Category: Politics

VEXIT: West Virginia governor invites Virginia counties to join his state amid gun control push back
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, announced that legislation has been passed to send an open invitation to any Virginia county that wants to join West Virginia amid gun control push back in Richmond.

It’s an interesting idea.

The only problem is that the Virginia legislature as well as the U.S. legislature have to sign off on it too.

Michael Bloomberg Isn’t Really Running For President, And That Should Worry You
The staff, the ad spending, the campaigning — Michael Bloomberg was going to do all of this to defeat President Donald Trump already. Doing it as a ‘candidate’ exempts him from limits on PACs and political donations.

Everyone was saying he was running just because he’s a narcissistic ass, but figuring it’s personal since they’re both NooYawk billionaires and he hates Trump’s guts is more reasonable. And just because he is a billionaire and apparently doesn’t mind spending a billion here and a billion there doesn’t mean if he can figure out a good deal, he won’t use it.

There is very good reason to believe Michael Bloomberg isn’t actually running for president.

Of course, there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. For one, he declared he is. He’s also hired more than 1,000 staff and is still expanding, offering salaries far above campaign averages. This week, he became the first of the declared candidates to have campaigned in all 14 states of March 3’s Super Tuesday primary battle, and he’s spent a quarter billion on political advertising so far. All would point toward Bloomberg indeed running for president.

But here’s the snag: He wanted to do all of this anyway. Everything, that is, but the declaration bit. That, he was loathe to do. But the staff, the ad spending, the campaigning — he was going to do all of this to defeat President Donald Trump already, and we know this because he told us so.

As early as February 2019, the billionaire pledged he’d spend at least $500 million to defeat the president as either a candidate or as what Politico called “a shadow political party for the Democratic nominee.” That massive spend, the report continued, represents “just 1 percent of Bloomberg’s estimated net worth.”

Just a month later, the wealthy New Yorker laughed at the idea he would ever run for president, mocking “Amtrak Joe” Biden for apologizing “for being male, over 50 [and] white,” and Beh-tóh O’Rourke, who Bloomberg joked had “apologized for being born.” Well, a few months later he jumped in anyway. But does the world-renowned winner have any intention of actually winning the nomination?

We might all agree it is strange to hear the hyper-competitive Bloomberg declare he will pay his sizable staff to work on behalf of the people who are supposed to be his primary opponents. His “army of some 500 staffers will march on through the general election in November even if he loses the Democratic nomination, campaign officials [told] NBC News” back when he employed a measly 500 staffers.

Of course, Bloomberg has said the same of the now $2 billion he’s reportedly willing to spend for any campaign to defeat Trump.

This magnanimity in defeat doesn’t seem to square with Michael Bloomberg, cut-throat capitalist billionaire, but it does make sense when viewed in the light of his Bloomberg News empire, which loses money every year. The losses don’t seem to bother Bloomberg, because in this aspect of business he is a man who wants his ideas in the world and is willing to pay to make it happen.

So why declare? Simply put, the billionaire mayor gets a lot more for his money as a candidate than he ever could as a donor or even as the operator of a super PAC.

First, there are limits to what a donor can give a campaign, and $2 billion is way out of the question. Even so, Bloomberg could pour billions into an organization to sway elections, as Charles Koch and George Soros seek to do. Then, there’s something campaigns have that no PAC has — and that’s access to the best rates the market has to offer.

See, super PACs pay more for everything. And not a little more: Depending on the spend, these outfits pay maybe double what a candidate for office must pay for advertisements in digital, radio, cable, newspapers, network television, and even mail.

By law, candidates for office are entitled to the best treatment a station can give. “In the 45 days before a primary and the 60 days before a general election,” Radio & Television Business Report explains, “legally qualified candidates get the lowest rate for a spot that is then running on the station within any class of advertising time and particular daypart.”

If a private entity earned a bonus spot, the ability for his ads to preempt other ads, or any other perks, those must also be made available to the person running for office. Someone is getting a deal for buying in bulk? Then so is the candidate, even if the campaign isn’t buying in bulk. And on and on.

Sanders Campaign Rocked Again: More Staff Caught Advocating Violence Against Opponents

2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) campaign was rocked again on Tuesday after James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas released more undercover footage exposing paid Sanders campaign staffers appearing to advocate for violence against political opponents.

