Virginia National Guard weighs in on potential gun law enforcement...

National Guard logo. 

The Virginia National Guard has responded after Democrats in the state say that they may be used to enforce gun laws. The Hill. State representative Aston Donald McEachin said that Virginia Governor Ralph Northam may "nationalize" the Guard in order to enforce the proposed laws after a huge number of counties and cities in Virginia have declared themselves 2nd amendment sanctuaries. In a statement on Twitter, the Guard refused to speculate about such use and said they respect the passion people have for the 2nd Amendment and the Constitution. Governor Northam has already said that the counties may face "consequences" if they do not enforce gun laws. 

We understand and respect the passion people feel for the U.S. Constitution and 2nd Amendment rights. We will not speculate about the possible use of the Virginia National Guard.

— Va. National Guard (@VaNationalGuard) December 13, 2019

My Comment:
Things seem to be escalating quickly in Virginia, to the point where even the National Guard had to weigh in. Representative McEachin caused a firestorm of criticism for his comments and it looks like the National Guard was flooded with calls and e-mails to see if they would go along with it.

 This tweet doesn't say much but I do think that it's encouraging that they didn't preemptively say that yes, they would help Governor Northam enforce gun control laws. Instead, General Timothy P. Williams effectively punted and reminded his soldiers that they shouldn't comment on politics while wearing the uniform. It's clear that he doesn't want this issue to come up.

As for the sanctuary movement, it's gathering quite a bit of momentum. As of this writing, according to Wikipedia, 76 out 95 counties, along with 9 out of 38 cities and 11 towns, have adopted 2nd amendment sanctuary status. That's pretty big news and shows that this isn't going away anytime soon.

Media coverage of this has been scarce and pretty much exclusively on the right wing of political outlets. And even The Hill missed why everyone is so angry. Nobody cares to much about the universal background checks, all of the anger is over the assault weapons ban, red flag law and the attack on 1st amendment rights of gun owners. Mainstream media seems to be ignoring the story completely.

This is a mistake as the anger over these laws is not going away. If things are so bad in Virginia that people are already talking about calling in the National Guard than it's very close to open rebellion. This could end up being the biggest story of 2020 and right now the media is asleep on it.

A real question is if the National Guard will actually follow an order to enforce these gun laws. Keep in mind that soldiers are one of the biggest owners and users of assault weapons in the United States and would not be pleased with trying to enforce those laws on their own people. Plus, I can't see many of them turning their weapons on people from their hometowns. My guess if it comes to that Governor Northam would be out of luck.

On the ground it seems like people are organizing. There are regular threads on 4chan's /pol/ board that seems to be organizing things and it sounds like there is going to be a huge rally at the capital on January 20th. So far people are trying to keep calm and enforce that if anyone is going to shoot first it's going to be the Governor of Virginia.

Will it come to that? I don't think so. I sincerely doubt that the Virginia Democrats thought they would garner this level of outrage. The people of Virginia are absolutely furious and I don't doubt their ability to organize and protests. Already, the gun confiscation bill has been dropped and I am guessing that the assault weapons ban and red flag laws aren't going to pass either.

But if they do? Then it will be luck and luck alone that will keep this incident from blowing up. People own firearms to prevent this kind of abuse and the people of Virginia haven't been beaten down like people in New Jersey, New York and California. If it comes to that, and I hope it will not, I am guessing they will fight...