Tuesday Brought 11 New 2A Sanctuary Resolution Approvals

Tuesday was another good day/night for gun owners as 11 more localities approved 2A Sanctuary Resolutions.  Joining the growing list are:

Alleghany County
Amherst County
Culpeper County
City of Norton
Gloucester County
Goochland County
King George County
Middlesex County
Orange County
Page County
Roanoke County

Four additional localities held hearings on resolutions but did not vote:

Danville
Fairfax County
Virginia Beach
York County

Of particular note was VSSA's home of Orange County.  VSSA Executive Director Lu Charette was there and provided this update:

"Originally the Orange County Board of Supervisors were not to vote on the Sanctuary issue this evening but, several hundred folks turned out in support of the passage. 42 spoke in favor of passing the action and one opposed. After nearly two hours of folks public speaking the Board was almost forced to take an action. There was a motion made to pass then there was an amendment made and accepted, seconded and the vote in favor passed 4 to 1. The one Nay vote was predicted well before the meeting began. "

Photo by Daily Progress

What Lu was referring to when he said "forced to take action" is reported in the Daily Progress:

Before the proposed resolution received a second (ultimately from Crozier), Johnson reminded the audience that the issue at hand involves “proposed” legislation at this point and to condemn actions that haven’t yet happened is a “futile gesture,” though he assured the audience if the general assembly adopted legislation that was contra-constitutional, the board would oppose it.

Crozier said Orange County could be “leaders instead of lemmings” when it came to opposing proposed overreaching gun legislation. “We want to stand above and ahead of places that have just rubber-stamped what others have done,” he said.

Citizens then implored the board with shouts of “put it to a vote,” and “we want a sanctuary county,” and “let’s see who’s not for it” and “it’s time to act,” and “where do you stand?”

White reminded the audience “it’s no good to make noise without impact,” and chastised those who walked out angrily.

“How do we take an unconstitutional act to condemn an unconstitutional act by others? How do we square that up?” he asked.

The board voted 5-0 in favor of Johnson’s motion and the proposed resolution.

But the audience wasn’t satisfied.

The amendment Lu referred to was also reported by the Daily Progress. An attendee named Paul Moog, who spoke earlier and identified himself as "a Navy veteran who had taken an oath to protect the country from enemies foreign and domestic" offered a solution:

“I think it’s clear we all want the same thing,” White said. “The question is how do we get there?”

Amid shouts about “sanctuary county!” and “show a little backbone,” and “join the other counties!” Moog recommended the board adopt a second resolution that “Orange is a Second Amendment sanctuary and you’ll do everything in your constitutional power to defend the Second Amendment rights of Orange County citizens,” receiving one of the largest cheers of the evening.

He suggested it was an “elegant solution,” allowing the board to “support citizens’ rights without violating the law.”

Crozier then turned Moog’s comments into a motion, and rather than adopt a second resolution, “and confuse the dear souls in Richmond,” Johnson recommended submitting just one combined resolution, blending the two.

Frame had issue though and asked if the motion could be amended to remove calling Orange County a “sanctuary county,” but didn’t have support for a second.

Ultimately, the board voted 4-1 on the new, combined amendment, with Frame dissenting. A hearty cheer from the hundreds remaining ensued and the board adjourned after two and a half hours.

Besides being a Navy vet, Moog is also a VSSA Life Member.

Additional localities will be considering hearing and/or voting on resolutions today/tonight:

Albemarle County, Suffolk, Fluvanna County, and Augusta County.

VSSA will continue to provide coverage here on the blog and look for a complete wrap-up of the week's activity in Friday's eBullet.

Don't Despair Virginia Gun Owners

In Friday's eBullet, we shared an article about Governor Northam considering gun confiscation (even Bernie Sanders says that is unconstitutional, while admitting he wants to ban your ability to buy AR-15s in the future).  We know the other list of things he want's to do.  You may ask, with Democrats in control of everything, what can we do?  There are things we can do and we need to start now. 

If you have a Democrat Delegate or Senator, let them hear from you: I can't tell you how many times people have told me it's a waste of time to talk to gun control legislators.  That's bull.  If they know they have thousands of gun owners in their districts, they will take note.  There was one election this year decided by 18 votes, and in 2017, one was decided by a coin toss.  Letting a Democrat legislator know they have a significant number of gun owners in their district might be enough to make the difference between going full bore New Jersey in one session, or settling for just their top priorities (handgun rationing, "assault weapons" ban, "universal" background checks).    Don't just email them.  Find out when they have office hours and meet with them in person.  Also get everyone you know that is like minded to do the same thing.  We especially need women and youth shooters to be a part of this effort.  VSSA has a number of young shooters in the High Power Rifle Program.  AR-15s are used in some of this competition. You may know others.  They need to be the ones telling legislators this story, not the adults.  They should be at the Capitol on Martin Luther King Day when a lot of the lobbying groups are there to talk to legislators.  In the past gun control bills have been heard on this day.  Since that is a school holiday, we need youth shooters at the General Assembly on that day.

