Category: Politics

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.”

https://twitter.com/NRA/status/1217589920459567105

‘God-given right’: Virginia Democrats set off ‘Second Amendment sanctuary’ spree in Florida

Virginia Democrats’ push for new gun controls is having a major ripple effect hundreds of miles south in Florida, where at least 10 counties, fearing their state could be next, have declared themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries.”

With residents’ backing, county commissioners have passed resolutions saying they will resist efforts by higher-ups to force gun registration or even confiscation of firearms already in citizens’ hands.

On Saturday, gun rights activists plan to rally at government offices in Santa Rosa County, which lies in the Panhandle section of the state with its dense population of military and veterans, hoping to send a message of support to local commissioners and a warning to the Florida legislature not to follow Virginia’s path…….

Florida’s legislature convened Tuesday, and Second Amendment activists fear they will be playing defense in Tallahassee amid a growing anti-gun sentiment nationwide…………

Second Amendment sanctuaries began to pop up during the Obama administration — though they didn’t adopt the term “sanctuary” until they saw the success of illegal immigrant sanctuary cities, which profess to refuse cooperation with federal deportation agencies.

In Florida, the sanctuaries are mostly symbolic.

For one thing, Florida governors can remove sheriffs from office, an executive privilege that has been exercised often.

“Tallahassee trumps the county,” Santa Rosa Commissioner Bob Cole said.

Still, he said he thinks both the sanctuary status declaration and the establishment of a local militia, however informal, matter.

“It’s not going to change the course of history, but it lets people know if you’re in the mood to move away, you might just want to do that or don’t move here to begin with if you disagree.”

Militias first cropped up in Florida in 1994, and at one time were more prevalent than they are today. Their purpose is to match up with the language in the Bill of Rights, and in particular with the Second Amendment.

Sam Mullins, 57, is a Santa Rosa Militia member along with Mr. Smyly. The two are the organizers of Saturday’s rally at which Mr. Hill and others will speak. Mr. Mullins and his wife carry their militia membership cards and while he, too, understands there is more symbol than substance, he still takes it seriously.

“We’re getting a lot of support on social media and hopefully we’ll have hundreds on Saturday,” he said. “We see what’s going on in Virginia, specifically, and we know the far-left politicians are trying to infringe on the Second Amendment. What they are trying in some other states, we don’t want that to come here.”

 

Virginia Rising Against The Advancing Political Sickness

Virginia, USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- Most gun owners know Mao’s quote, but few remember the entire statement. Mao wrote, “Every Communist must grasp the truth; Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” You can bet that US democrats fully understand this truth and so, hysterically, fear weapons possessed by the voting civilians who have educated themselves about the failures of leftwing societies.

Our Founding Fathers knowingly stole that possibility of a violent coup from any group who might have hopes of trying. We may willingly give away our sovereignty, but it cannot be taken from us.

But the forces of the Left, and of big government, keep trying to disarm the peaceful civilians.

Recently, in Virginia, Democrats gained political power of the Executive and Legislative (House of Delegates and Senate) Branches and quickly prefiled new restrictive firearms laws. We know that the new laws will affect the law-abiding gun owners and not the criminal element in society. They include so-called “assault rifle” bans, Universal Background Checks, and Red Flag Laws.

It would appear that Democrats have an uncanny ability to choose the most harmful path for our society to take, and then, lie about how great life will be when we all obey their demands – NO DISSENT ALLOWED.

You know they’re lying when they rant about a safer society. Virginia AG Mark Herring promised, “The law is the law … What we’re talking about here are laws that will make our communities and our streets safer.”

Virginia’s Governor, Ralph Northam is selling the proposed laws as a path to a better society. He says, “Things like universal background checks… getting rid of bumpstocks, high volume magazines, red-flag laws…are common-sense pieces of legislation… and because of that Virginia will be safer.”

We all know that restrictive gun laws do not work as promised because of the thriving black market. We all know that peaceful societies do not result from restrictive laws.

Gun banners know they are intentionally lying, but at least this Democrat lie is fully outdated. Gunowners no longer react to it the way Northam thinks they will. We are finished with such lies.

