The Western Journal Lawmakers better have been listening.
Tight security, frenzied media hype and bone-chilling temperatures couldn’t stop thousands of Second Amendment supporters Monday from turning out at Virginia’s Capitol building in Richmond to make their feelings known about gun-grabbing efforts to restrict rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.
And after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, the demonstrators made their message crystal clear: “We will not comply.”
Earlier posted video of Pledge of Allegiance. For those who’ve asked, here’s the video of “We will not comply,.” Taken seconds apart. pic.twitter.com/Egz4mqVhzo
— Gabe Gutierrez (@gabegutierrez) January 20, 2020
The rally was organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun-rights group that holds annual pro-Second Amendment rallies on the Capitol grounds usually attended by a few hundred supporters, according to The Associated Press.
Monday’s event was different. With Democrats having won majorities in both houses of the state legislature in the 2019 elections and Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam in the executive office, gun rights are at serious risk in the Old Dominion.
On Jan. 13, as The Washington Post reported, the state Senate Judiciary Committee approved bills that “would require background checks on all firearms purchases, allow law enforcement to temporarily remove guns from individuals deemed a risk to themselves or others, let localities ban weapons from certain events and government buildings, and cap handgun purchases at one per month.”
In response to the increasingly chilly atmosphere toward gun rights in the state capital, over 135 jurisdictions throughout the state have declared themselves “sanctuaries” for gun rights, according to the VCDL, setting up the kind of confrontation Monday’s demonstration illustrated.
Northam was badly tarred by a pair of controversies that included his apparent advocacy for infanticide and a scandal over the surfacing of medical school yearbook pictures that linked him to a man in blackface and another in full-blown Ku Klux Klan regalia.
He managed to survive the scandals by going full-tilt Democrat, which was so successful The Washington Post ran a December editorial reversing itself and praising the governor after calling for his resignation a year ago.
But some at Monday’s protest made clear they want Northam out.
“Hey-Hey, Ho-Ho, racist Ralph has got to go!”
Gun rights protesters are in Richmond for #LobbyDay2020.
?️: @Julio_Rosas11 pic.twitter.com/oa0IWBd7vN
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 20, 2020
The demonstrators were making sure lawmakers knew they are being watched, too.
“The government doesn’t run us, we run the government,” 20-year-old Kem Regik told the AP.
He brought a white flag with a picture of a rifle and the slogan, “Come and take it,” the AP reported.
In anticipation of the rally, Northam issued an emergency order last week banning weapons in Virginia’s Capitol Square, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch – including firearms, bats and knives.
Many demonstrators found a simple way around that, though. They just didn’t enter the square.
Wow.
Thousands of peaceful demonstrators are at the Virginia Capitol for the #VirginiaRally today.
Many have decided to assemble outside the fence so that they can still carry. pic.twitter.com/9Aw54Lso7l
— Courtney Holland ?? (@hollandcourtney) January 20, 2020
And as the demonstration got started, it appeared the Democrat/media hype about a huge confrontation was just that: hype.
Virginia gun-rights rally opens peacefully amid fears of extremist violence https://t.co/gzW2HXBKgq pic.twitter.com/aDShfcMYD0
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 20, 2020
No riots.
No violence.
No targeting of citizens.
No attacking cops.
Just Thousands upon thousands or peaceful, law-abiding citizens gathering in Virginia’s capitol to protest an unconstitutional assault on their rights.
Show me an Antifa rally like this:pic.twitter.com/5wUm8gL0Ey— Benny (@bennyjohnson) January 20, 2020
Democrats like to claim that supporters of gun rights are some kind of fringe element in American politics, the way liberals like to claim Fox News viewers are a fringe element of the population.
Ratings consistently show they’re wrong about Fox News. Events like Monday’s rally in Richmond show they’re wrong about gun rights. There’s nothing “fringe” about supporting the Constitution.
There’s no question Monday about the message demonstrators were delivering to their own government.
The only question was whether the lawmakers were listening.