Virginia Democrats are looking to pounce during this upcoming session of the Virginia General Assembly.
In the 2019 elections, Democrats scored big at the ballot box, securing majorities in both the House of Delegates and the State Senate.
Wasting no time, Democrat Senator George Barker introduced SB 240, a “red flag” gun confiscation law which is one of Ralph “Blackface” Northam’s big policy items during the upcoming session.
This red flag bill has the same anti-due process provisions like other red flag laws across the nation.
Additionally, this legislation focuses on guns instead of individuals who are considered dangerous to themselves or others.
Cam Edwards noted that “only law enforcement could go to a judge to request such an order. That should cut down on false reports.”
However, Edward calls attention to how “the bill only requires that a judge determine there is ‘probable cause’ that someone poses a ‘substantial risk’ to themselves or others, which is a very low legal bar.”
Additionally, SB 240 takes an individual’s legally owned firearms before appearing in court. Barker’s bill also demands a judge to “consider any relevant evidence.” But as Edwards highlights, “the actual subject of the red flag request won’t even speak to the judge until after the order has been granted.”
But the gun-grabbing doesn’t stop there.
Republican State Senator Tommy Norment said that he expects several of his Republican colleagues to support anti-gun bills in this year’s session. He gave a talk at the annual Kaufman & Canoles Business Leaders Forum at the Princess Anne Country Club in Virginia Beach.
Norment claimed that it’s becoming clear the recent wave of gun sanctuary counties in Virginia are having an impact on the overall discourse.
“Universal background checks, I predict, is coming out no matter what the governor has said. It is going to happen because there is majority of Republicans and Democrats who will pass it,” he stated.
Although Democrats control both chambers of the legislature, they can pass whatever they want even if every Republican votes against a certain piece of Democrat-sponsored legislation. But Norment still believes both background checks and a “red flag” law could get several members of the GOP on board with Democrats’ anti-gun agenda.
“But let me be clear about that,” he said during the meeting of about 100 people. “If there is an appropriately, narrowly-drawn red flag law it will pass, but it must be drawn so tightly that due process is preserved.”
At several gun sanctuary events across Virginia, many people worried that guns will be confiscated.
Norment asserted that will never happen.
“There ain’t no way in hell that any legislation will pass confiscating guns and locking people up under the pretext of amending the federal Constitution of the Second Amendment,” he stated, which received some applause at the event.
Under universal background checks, all gun transactions and transfers would be subject to a state-sponsored background check.
America is now at a time when it can’t count on both parties to properly defend its gun rights.
In blue states like Virginia, this is especially pronounced.
Which is why gun rights activists have opted for unconventional routes such as gun sanctuaries.
As strange as these strategies may seem, localism may be the only strategy left for gun owners in solidly blue states. Other than that, they will likely have to move to a more pro-gun red state.
