Senator Janet Howell: We would have citizens wandering the halls carrying Uzis and other assault weapons

That was State Senator Janet Howell's description of the annual Second Amendment Lobby Day at the General Assembly in E. J. Dionne's Washington Post article on Governor Northam's push for gun control in a special session.  Senator Howell wasn't the only one quoted though.  There is this from former State Senator and now Congresswomen Jennifer Wexton:

If you want to know how things have rolled in Virginia on the firearms issue, consider that Gun Lobby Day is an unofficial but highly memorable event held every year at the state Capitol on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“That was so wrong for so many reasons,” Jennifer Wexton, a former state senator who is now a member of Congress, observed about the timing of the pro-firearms offensive. Wexton, first drawn to politics in part by her desire for tougher gun laws, said that the state Senate’s Republican leadership would “put up all the gun bills on that day and kill them, one after another.”

You see, even though Governor Northam claims the GOP majority holds "early morning meetings" where they kill everything, the fact is, the State Senate holds hearings on the bills with the most people are at the General Assembly to be heard - on Martin Luther King Day when a number of groups hold lobbying days, not just the pro-rights community, but the anti-rights folks hold a rally at the Bell Tower and are there for the Senate Courts of Justice Committee meeting.  On the House side, the subcommittee that hears gun related bills meet at 4:00 PM on Thursday afternoons in a usually packed meeting room and both pro-rights and anti-rights supporters are there to speak for or against legislation.

So, no Ms. Wexton, it isn't wrong for so many reasons.  And, no, there weren't people runing around the halls of the General Assembly Building with "Uzis and other assault weapons".