The new video from Project Veritas allegedly shows Sanders campaign South Carolina field organizers Mason Baird and Daniel Taylor advocating for “extreme action” and “militancy” against political opponents and private property.

I Was Wrong – They Want War

Q: Marta, why in the world would you have ever thought otherwise?
A: Look, I’m a veteran. I’ve been deployed to warzones. Violence is the last damn thing I ever want to see – especially violence that tears this nation apart. I wanted every possible, honest, honorable chance to settle this peaceably. But I’m beginning to realize, that’s not what the Democrats want. Period. That’s why.

I admit it – I was wrong.

Last week I advised that the best course of action as the left attacks our rights is to keep a civil course, wow them with facts, decency, and knowledge and defend our rights with knowledge, passion, and eloquence.

I felt that we could win based on logic and rational discourse, but having watched the events of this week unfold in front of my eyes, I realize just how wrong I was.

I thought that after engaging with our political opponents en masse, peacefully stating our concerns, and rationally discussing the issues of due process and Second Amendment rights in Richmond, the Democrats would step away from their insane assault on our freedoms.

I was wrong.

Despite concerns which the Democrats admitted to have had about the proposed “red flag law” during discussions with the press and with gun rights advocates, they advanced this appalling legislation the very next day after the massive rally in Richmond, disingenuously claiming that the measure is “thoughtful” and preserves due process. They jammed through other appalling bills, limiting the ability of peaceable Virginians to exercise their rights, without so much as a second thought, claiming that “elections have consequences.”

A Democratic-led House committee voted Friday for several pieces of gun legislation that a Republican majority has blocked for years. Those bills include limiting handgun purchases to once a month; universal background checks on gun purchases; allowing localities to ban guns in public buildings, parks and other areas; and a red flag bill that would allow authorities to temporarily take guns away from anyone deemed to be dangerous to themselves or others.

Based on previous interactions with some of these legislators, I thought they would give consideration to the people whom they represent, even if those people didn’t vote for them or disagree with them politically.

I was wrong.

Virginia Democrats are now in the process of jamming bills down our throats that threatens our First Amendment rights. It’s already illegal to threaten to kill, injure, bomb, etc. government buildings or officials in Virginia, but Senate Bill 1627 goes a step further.

The bar for harassment is already as low as “vulgar language” in Virginia’s code 18.2-152.7:1: If any person, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass any person, shall use a computer or computer network to communicate obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious, or indecent language, or make any suggestion or proposal of an obscene nature, or threaten any illegal or immoral act, he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. Bourne’s bill proposes adding the following amendment: A violation of this section may be prosecuted in the jurisdiction in which the communication was made or received or in the City of Richmond if the person subjected to the act is one of the following officials or employees of the Commonwealth: the Governor, Governor-elect, Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant Governor-elect, Attorney General, or Attorney General-elect, a member or employee of the General Assembly, a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, or a judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Bourne’s Bill also changes the language of “he shall be guilty” to “he is guilty” of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Not only do the twisted, power-hungry politicians in Richmond want to relieve you of your right to keep and bear arms, but they want to criminalize criticism of the very elected officials Virginians put into office!

Let’s remember, boys and girls. These pernicious ***** work for us, but they’re trying to keep themselves in power by silencing detractors and appealing to fetid ignorami.

And if you think this trend is limited to Virginia, you would be wrong too.

The proglodyte sociopaths have a chokehold on the Democrats, so much that they feel they have to pander to their insanity by promising abortions on demand for biological males and paying off billions of dollars in college loans at taxpayer expense, while screwing Americans who have been fiscally responsible with their earnings.

I thought there were sane Democrats left in this country.

I was wrong.

There may be some decent leftists here and there, but the shrieking, perpetually aggrieved progressive parasites have taken over, and they want you silenced and stripped of any dignity and freedoms.

The “Wax My Balls” and “Make My Cake, Bigot” woke fascists want war, and they might just get it……….

I thought the Democrats wanted the same things for our nation as we do, and we merely disagreed on the best way to accomplish this.

I was wrong.

They don’t care about human rights, as they claim. They care about giving themselves power over you, over your thoughts, over your achievements and earnings. They don’t consider you human.

