Terry McAuliffe
Democratic candidate for Governor of Virginia former Gov., Terry McAuliffe (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

By Mark Oliva

Former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe is showing Old Dominion voters that he’s ignorant of the most basic facts surrounding gun ownership. That’s not good news for Virginia gun owners, since McAuliffe is taking a second run at the Governor’s mansion. This time, his anti-gun baggage is overflowing.

McAuliffe tweeted on July 6, “Call me crazy, but I think it should be easier to vote than it should be to buy a gun.”

Okay, Crazy… I’ll bite.

The former governor and former White House Chief of Staff just told Virginia voters he’s got no idea what the laws are surrounding voting or gun ownership in Virginia. That’s not a good way to start a general election campaign. So much for running on a platform of “informed experience.”

The torrent of Twitter backlash was as quick as it was severe. That’s deservedly so. He should know better on both subjects, but to help those who don’t live in the Commonwealth of Virginia, here’s a very basic rundown of the requirements.

Voting and Guns

Virginia voters are required to be 18, residents of the Commonwealth and not be declared mentally incompetent by a court. Voters must register in their districts and present a valid identification that is verified by poll workers on voting day. Convicted felons are even now allowed to vote if they petition to have their voting rights restored following completion of their sentence.

Voters in the most recent election during COVID were allowed to vote by mail as long as they provided proof of their identity and had a witness signature on the ballot envelope. In-person voting will allow for provisional ballots if an acceptable identification isn’t provided. And of course, there’s absentee ballots.

Buying a gun in Virginia is stricter. Individuals buying a long gun must be 18. Those buying handguns must be Virginia residents and over 21. That’s federal law. Anyone buying any gun must present valid identification with proof of residence, complete the required federal background check forms, and pass an FBI background check for all firearm transfers (Virginia now has a universal background check law).

Of course, that means that an individual must not be a convicted felon, declared mentally defective by a court, convicted of a domestic violence incident or any one of 23 different categories.

If an individual wants to purchase a suppressor, that requires extra background checks, a $200 tax, fingerprints, photos, and chief law enforcement officer notification. Of course, there’s the wait for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to process that, which can take nine months to a year.

Voter Beware

McAuliffe isn’t just woefully ignorant of gun and voting laws, he’s in the tank with gun control. He said in January he would push for an “assault weapons ban” that includes a standard magazine capacity ban and stand up an Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s a carbon copy of what New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo just announced. Instead of using the tools at hand, he’s going to spend tax dollars to create more bureaucracy to chip away at gun rights.

That’s not all.  He’d bar adults under 21 from possessing handguns. They already can’t purchase them under federal law, but McAuliffe wants to take it further. He also wants to implement firearm purchase waiting periods.

Terry McAuliffe, Ralph Northam
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)

The Federalist pointed out a response by Donald Trump Jr., a gun owner himself.

“It already is, and even you know that, but you also know that your lap dogs in the media will run your BS for clicks regardless of the facts because your ideologies are the same. Rinse and repeat… it’s the dem platform in a nutshell,” he tweeted.

Trump Jr. showed that Democrats seeking office are running on the same stale lies they’ve peddled for years about guns and voting, while refusing to face the facts about crime. For those like McAuliffe, it’s about blaming law-abiding gun owners at every opportunity.

Virginia voters, beware of charlatans peddling worn-out talking points to get more gun control.

 

Mark Oliva is Director, Public Affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. He is a retired Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant with 25 years of service, including tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Albania, and Zaire.

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23 COMMENTS

  1. Doesn’t matter. Terry’s target audience operates on “widely believed facts” not actual facts. These people shape their own reality around a manufactured narrative that has fuck all to do with the real world. Math is racist, after all.

    • “These people shape their own reality around a manufactured narrative”

      most people do, at one level or another. most people always have. if a man lives in lies and fantasies for 20 years and comes out the other end wealthy and respected, can you actually say he’s wrong?

      at what point does the manufactured narrative evaporate and the real world become inescapable? seems to me that for most people that point never comes.

