Gun sanctuaries surge in Virginia, set national template

FPI / December 29, 2019

Leaders of Virginia’s gun “sanctuary” movement are calling on supporters of the movement to actively resist Democratic proposals in Richmond, citing the arguments that led to the American Revolution.

The gun “sanctuary” movement sweeping through Virginia “has in less than two months become the national model for fighting gun control,” Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard noted in a Dec. 27 op-ed.

In November, Democrats took control of the state legislature and, backed by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, have offered several gun control proposals.

“In reaction, gun owners have flooded into county and city meetings to demand that their representatives approve sanctuary resolutions to ignore gun control laws, similar to how immigration sanctuary resolutions work,” Bedard wrote.

Two leaders of the movement said in a memo that “resistance to illegal and unauthorized government acts is not new,” citing the decisions by the Founding Fathers to sign the Declaration of Independence that challenged Great Britain and King George III”

“This doctrine is, in fact, foundational to our form of government. Indeed, the Declaration of Independence is a document of interposition, between the American colonists and a tyrannical King George III. Its signatories — the people’s representatives — pledged to one another ‘our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor,’ believing that they most likely would be tried and executed for treason against the crown,” said the memo from the Virginia Citizens Defense League and the Virginia-based Gun Owners of America Inc.

So far, 114 counties and communities in Virginia have designated themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries and are challenging the opinion of Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring that the gun sanctuaries have “no legal effect.”

Herring last week said that, not only are the gun sanctuary proposals not legal, but that local governments must give in to the state government.

“Should the government in Richmond act lawlessly, then local officials and the people they represent will not cooperate and may take steps to actively resist,” said the gun “sanctuary” leaders in their memo.

The sanctuary leaders called the potential Virginia gun control laws a violation of the Second Amendment and cited Revolutionary War-era heroes who fought oppressive control.

Their memo said: “The U.S. Constitution and the Virginia Constitution are the statements of the will of the people themselves, and the compacts from which the Virginia legislature draws its authority. Should the Virginia General Assembly, along with the Virginia governor or attorney general, enact and attempt to enforce a law which is prohibited by Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, or Article I, Section 13 of the Virginia Constitution, and the pre-existing, inalienable rights of the people, then such law is of no legitimacy — and void. In response, local government officials who have sworn an oath to uphold the federal and state constitutions unquestionably have the inherent power — and the duty — to refuse to enforce such unconstitutional laws, and even to protect the people against enforcement.”

Free Press International