Democrats then made a great error. Feeling drunk with power, they gleefully leaked their intent to use government power to implement those laws. Virginia Rep. Don McEachin said, “…the governor may have to nationalize the National Guard to enforce the law.”

Virginians quickly responded. As of this writing, almost all of Virginia’s 95 counties have declared themselves to be Second Amendment Sanctuaries, where the new laws would not be enforced.

As per Philip Van Cleave, President of Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), even some blue counties, like Accomack County, where Gov. Northam was raised, have declared themselves a Second Amendment Sanctuaries.

Although Democrats have used the word ‘sanctuary‘ recently to indicate that they would not abide by laws with which they disagreed with, the Democrat Attorney General Mark Herring refused to accept the legality of these new events. He declared, “localities and local constitutional officers cannot nullify state laws and must comply.” Now, isn’t that just like the current breed of Democrats?

He is hypocritically wrong! The passion of Virginians can nullify those laws with their ballots, their juries, and with massive civil resistance and disobedience. If Dems think they can essentially eliminate police protections required by society, which is not a Constitutional Right, gun owners can nullify laws designed to prevent legal gun possession and self-defense, which is a Constitutional Right.

However, if Virginians fail, and Dems successfully impose these restrictive laws and regulations on firearms owning Virginians, the way Gov. Cuomo did in New York State, the Democrats will be emboldened to continue the trend of passing even more restrictions, also the way Cuomo did.

Cuomo recently signed into law four more “gun safety bills.” touted as “significant progress…advocated for over many years” by the gun banner New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.

In New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act, a.k.a the SAFE Act, which became law in January 2013. It was a law banning new so-called ‘assault weapons’, requiring registration of grandfathered weapons, universal background checks, unless between family members, and many other restrictions. Its purpose was to create a database of NY State long gun owners.

In New York, 52 of 62 counties passed angry resolutions, and many upstate law departments intend to not enforce the SAFE Act provisions. A very large majority failed to register their grandfathered weapons. Only 23,847 people registered 44,485 guns. It is estimated that up to one million guns, or more, are still not registered.

But those NYS gun owners are no longer law-abiding citizens. If discovered, say during divorce procedures, because an Order of Protection was issued, they face the possibility of years in jail.

We still do not know how well Virginians will fair, in staving off this Constitutional attack. A march is planned, and hopefully, a groundswell of well-led and organized opposition will spring up.

The forward-thinking Philip Van Cleave (VCDL President), told us in a recent interview, that they “hope, at the end of all of this, to roll back some of the useless gun laws all across this country, including New York.”

It will be about the character and resolve of the gun owners who are the Commonwealth of Virginia. Are they up to the task? Mr. Van Cleave thinks so.

We should all be rooting for and supporting them.

How they act will affect the rest of us.

Several thousand gun owners turned out at the temporary General Assembly Building on Monday, January 13!

Several thousand gun owners turned out at the temporary General Assembly Building on Monday, January 13!  The hearing room was divided into two areas – the larger area for gun-rights supporters and the other was a smaller area for gun-control supporters.

Gun owners filled up their side of the room quickly, while the gun controllers side was still pretty empty.  To make it looked like they had more people and not look so pitiful, a search for gun-controllers in the waiting line outside the meeting room doors was conducted.  Countless gun owners in the line were skipped over in the search for more gun-controllers.  Whenever a gun controller was found, they were allowed to go into the meeting room, but no more gun owners were allowed in.

Sheriff Scott Jenkins of Culpeper County and Sheriff Richard Vaughn of Grayson County were in the room in  support of gun owners.  Sheriff Jenkins spoke twice during the hearings.

The meeting was chaired by Democrat Senator John Edwards.  The Republicans on the committee pointed out multiple mistakes and even rules that were broken in the running of the committee, but the Democrat-controlled committee ignored the complaints and lurched forward anyhow, rules be damned.

Republican Senator Bill Stanley, who could not be at the hearing due to a trial he had to attend, had been promised by John Edwards that no gun bills would be heard on Monday, but Senator Edwards went back on his word and gun bills were heard anyhow.  Senator Mark Obenshain brought up that broken promise, but to no avail.