      • Yes, I can say he’s wrong. Integrity – it’s a thing. So is objective truth and reality. Then, of course, there’s the afterlife you’ve earned, and things were absolutely objectively better when more people worried about that.
        The real world becomes inescapable all the time – every time there’s a big war, a disaster, or even a mild shortage of some common goods and/or services.
        And “that man who lives in lies and fantasies for 20 years and comes out the other end wealthy and respected” sounds like a description of Dennis Rader or any other psycho/sociopathic narcissist, aka “democrat”.
        Integrity costs you something. That’s why it’s somewhat rare and always valued and admired.

        • “Integrity – it’s a thing. So is objective truth and reality.”

          they’d say “so what?” and laugh all the way to the bank and their retirement villa.

          “Then, of course, there’s the afterlife you’ve earned”

          sure, but then what you’re saying is that reality and integrity don’t mean anything here. which principle is exactly what they’re operating on.

          “The real world becomes inescapable all the time – every time there’s a big war, a disaster, or even a mild shortage of some common goods and/or services.”

          well that’s certainly not all the time, and the ones who are most successful at lack of integrity and avoiding reality seldom if ever suffer such consequences themselves – everyone else sure, but not them.

          “always valued and admired”

          not true at all. try exercising integrity that costs someone else something (“hey boss, we’re ripping off our customers”) and see what happens.

        • “they’d say “so what?” and laugh all the way to the bank and their retirement villa.”

          Getting rich doesn’t make one virtuous, but being honest does. You always see the elite going out of their way to say look at me everyone. Look how virtuous I am by supporting this cause. They feel the need to virtue signal because they lack real virtue in their lives. They’re trying to fill the void inside of themselves. Chasing after money at the expense of morals is what is wrong with the world today.

    • Agreed. Lack of intellect on the actual issues hasn’t kept the Dems from running rings around establishment Repubs for quite some time. The real problem? There just aren’t that many real conservatives, here or anywhere…

  3. “Terry McAuliffe Thinks Lying About Gun Control Will Make Him Governor of Virginia Again”

    given the degraded state of the electorate and the levels of fraud in the voting system, it might.

  4. To support Gun Control in any shape or form your wardrobe might as well include sheets, pointed hats and swastikas.

    • “sheets, pointed hats and swastikas”

      you never include the boolshevik hammer and sickle in these lists. why not? boolsheviks killed far far more than the others did.

  5. Never let facts spoil a good narrative. Plus the media will go along with anything he says.

  6. Hes a politician, doesn’t matter what he lies about as long as he gets reelected.
    Im’a gonna do this, Im’a gonna do that. Well I could/would but ,,,,,,,,,

  7. It IS easier to vote than to buy a gun. That’s how all the dead people and dindus cast multiple votes for Biden in 2020.

  8. Lying has worked for him before. BTW, he isn’t ignorant of any of this. He owns guns and he knows he’s lying. But he’s been telling obvious lies his entire career and it’s never hurt him. So I don’t think it will now.

  9. if they vote in that moron…nuke the state..there is no Intelligent life forms there…

    • HEY!!! Wait a minute, there are millions of us here that are intelligent. Unfortunately, as I posted, the lock-step communist morons outnumber us.

  10. Yeah but he’s a shoe in because of NOVA. After all, the current Democrat Governor is either a hoodwearer or blackface, he couldn’t remember which one.

  11. MacAwfull WILL be the next VA governor. That’s a given. There are more lock-step communist voters from the DC area of Northern VA down the eastern half of the state to the NC border than there are Republican voters in the entire state combined. There will never be another non-communist governor, lt gov, AG or US Senator for this once free state.

  14. Not that it matters, they’ve absolutely rigged Virginia to make sure Democrats win forever, just like they do every single time they get into power.

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