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Posts Tagged ‘Second Amendment’

Governor Younkin Ends Talk of Gun Bans, For Now

Posted in gun rights, tagged , , , , , , , on April 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Last week, Governor Glenn Youngkin ended the gun ban lobby’s dream of a gun ban mecca in Virginia, at least for now. The Democrats in the General Assembly and the gun ban lobby introduced a flurry of gun control bills from waiting periods to buy a gun to outright bans of the most popular firearms in the nation. Last Tuesday, Younkin vetoed 30 of the bills and amended six. The Democrats did not react well to the news. House Majority Leader Charniele Herring (D.) said she is “ashamed of the Governor’s vetoes.” House Democratic Caucus Chair Kathy Tran said the vetoes “threaten the safety and prosperity of our communities across the commonwealth.” And not to be out done House Speaker Don Scott turned to what has become basic talking points when talking about Republicans by referenceing “MAGA Republicans” and claimed they “refused to act and protect our children, and Virginians will hold them accountable in November.”

The Reload talked to Bearingarms.com‘s Cam Edwards for this week’s Reload Podcast. Among the things that Cam noted:

He argued the dynamics at play during this year’s legislative session were pretty surprising.

Not only did we not know what Youngkin would do with the dozens of gun bills that made it to his desk before he formally announced his vetoes, but the way those proposals got through the legislature was surprising too. Every Democrat in the state house held together to vote for every single proposal, even the more aggressive bans and restrictions.

Cam said that was a fascinating development given the large grassroots backlash the party faced after its last attempt to enact sweeping gun reforms in 2020. He also argued the dynamic that has developed in the state’s gun politics should be very concerning for gun-rights advocates.

I totally agree with Cam on that last point. I was in committee meetings in 2020 where the hearing rooms were packed to overflowing with gun owners. This year it was the NRA lobbist, a couple of VCDL folks, and the Virginia Shooting Sports Association (VSSA) representative who testified virtually by ZOOM. Every now and then there would be less than a handful of gun owners but nothing like 2020. Gun owners in Virginia need to wake up because Democrats have circled the wagons around Abigail Spanberger for Governor in 2025 and she is not going to be easy to beat.

Take a listen to the full podcast and if you aren’t a subscriber to The Reload, I highly recommend it because there is a lot of member only content.

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Refreshing View From Richard Dreyfuss

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , on November 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I’m not one who really cares one way or the other what a Hollywood celebrity says but it is refreshing to see this view stated.

Hat tip to Katie Pavlich.

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Election Post Mortem

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , on November 5, 2008| Leave a Comment »

There are still a few races that are undecided at this point but we do have a handle on what the impact of last night’s results will have on gun rights. Clearly, I believe it will be hard to get significant pro-gun legislation enacted such as reform of BATFE or the DC bill that passed the House in this session but failed to move out of the Senate. It is not likely that a President Obama will sign such legislation.

According to Dave Kopel’s analysis, gun owners lost approximately 15 friends in the House (less than the 26 that he had considered possible). In the Senate, when all the dust settles, we will likely see 4 less pro-gun senators but we will still have enough to sustain a filibuster if those Democrats that identify themselves as pro-gun, like Mark Warner, act as they have campaigned. We shall see if those like Warner will stand with gun owners if and when President Obama nominates justices for the Supreme Court that believe the Constitution changes with the whim of public opinion instead of those who believe that the Constitution means what it says.

My thought is that Barack Obama’s left wing tendencies coupled with an over zealous Nancy Pelosi will cause him to try and strike while the iron is hot and push for a renewal of the ban on certain semi-automatic firearms and and end to gun owner privacy protected by the Tiahart Amendment. We shall see if his instincts for survival of his term and his party’s majority in the House and Senate will cause him to be more cautious in the first two years than was Bill Clinton.

We have our work cut out for us.

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