They want to burn it all down, and they will do whatever is necessary to ensure that happens. OK, let’s see what happens.

They want you gone. Act accordingly.

Let the word go forth:

This is the most conservative of all the Democratic presidential candidates, note well.

So, as the man says, let’s be clear: if you think it might be a bad idea for biological males to compete against your daughter in the high school women’s sports league, or that biological males do not belong in your daughter’s or wife’s locker room, or even if you dissent from gender ideology at all, as the left-wing feminist J.K. Rowling did publicly late last year — then you are on the same side as Bull Connor and the Ku Klux Klan, and will deserve the hatred you receive.

This is how left-wing identity politics works today. The Age of Entitlement, Christopher Caldwell’s dark, provocative new book illuminates how the concept of “civil rights” has been weaponized to demolish constitutional principles. If you’ve heard anything about the book, it’s probably something along the lines of this Jonathan Rauch review in the NYT. Excerpts:

In Caldwell’s telling, the Civil Rights Act, which banned many forms of discrimination, was a swindle. Billed as a one-time correction that would end segregation and consign race consciousness to the past, it actually started an endless and escalating campaign of race-conscious social engineering. Imperialistically, civil rights expanded to include “people of color” and immigrants and gays and, in short, anyone who was not native-born, white and straight — all in service of “the task that civil rights laws were meant to carry out — the top-down management of various ethnic, regional and social groups.”

With civil rights as their bulldozer, in Caldwell’s view, progressive movements ran amok. They “could now, through the authority of civil rights law, override every barrier that democracy might seek to erect against them”; the law and rhetoric of civil rights “gave them an iron grip on the levers of state power.”

Perhaps the author should have come up for oxygen when he found himself suggesting that the Southern segregationists were right all along. Reading this overwrought and strangely airless book, one would never imagine a different way of viewing things, one that rejects Caldwell’s ultimatum to “choose between these two orders.” In that view — my own — America has seen multiple refoundings, among them the Jackson era’s populism, the Civil War era’s abolition of slavery, the Progressive era’s governmental reforms and the New Deal era’s economic and welfare interventions. All of them, like the civil rights revolution, sparked tense and sometimes violent clashes between competing views of the Constitution and basic rights, but in my version of history, those tensions proved not only survivable but fruitful, and working through them has been an engine of dynamism and renewal, not destruction and oppression. I worry about the illiberal excesses of identity politics and political correctness, but I think excesses is what they are, and I think they, too, can be worked through. Being a homosexual American now miraculously married to my husband for almost a decade, I can’t help feeling astonished by a history of America since 1964 that finds space for only one paragraph briefly acknowledging the civil rights movement’s social and moral achievements — before hastening back to “But the costs of civil rights were high.”

Perhaps most depressingly, Caldwell’s account, even if one accepts its cramped view of the Constitution and its one-eyed moral bookkeeping, leads nowhere. It proffers no constructive alternative, no plausible policy or path. The author knows perfectly well that there will be no “repeal of the civil rights laws.” He foresees only endless, grinding, negative-sum cultural and political warfare between two intractably opposed “constitutions.” His vision is a dead end. Unfortunately, it also seems to be where American conservatism is going.

Rauch is not wrong in his description of the most controversial part of Caldwell’s book. Caldwell really does see the Civil Rights regime as where things went badly wrong. But Rauch, in my view, doesn’t take on Caldwell’s actual argument, but only asserts that these conflicts “can be worked through.” Boy, is that ever whistling past the graveyard. However, I have to admit that I never would have read a book that claimed the Civil Rights movement went wrong had it not been written by someone I respect as much as I do Christopher Caldwell. I read the book last week, and I’m glad I did, though I doubt I will read a more unsettling book all year………..

I strongly urge you to read Caldwell’s book, and not to assume that you understand it from reviews. Let me get one thing out of the way now: Caldwell does NOT say that segregation was right. For example, he denounces the Jim Crow South as a confederacy of “sham democracies,” and agrees that its apartheid system had to change. Yet the manner in which the state demolished segregation had dramatic unintended consequences. Caldwell’s argument is more like that of Sir Thomas More in this famous exchange from the Robert Bolt play A Man For All Seasons:

Roper: So now you’d give the Devil benefit of law?