Each side was only given 5 minutes total to speak on each bill.

The first gun-control bill to pass out of committee was SB 69, a one-handgun a month bill, which reinstated the last version of that law before it was repealed.  Senator Saslaw’s version of that same bill, SB 22, was rolled into SB 69 and SB 69 was passed out by a partisan vote of 9 to 5.  Republican senators Mark Obenshain and Ryan McDougle put up strong resistance, as did speakers who pointed out that the law had been a failure, but to no avail.

Next up was SB 70, a Universal Background Check bill.  Saslaw’s version of the same bill, SB 12, was rolled into SB 70.  A substitute bill was then offered for SB 70, which made the background checks only apply to sales of guns and not transfers, which fixes the problems with letting a friend or family member use one of your guns without you being constantly present.  However, it still strips an 18, 19, or 20 year old from being able to own a handgun, since a dealer cannot process a handgun purchased by federal law for someone that age.  Also, a background check would have to be run on all sales, even sales to immediate family members, friends, etc.!  SB 70 passed by a partisan vote of 9 to 5.

Senator Barker’s Red Flag Law bill, SB 240, was eviscerated, as all the flaws and dangers of that bill were brought up by Republicans Obenshain, McDougle, and Chafin on the committee, as well as by the pro-gun speakers.  None of the concerns were addressed and the bill was passed by a partisan vote of 9 to 5.

Finally, SB 615, SB 450, and SB 505, all of which allow localities to pass various gun-control ordinances, were rolled into a substitute version of SB 35, making SB 35 an omnibus bill that destroys preemption by allowing Virginia localities to create a confusing set of local gun-control laws.  Again, speaker after speaker spoke against SB 35, but it passed by a partisan 9 to 5 vote.

The gun-control bills that passed out of committee will now head to the Senate Floor to be voted on in a few days.  VCDL will have an acton item shortly to bombard Senators with calls and emails encouraging them to opposed the four bills.

Elections have consequences and we are in a real fight to protect our rights.

NRA Handing Out 30-Round Mags in VA to Fight Northam Gun Ban

The NRA will be handing out 1,000 30-round magazines in the Virginia Capitol City of Richmond Monday as part of the fight against Gov. Ralph Northam’s (D) gun grab.

The NRA used a Sunday night tweet to explain that Magpul Industries — a renowned magazine and firearm accessory maker — sent 1,000 magazines to the gun rights organization in order to have them given out to pro-Second Amendment Virginians on Monday.

Monday is January 13, the day on which the NRA has asked its members to flood into Virginia Senate meetings and ensure that pro-Second Amendment voices drown out those calling for gun control.

https://twitter.com/NRA/status/1216550061221588992

Virginia lawmakers ban guns at state Capitol in first of many expected firearm votes

Virginia lawmakers voted Friday to ban guns in the state Capitol building, the first of what is expected to be many votes on gun control legislation now that Democrats have retaken control of the statehouse for the first time in over 25 years.

Anyone with a concealed carry permit was previously allowed to bring a gun into the Capitol, although firearms were banned in certain parts of the building, according to The Associated Press.  Democrats have said the new law is a safety measure, and Democratic Governor Ralph Northam previously outlawed guns in some state buildings.

Virginia Democrats have said they plan to make gun control a priority. An assault weapons ban, red flag laws and universal background checks have all been proposed. In a Facebook video posted Tuesday, Northam insisted “our eight pieces of gun legislation don’t threaten the Second Amendment.”

“We have no intention of calling out the National Guard,” Northam said. “We’re not going to cut off people’s electricity. We’re not going to go door to door and confiscate people’s weapons. We’re going to pass common sense legislation that will keep guns out of dangerous hands and keep Virginia safer.”

Republicans are opposed to the new laws and municipalities across the state have declared themselves sanctuary cities for the Second Amendment. Virginia Beach, where 12 people were killed in a shooting rampage at a municipal building in May 2019, earlier this week adopted a resolution declaring itself a “Second Amendment Constitutional City.”

Pro-gun rights advocates are planning on holding a rally at the Capitol in Richmond on January 20. Philip Van Cleave, the president of one of the lead organizers, Virginia Citizens Defense League, labelled reports that suggested it would be an “armed protest” as “totally inaccurate.”

