VA Governor Declares State of Emergency In Response to Pro-Second Amendment Rally Set for Monday, Bans Firearms

CHARLOTTESVILLE – It appears the moves taken to reaffirm local allegiance to the Second Amendment by the majority of counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia were quite prudent. In response to a planned Second Amendment rally scheduled for Monday, organized to make gun rights supporters’ voices heard, Governor Ralph ‘Blackface’ Northam issued a state of emergency and declared that rallygoers cannot exercise their right to bear arms at the state capital. Northam made the move after Antifa announced plans to counter-protest, giving the Democratic governor cover to smear all the Second Amendment supporters as Nazis and White Supremacists not worthy of inalienable rights.

From NBC News:

“Fearing a repeat of the deadly march by white nationalists in Charlottesville in 2017, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Wednesday declared a state of emergency and temporarily banned people from carrying guns and other weapons on the grounds of the state Capitol, where thousands of gun rights activists are expected to rally next week against stricter gun control laws.

Northam said he made the call after hearing “credible intelligence” from law enforcement that armed militias and hate groups, some from outside Virginia, planned to disrupt the event. He said the threats of violence, picked up on the internet and on dark web channels by state intelligence analysts, included “conversations fueled by misinformation and conspiracy theories” similar to talk that preceded the “Unite the Right” march in August 2017, at which white nationalists clashed with counterprotesters, one of whom was killed when a man drove into a crowd.

“They are not coming to peacefully protest. They are coming to cause intimidation and to cause harm,” Northam, a Democrat, said at a news conference. […]”

Who are the ‘armed militias and hate groups’ threatening the event? NBC News does there best to make it seem as if it’s all in response to yet another white supremacist rally of Republicans. Besides hate groups not being welcome at an event defending individual rights, the plans to disrupt the event put those threats squarely on the Left. Antifa.

See how this works? Law-abiding citizens assemble to exercise one right in defense of another, militant Leftist mobs threaten violence and mayhem, and so the law-abiding citizens are smeared as white supremacists and their rights are declared temporarily invalid by the government. It’s a shame, it’s alarming, and it’s happening right next door.

The supporters of gun rights, of individual rights, in Virginia have been taking a stand against a majority Democrat legislature and governor intent upon blatantly violating the Constitutional rights of of their citizens. A eye-popping 90 out of 95 counties have declared their locales’ loyalty to the Second Amendment in defiance of liberal state lawmakers racing to pass gun bans. The alarm has spread to North Carolina, where, even though we’ve a Republican majority, citizens and local governments want insurance that their rights will be protected.

So far 11 counties in North Carolina have passed Second Amendment resolutions, including Cherokee, Cleveland, Davidson, Lincoln, McDowell, Pitt, Rowan, Rutherford, Stokes, Surry and Wilkes More counties, like Stanly and Cabarrus have votes planned. The movement is likely to spread as Democrats campaign to take control of our state legislature, but especially as Monday’s planned rally Charlottesville draws attention.

Governor Northam’s response to the threats from disruptive groups was misguided. He should have warned all groups that the First Amendment would be protected from all threats of intimidation and violence from the likes of Antifa mobs. Instead he reacted  by violating the rights of some to appease others issuing threats of violence.

However, the sense that Second Amendment supporters are committed, and that their Leftists protesters are intent on being violent, is a good one. The governor may be banning all weapons and guns from the rally with the intention of mitigating possible violence. Yet the inconvenient truth that the Left willfully ignores is that it’s the people that are violent, not the guns, and those organized Leftist mobs that have proven time and again in recent years to be the ones stoking violence. As such, Monday could be a flash point for a very real struggle between the people and their state government, the individual versus the mob.

More and more people will stand up for what is right along the way. Unfortunately, the Left has dropped all pretenses and openly uses mob violence and chaos to shape policy to fit its agenda.

Have a hot tip for First In Freedom Daily?

Got a hot news tip for us? Photos or video of a breaking story? Send your tips, photos and videos to tips@firstinfreedomdaily.com. All hot tips are immediately forwarded to FIFD Staff.

Have something to say? Send your own guest column or original reporting to submissions@firstinfreedomdaily.com.