More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

Roper: I’d cut down every law in England to do that!

More: Oh? And, when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you – where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast – man’s laws, not God’s – and, if you cut them down – and you’re just the man to do it – d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.

Caldwell argues that to get at the devil of segregation, we cut down constitutional principles that are now destroying constitutional principles that few people in 1964 imagined would one day be at risk.

 Trump at the March for Life Seals Irrelevancy of Never Trumpers.

Even Reagan never did this.
Trump did it because he’s Trump.

Like Donald Trump, I attended my first March for Life this year. I didn’t march. Instead, I was there to record the faces and screams of the angry ugly left as I often do at these sorts of events.

Stunningly, the angry ugly left didn’t show up. That’s understandable because whenever the momentum is against the left, they ignore their opposition. I see this firsthand all the time when it comes to voter fraud and especially when racial discrimination is done by the traditional victims of discrimination.

What did become clear was that Never Trump Republicans looked even more ridiculous at the end of the March for Life than they did that morning.

Trump was embraced by the largest gathering of pro-life Americans and Trump embraced them. Trump at the March for Life:

Sadly, the far-left is actively working to erase our God-given rights, shut down faith-based charities, ban religious believers from the public square, and silence Americans who believe in the sanctity of life. They are coming after me because I am fighting for you and we are fighting for those who have no voice.

Never Trump Republicans can’t imagine a man like Trump attending the March for Life.

Never Trumpism is built on a foundation of sanctimony.

These sanctimonious few don’t like how Trump speaks. They don’t like his bombast. They don’t like his past. He’s not George Bush.

Get over it. He’s winning.

‘Ready To Move On’: David Axelrod Says Focus Group Of Democrats Didn’t Care About Impeachment

By November the demoncrap electorate will have nearly forgotten about this. I hope the Republican electorate hasn’t and thrashes the opposition hip and thigh.

Staunton City Council puts Second Amendment discussions on work session agenda

Hobie! Can you keep us informed?

STAUNTON, Va. (WHSV) — Thursday’s Staunton City Council work session agenda includes consideration of a discussion about the city’s Second Amendment status, focusing on whether or not to allow a public hearing on the topic of becoming a ‘Second Amendment Sanctuary.’

Staunton City Council

While members of the public have voiced their opinions on the issue at regularly scheduled Staunton City Council meetings in recent weeks, Councilwoman Andrea Oakes said the council has not had any type of discussion as a body of government yet.

“We normally do not have a public hearing for a resolution, so in order to allow the public hearing, the council has to be in the majority vote to allow it, and that’s what I want,” Oakes said.

The Second Amendment status has not been on the agenda for the past few meetings, but community members still showed up to voice their opinions during the ‘matters of the public period’ period.

Around two dozen people spoke on Jan. 10, with the majority speaking against the idea of the city adopting a resolution, but others speaking in favor of the resolution and against proposed bills in the General Assembly.

Oakes said having an official public hearing for the people of Staunton would allow council to have a better idea of what the people want, and how the council should move forward.

Oakes said she’s in favor of having the discussion.

“Having it as a public hearing would put it on the record. I will be official. We will advertise it so everyone will know about it, and then we will have a proper venue, where folks can come out, have a platform and have their voice heard,” Oakes said.

If the council is able to agree to have a public hearing, Oakes hopes it will happen at the council’s next meeting in February.

 

Republicans Note How Schiff Just Threw Nadler ‘Under the Bus’

I actually set up late and watched this charade. As you might think, the House Managers; Shiff & Nadler act like whiny junior high schoolers.

Chief Justice Roberts, probably our of the desire to remain to be seen as ‘neutral’, gave both sides a pretty stern warning for a Senate proceeding.

Lead impeachment manager Adam Schiff is doing some damage control on Wednesday. Damage that was done by his own colleague, fellow chairman and fellow impeachment manager Jerry Nadler. Late Tuesday night, as the Senate was debating (and rejecting) the amendments presented by Chuck Schumer, Nadler accused the GOP senators of breaking their constitutional oaths and of engaging in a White House “cover up.”

“The only one who should be embarrassed, Mr. Nadler, is you for the way you’ve addressed this body,” White House lead counsel Pat Cipollone said in reply.

