Democrats in Virginia have once again drawn up legislation to further expand the confusing nexus of rules and regulations about what lawfully can and can’t be done with firearms in the Commonwealth.
They seek to severely limit the ability to purchase firearms in the state with the passage of HB2, this year’s assault weapons ban sponsored by Democrat Delegate Dan Helmer.
The problem is that none of these Democrats who write these bills seem to be able to point to how and why the legislation they’ve passed and are sending to Governor Glenn Youngkin any day now stops any form of gun violence that they claim they seek to quash.
We don’t see Democrats coming out and saying we’ve written this legislation, and this legislation does XYZ, and if XYZ had been done before, XX event would not have happened. Yet they proclaim that these rules and regulations are to prevent gun violence and prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands.
Democrats seem to be working on crafting emotional legislation once again rather than evidence-based legislation, which would actually make the point that they are trying to make more respectable and easier to understand.
Helmer’s own district is in Northern Virginia, just a stone’s throw away from Washington, D.C., which is, as we know, home to some of the nation’s most restrictive gun laws. If such laws were actually effective at saving lives and stopping criminals, cities like D.C., both the city and state of New York – which despite the 2022 Supreme Court Bruen decision bans guns in most public places – and, of course, Chicago, a city in the state of Illinois, which passed its own assault weapons ban in early 2023 – should be amongst the safest places on earth..
So, why do this legislator and the 50 who voted alongside him earlier this month think that copying Washington DC – which is very restrictive in their laws – is going to reduce crime when children have to be escorted to school by police officers because of active shooters nearby?
The true cause of these crimes, especially by repeat offenders, is the lack of proper prosecution. Yet Virginia Democrats are not sending to the Governor’s desk a bill from Republican Senator Danny Diggs that would have increased the mandatory minimum for a second or subsequent offense of the use or display of a firearm during the commission of certain felonies from five to 10 years.
It shows that Democrats only want to hit an emotional win by further restricting guns, an object that they themselves see as a problem.
Helmer wants to leave his Northern Virginia neighbors – and the rest of the Commonwealth as well – defenseless.
Youngkin can stop this legislation with a swift stroke of his Veto pen, if only he has the courage.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of The Republican Standard.