Litigation: In the past, VSSA has been proud to join forces with our sister state organizations to challenge unconstitutional gun control laws.  We were part of Heller, McDonald, the case against Maryland's "assault weapons" law, California's Peruta case, and are now part of the NYSRPA vs. New York case.  Now we need to be ready to be on the front end and challenge unconstitutional laws that may be signed by Governor Northam.  This can be costly, but we are laying the groundwork now.

The good news is there are several cases either already at the U.S. Supreme Court or on their way.  If the Court finds in NYSRPA vs New York case that gun laws must be looked at using "Strict Scrutiny"  that means the legislature will have to have passed a law to further a "compelling governmental interest," and must narrowly tailor the law to achieve that interest.  That is a difficult test to pass and could severely limit what the gun ban crowd can do.  VSSA will post more on these efforts as we move forward.

The bottom line is, don't be defeatist.  Yes, our work is cut out for us, we have to do the work to protect our rights.

Contributions was Never the NRA's Strength in Elections

Delmarvanow.com is reporting that Bloomberg's Everytown is outspending the NRA in Virginia this election.

October brought more donations to candidates in Virginia's elections and more knocks on constituent doors from both sides of the gun lobby.

Democratic coffers — which have reached historic levels of reported fundraising — swelled with October donations from Everytown for Gun Safety, a lobby group focused on reducing gun violence.

Everytown contributed $938,238 to the Democratic party in 2019, according to The Virginia Public Access Project. Over $600,000 of that total was given in September.

Everytown outspent the National Rifle Association this year, which donated $273,000 to Republican candidates. In September, based on campaign finance reports, the NRA donated a little over $54,000.

Bloomberg's mouthpiece The Trace is taking delight in sharing the report.

A gun reform group is vastly outspending the NRA in the run-up to Virginia's election. Everytown for Gun Safety contributed more than $600,000 to Democrats in September, while the NRA gave $54,000 to Republicans. Gun violence has emerged as a pivotal issue in the state’s upcoming legislative elections in the wake of the Virginia Beach mass shooting in May, which claimed 12 lives. “The politics of guns in Virginia has changed dramatically over the last few years,” Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington, told the Capital News Service. (Everytown's non-political arm provides grants to The Trace.

But the fact is, money was never the strength of the NRA in elections, its strength was grassroots activity to turn out gun owners on elections day. NRA's Catherine Mortensen points out that is what they have been focused on this year as well.

The NRA has also been busy encouraging voter turnout this election. NRA grassroots activists knocked on 100,000 doors of targeted voters in recent months, according to Catherine Mortensen, NRA media liaison.

Also, the NRA rallied members at the State Capitol during the July special session that adjourned quickly with no action taken.

I was at the Capitol for the Special Session and the line of gun owners stretched around the building and it got longer and the time it took to get in the building took over an hour. 

Election day is November 5th. Make sure every gun owner you know votes!

Shannon Watts, Bloomberg, Use Virginia as Proof They Will Win

It's become a standard talking point for Mike Bloomberg and the people associated with his various offshoot organizations and it continued with this interview by David Gregory of NBC's Meet the Press:

We’ve shown that we can make a difference in the voting booth too: Joe Baca in California. Robin Kelly in Nevada. And just look at the triple crown in the most recent elections in Virginia, also home to the NRA. Terry McAuliffe, the Lt. Governor and the Attorney General all won by making fixing Virginia’s gun laws a campaign issue. And they won because of – not in spite of – this position.

According to Bloomberg et al, gun control is why McAuliffe and his running mates won in Virginia in 2013.  The inconvenient truth is that Cuccinelli's campaign was the worst run since the 2001 Mark Earley campaign and McAuliffe avoided talking about gun control until many polls showed him with a 10 point lead. The GOP Lt. Governor candidate while a solid conservative had made some comments that were easily taken out of context, causing him to lose by more about twenty points, which likely dragged down GOP Attorney General candidate Mark Obenshain to defeat by about 907 votes.  The talking point works for those who don't know about or follow Virginia politics but there were a lot of reasons that McAuliffe defeated Ken Cuccinelli and being a proponent of gun control was the least of them. 

The fact is McAuliffe did not actively support or lobby for any of the gun control measures introduced during the General Assembly.  He has resorted to amending a total of two pieces of legislation that easily passed both houses of the legislature by attaching gun control measures to them. He was defeated on one before the end of the session and the second bill awaits action on Wednesday of this week during the reconvened session.  It is likely to fail as well.