The back and forth was so tense that Chief Justice John Roberts had to admonish the teams and urge them to keep it civil.

“I wouldn’t have done that,” Trump counsel Jay Sekulow said of Nadler’s comments. “And then pointing that out on multiple times and talking to the United States Senate about their oath, I thought was a very dangerous move.”

Perhaps that’s why Schiff shielded Nadler from answering any reporters’ questions on Wednesday.

https://twitter.com/EliseStefanik/status/1220048755732500481

‘The civil rights march of my life’: Thousands of pro-gun protesters, many heavily armed, rally peacefully in Richmond.

RICHMOND, Va. – Thousands of gun owners and gun rights supporters gathered Monday at Virginia’s Capitol for a “peaceful day to address our Legislature” that appeared to generate none of the violence feared by some state leaders.

Many demonstrators, opposed to proposed gun restrictions, openly displayed military-style semiautomatic rifles. Other wore orange “Guns save lives” stickers as the crowd chanted “USA” and sang the national anthem. Signs read “Come and take it” and “Second Amendment Sanctuary.”

But despite warnings from Gov. Ralph Northam and law enforcement that out-of-state hate groups and militias may incite violence, the protest did not grow heated. Police estimated the size of the crowd at 22,000 – including 6,000 people inside Capitol Square – and only one arrest was reported.

Police said Mikaela E. Beschler, 21, of Richmond, was charged with one felony count of wearing a mask in public after being warned twice before against wearing a bandanna covering her face. Beschler was released on her recognizance.

“The sheer numbers here speaks for itself,” he said. “I hope our legislators will back off. Today was the civil rights march of my life.”

Tom Rohde, 49, of West Point, said he was happy to see no violence.

“You got thousands of guns and not a single bullet fired,” he said. …….

At least six suspected members of a violent neo-Nazi group were arrested last week in Maryland and Georgia. Authorities feared three of the men planned to try to incite violence at the rally.

On Monday, law enforcement helicopters buzzed overhead as state, city and Capitol police kept a wary eye on the crowds. Barricades lined the streets and many shops were closed.

Virginia Lobby Day Rally Finishes Up Without Issue

Anti-gunners painted a very bleak picture of what was set to happen today in Richmond. They spun warnings of white supremacists and domestic terrorism. It was enough that anyone would have concerns, even if they knew the Second Amendment community wasn’t interested in such things. All it would take is just one deranged individual to make everything we’ve worked toward go away.

Yet things are wrapping up in Richmond and, thankfully, it was as uneventful as such a thing can be.

As noted earlier, our own Cam Edwards was there. Serving as one of the speakers for the rally, he gave me a call when he finished up to give me his impressions of the event.

“I think that the important takeaway here is that we really did see an incredible turnout on the part of Virginians,” he said via a phone call earlier today. “I have no idea how many people are here but the entire downtown area is just full of second amen supporters. and, you know, people have smiles on their faces and determination and resolve.”

Of course, the focus of much of the media has been the defiance, and that’s not without a slight bit of legitimacy. As Cam noted, “I have seen a few we shall not comply signs, these are folks who are trying to send a message to the lawmakers in Richmond that Northam’s gun control agenda is the wrong move. I just hope that lawmakers listen to the voices of this incredible movement.”

I want to echo that last sentiment.

Virginians deserve better than what Northam has given them. Today, thousands of Virginians spoke with one voice.

YouTube Removes Livestreams of Richmond Gun-Rights Rally

As thousands of Second Amendment protesters flocked to the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond on Monday, YouTube livestreams of the protest started freezing or getting flat-out removed from the video platform.

“This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s community guidelines,” YouTube explained after taking down live coverage of the gun rights rally from WUSA9, a news channel in the Washington, D.C. area…….

Whatever your position on gun rights, media outlets should be able to cover a Second Amendment rally without getting blocked by YouTube. Carrying guns is not an illegal activity and protests like this should not be censored.

YouTube’s action against the Richmond gun-rights protesters is only likely to incense Second Amendment activists. Like Gov. Ralph Northam’s effort to crack down on gun rights, this censorship will only help turn Virginia red again.

so lets post some pictures, gathered off the internet.

Looks like a pretty inclusive bunch of people doesn’t it?