100,000 gun owners to fight new Virginia bans: ‘We’re not the problem.’

Some 100,000 Virginia gun owners who have rallied at county and town meetings for “gun sanctuaries” on Thursday began “bombarding” state Democratic lawmakers eager to use their new majority in Richmond to push through new restrictions and bans.

“Now it’s time. Now we’re going to melt down their phones, explode their inboxes on their email. We’re going to bombard them more than they’ve been bombarded,” said Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, which is leading the gun sanctuary movement.

On Thursday, he issued an “alert” to supporters to start lobbying lawmakers in Richmond against gun control. He said that the new anti-gun laws from Democrats are “pouring in like a waterfall.”

Later this month, his group is also organizing its annual “lobbying day” that is expected to draw dozens of buses full of supporters from around Virginia as well as from 13 states as far away as Texas, Florida, and Connecticut.

Latest map with 124 sanctuaries. I never realized how much I like green! So do the red and blue areas underneath ? pic.twitter.com/wnOQ3KaG5S

— Phil Van Cleave VCDL (@VCDL_ORG) January 8, 2020

“They picked a fight with a set of people who are tired of it. We’re tired of being the whipping boy. Every time somebody shoots up a bunch of people in a gun-free zone, they come after us, and we’re tired of it. We’re fed up, and we’re not giving up any more. We’re not the problem,” he told Secrets.

Republican leaders vow to ‘protect’ gun rights for Missourians ahead of session

As legislators prepare to head back to Jefferson City this week, Republican lawmakers are making a point to reaffirm their aversion to taking up strong gun control legislation during the upcoming session.

Gov. Mike Parson held multiple meetings with a handful of metro area mayors this year as Kansas City and St. Louis, in particular, have grappled with an abundance of gun violence. Following a November meeting, news reports suggested the Republican governor agreed to back the mayors’ call for stronger gun control — among other things.

But in a one-pager published Saturday, Parson said he has not “supported restricting law abiding citizens’ right to bear arms.” Instead, Parson said the three big takeaways from his meetings with the metro area mayors centered on witness protection, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and “keeping guns out of the hands of violent criminals.”

“I have never wavered in my support of the Second Amendment,” Parson said. “I firmly believe in protecting Missourians’ Second Amendment rights and will continue working with federal, state, local, and community partners to protect the citizens of our state. Over the past months, we have rolled up our sleeves, gotten to work, and identified the immediate actions we can take at the state level to keep Missouri citizens safe, while still protecting their Second Amendment rights.”

Missouri Republican Party executive director Jean Evans defended Parson on a recent episode of “This Week in Missouri Politics,” noting, “Saying everything is on the table is completely different than saying, ‘I’m for gun control or I want red flag laws or I want any of those other things.’”

House Speaker Elijah Haahr and Majority Floor Leader Rob Vescovo, too, have vowed not to support policies that “infringe” on the “Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Missouri citizens.”

“Our federal and state constitutions hold the rights of gun owners sacred,” Haahr told The Missouri Times. “I take those rights seriously, as do the members of my caucus. We look forward to upholding those rights in this 2020 legislative session.”

In a lengthy December Facebook post, Vescovo said “if heavy penalties that already exist” for murder and assault “don’t effectively deter” people from committing them, then “how will any new laws produce better results, especially if they’re little more than window dressing.”

“Both gun grabbing laws and red flag laws do not get to the root of the problem, which is that criminals will still find ways to obtain weapons with these policies in place. Instead, those policies will create additional hurdles for law-abiding citizens, while those who wish to do harm will continue to obtain stolen weapons on the black market,” Vescovo said.

Several bills have already been filed by Democrats in an effort to increase regulations and hamper gun violence throughout the state. Sen. Jill Schupp pre-filed legislation that would require passing a background check by a licensed firearms dealer before purchasing a firearm; Rep. LaKeySha Bosley is championing a proposal that would highly regulate the sale of ammunition, including by requiring dealers to keep records of those who purchase ammunition and require transactions to be done face-to-face.

The legislative session officially gets underway on Jan. 8.