More than 100 Virginia cities, counties declare themselves gun sanctuaries
Gun owners from across Virginia are demanding their local governments establish “gun rights sanctuaries,” which declare that local officials will oppose any “unconstitutional restrictions” on the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
The resolutions, promoted heavily by the gun-rights group Virginia Citizens Defense League, vary from county to county, the Associated Press reports, but in the last two months, more than 100 counties, cities and towns in Virginia have approved such resolutions.
The resolutions reflect a movement that began last year in Illinois and quickly spread to numerous states, including California, Colorado, New Mexico and Florida.
In Virginia, where the National Rifle Association’s headquarters is located, lawmakers in both parties have typically supported gun rights. But in recent years, and particularly after a shooter killed 12 people and injured four others at a Virginia Beach municipal building in May, Democrats have backed tighter restrictions.
After Democrats promising new gun control laws took over both chambers of the state legislature in the Nov. 5 election, the sanctuary movement was sparked in the state.
Those newly elected Democrats are proposing universal background checks, assault weapon bans and red flag laws that would allow authorities to temporarily take guns away from people deemed dangerous to themselves or others.Let the nullification of the nullification begin
One proposal in particular that helped fuel the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement would have made it a felony to sell, manufacture, purchase or possess assault weapons and certain magazines.
Incoming Democrat state Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, the author of the proposal, has since said he expects to amend the bill to allow current owners to keep their weapons. But many see the bill as the first step down a slippery slope that will end with their guns being taken away.
The two sides differ on how effective such resolutions could be. On Friday, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring called the resolutions ”part of an effort by the gun lobby to stoke fear” and said they “have no legal effect.”
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