An Open Letter To All Those Attending Virginia’s Lobby Day

While I’ll be speaking at the Lobby Day rally scheduled to take place Monday morning at the state capitol alongside individuals like Stephen Willeford of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Dick Heller, Antonia Okafor, and more, I want to say a few things to everyone attending before the event begins.

First, to all of my fellow Virginia gun owners who showed up at your county supervisors and city council meetings to urge them to support the right of the People to keep and bear arms and declare their community a Second Amendment Sanctuary, thank you. I know that many of you are traveling a long way to make it to the capitol. For many of you, this may be your first time attending a Lobby Day. You may be very new to citizen activism, but you’re making a difference.

You know how unique this movement has been over the past two months. It hasn’t been led or directed from above. You’re not taking any marching orders from anyone. You heard about what was going on with Democrats and their gun bills from your neighbor, at the grocery store checkout, or maybe your local gun store owner. You organized with your friends and family and were thrilled to see a packed house at your next local government meeting. You may not even have been able to get in the door yourself, and strained to listen to what was happening while standing in the cold December night. You didn’t leave until you heard the roar of the crowd as the Second Amendment Sanctuary resolution was approved, and you cheered along with hundreds of your neighbors on the steps of the county courthouse.

I’ve stood with you on those steps. I’ve seen you helping your kids with their homework in the foyer of the Louisa County administrators building. I’ve heard your impassioned pleas for lawmakers to focus their efforts on fighting violent crime and repairing our mental health system instead of targeting you and other legal gun owners. I know how important this effort is to you, and that you are bringing that same spirit with you to the capitol for Lobby Day. I salute you and thank you for all of your efforts and I urge to you stay politically engaged after you leave the capitol and return home. We still have a long legislative fight ahead of us, but this is also an election year, and we need to be as involved as possible from now through November to ensure that candidates who will protect our rights win election.

You are the heart and soul of this grassroots movement of civic engagement and peaceful protest. And unfortunately, your success is being recognized not just with a huge amount of media attention, but with unwanted attention from those who would co-opt Lobby Day for their own purposes, be it benign or malignant.

Republican and Democratic leadership in the Virginia legislature were given a security briefing on Friday, and while the lawmakers cannot disclose the information that they’ve learned, Republicans didn’t come out afterwards proclaiming that they hadn’t heard anything that rises to a credible threat. Instead, GOP lawmakers released a statement on Saturday morning decrying any attempt by violent agitators to cause unrest.

Del. Gilbert is right when he says some individuals are going to try to subvert what your grassroots movement has created, and honestly, I’m as angry at them as I am at the lawmakers who are trying to infringe on our rights.

So let me now address those few individuals who may be planning on attending Lobby Day to do something other than peacefully lobby lawmakers to reject Governor Ralph Northam’s unconstitutional gun control agenda. You’re not needed, you’re not wanted, and you won’t be welcomed.

The gun owners of Virginia who are lobbying their lawmakers don’t believe that the right to keep and bear arms is a right of the Right, or a right of the whites, or of any other specific demographic. It is the right of the People to keep and bear arms that shall not be infringed. We are advocating for the human right of self defense and our constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, and for nothing else. We stand together regardless of color, class, or creed in support of those rights. This is not an insurrection or a violent protest. This is not an opportunity to clash with anyone, whether it’s the alt-right or antifa. Lobby Day is an act of civic engagement on the part of thousands of Virginia residents. If you have any other agenda planned, don’t come at all.

I know the vast majority of the gun owners I’ve seen who are coming from other states are coming with the right frame of mind. You want to stand with Virginians in support, not try to spark off violence that would only enable anti-gun lawmakers to find the support they need for bills that are currently struggling, like Ralph Northam’s gun, mag, and suppressor ban. You know that any violence would only be used by lawmakers to ram through their gun control bills, and you know that means anyone advocating for or engaging in acts of violence are no friend of the Second Amendment or Virginia gun owners. I thank you for standing with us, and hope that you will help to ensure a peaceful and successful event.

