibility so they can be covered by their parent’s insurance. They are allowed to work but can’t pay their student bills so the government has to bail them out. The laws and rules and programs are a duplicitous nonsensical patchwork of contradictions that fit the democrat agendas.

  19. Isn’t this also a case of age discrimination against young potential gun owners because they can’t buy these guns?

    • @MJD That is a true statement. I know all the old Republicans get all huffy when people say that, but to them I say “Oh yeah? Mitt Romney.” Then I have to explain that one, which takes forever. Then we just rip right on into the MAGA thing, because there are a metric ton of RINOs who absolutely hate and actively sabotage that movement and those in it (the Populists).

  22. To override a governor’s veto in VA requires 2/3 votes in both houses. The Democrats currently only have bare majorities in both houses, so any anti-gun legislation passed will be dead as a door nail if/when Youngkin nixes it.

    Q: What’s the difference between a Democrat and a paranoid-schizophrenic?
    A: The paranoid-schizophrenic is more grounded in reality.

    • Would have gone with the schizo being honest and believing in what they say but either works.

    • The Democrat strategy is to flood the zone with all of these bills “intended to make the people safe” and force Youngkin to veto every one of them. They will convince the low-information voters that the Governor is not concerned for their safety. Since Virginia is only slightly purple and mostly blue, this combined with the abortion issue will sweep the Democrats back into full power in November. Then they can go about consolidating their power so that a Republican never holds statewide office again.

    • They are fake “Jews”, “mosers” (pronounced “moy-sers”), historically Jews fought invasions of ancient Israel (Judea) but then as now some chose to ally with the enemy, many willing surrendered their weapons to their oppressors, today far more betray their faith, our nation and their ancestral homeland..

  25. The GOP should propose a ten year sentence that will be imposed for the use or threat of use of a fire arm in a crime independent of the crime itself. The punishment is in addition, and may not be compromised in any negotiation nor pardoned, nor is at the discretion of the judge.

    If the Dhimmie Marxists are so concerned about crime lets see how many support it. My guess is zero because itr would be racist. They support bo bail, no punishment, no law, unless you are a straight white male.

    In addition, if a fire arm is used that is stolen impose a fine of 10,000 that must be paid to the victim before the criminal can be released. The Marxists can pay the fine if they are so concerned about these poor dears. They can pay the Antfia animals, start paying the victims of these looters and murderers.

  26. Youngkin is one and done. They will run someone nearly as bad as McAwful and won’t make the same mistakes he made. They are getting these bills in the pipeline so they can promise to pass them the moment a D is sworn in.

    Next up is PA with their freshly controlled House. They can’t wait to rein in the Keystone state gun owners.

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