Finally, for any Virginia lawmakers who support any of these gun control bills that have been filed this session and who are able to hear or speak to their constituents, I hope that you’ll be able to filter out the noise and the narrative from outside groups and actually listen to what the people you represent have to say. They’re asking you to focus on the real issues that are driving violent crime and the state’s mental health crisis. They care deeply about safe communities, but they know that their legally owned guns aren’t the problem. Many of them can tell you stories of their family members, co-workers, or friends lost to opiates that have flooded the state and killed more Virginians than firearms. They know that a red flag law that takes guns from those determined to be a danger, but leaves them with no mental health treatment, is not a serious solution to the serious problems we face. They also know that the vast majority of the state’s gun owners would be turned into felons overnight if bills like HB 961 became law, and they’re trying to help you avoid making a disastrous mistake.

To everyone attending Lobby Day, I hope that it is an experience that leaves you energized and engaged in the legislative fights we face, the litigation and pushback against any new laws that is sure to come, and the November elections that will be here in the blink of an eye. If you see someone trying to start trouble, let the appropriate authorities know. If someone tries to start trouble with you, don’t engage. Be safe, be kind, and be a good ambassador for our Second Amendment rights and gun owners across the nation.

At gun-rights rally, Washington state Rep. Matt Shea gives fiery defense, talks of nation’s ‘real enemies’

OLYMPIA — Surrounded by hundreds of cheering supporters at the Capitol steps, Washington Rep. Matt Shea Friday vowed to stand up for the Second Amendment and railed against accusations that he participated in domestic terrorism against the United States.

Shea’s appearance comes amid heightened tensions as House Democrats consider whether to hold hearings to expel him from the Legislature.

The lawmaker often speaks at the annual gun-rights rally. But this year, Shea’s declaration to fight the allegations against him — outlined in a House-commissioned investigation released last month — prompted a display of loyalty to the Spokane Valley Republican and his call to fight for liberty.

But the moment also highlighted the intense anger among some over Shea’s situation.

The Washington State Patrol confirmed Friday it was investigating online threats against House Republican Leader J.T. Wilcox, of Yelm, who suspended Shea from the GOP caucus.

The House investigation concluded Shea participated in and planned domestic terrorism with his involvement in three standoffs against the government, including the one at Eastern Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. That report has been forwarded to the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In the wake of that report, Wilcox suspended Shea, which resulted in the lawmaker losing his committee assignments. Wilcox also called on him to resign.

Shea has said the report’s findings and allegations are false and slammed the investigation as a “Marxist smear campaign.”

On Friday, Shea told about 500 people gathered for the gun-rights rally that the government has neglected to investigate America’s “real enemies,” anti-fascist groups.

“The real enemies of this country aren’t being investigated, the real enemies of this country aren’t being looked into, the real enemies of this country aren’t being reported on by the media,” said Shea, to cheers.

“The real enemies of this country want to destroy the Constitution, they want to destroy everything we believe in,” continued Shea, who added that he served tours of duty overseas in the military. “And I came back and this is a new battlefield for us, isn’t it?”

Friday afternoon, the Washington State Patrol confirmed it was investigating alleged violent threats made on a Facebook post that discussed Wilcox and the rally.

Facing Intense Backlash, Northam Praises NRA Members. NRA Levels Him In Response.

Virginia Democrat Governor Ralph Northam praised NRA members for being peaceful during a press conference on Wednesday as he continues to face intense backlash over his extreme anti-freedom agenda, which has included proposals to ban and confiscate firearms from law-abiding citizens.

Northam made the remarks as he declared a state of emergency in anticipation of thousands of the thousands of Virginians that are going to be participating in the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) rally next Monday in Richmond, Virginia.

“Virginia is always open for citizens of our state to meet with the elected leaders peacefully,” Northam began. “That remains the case this coming Monday. Hundreds of Virginians do this everyday.”

“Most recently, earlier this week, the NRA hosted its annual lobby day. Hundreds of Virginians participated, and the day passed without incident. That is what peaceful events look like,” Northam continued. “I thank the NRA for hosting a peaceful event. Now, I call on the Virginia Citizens Defense League and its members to follow the NRA’s example, and make your event a peaceful display too as you have done in the past. Please do not dishonor Virginia or your cause.”

The NRA responded to Northam’s remarks in a statement from Jason Ouimet, executive director, NRA Institute for Legislative Action: “If Virginia Gov. Northam sincerely respects the efforts of the NRA and its 5 million members, he can demonstrate that respect by not infringing our rights.”

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