Virginia Governor declares emergency banning guns near the capitol in advance of a gun rights rally.

My AR-15. 

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has declared an emergency and banned carrying weapons near the capitol in advance of a gun rights rally. The Hill. Northam said, without providing evidence, that white supremacist groups and militias were threatening violence, comparing it to the lead up to the Charlottesville rally. The declaration comes after Virginia banned guns in the capitol for the first time just this week. Thousands of gun rights supporters are expected to show up to the rally on Monday to protest new gun laws. The pressure these gun rights groups have put on the governor and the Democrats has already led to the tabling of the AR confiscation/ban but other laws are still on the docket, including the much hated "red flag" laws. 

My Comment:

I'm not from Virginia but if I was going to this rally, I would not be giving up my firearms. And not just because I think this order is unconstitutional. Before, I would have argued that nothing is going to happen here and that the Democrats would eventually back down when they saw how hated their gun laws are.

But now? I think there is a chance things might kick off. Why? Because this reminds me of the lead up to the Charlottesville rally. In that case the government did everything they possibly could to incite violence by forcing the right wing and left wing protesters together and it ended up with one of the protesters dead and two dead cops from a helicopter crash. 

I don't believe for a second that this is about threats from "white supremacists". It's about disarming people so that if something does go down they can't fight back. I wouldn't be surprised if antifa or some other armed leftist group show up to this rally and attack gun rights supporters, and if they comply with this order they will be defenseless. 

I also don't buy that Northam actually has any evidence that there is an active threat. Sure, a lot of people are saying that the rally could be the thing that kicks off the 2nd American Civil war but that's because they expect Northam to go full Assad and attack protesters. There is always the typical rhetoric on the right about revolution but I don't think Northam has any evidence of an active plot. There are always going to be jackasses on social media and image boards that are going to say something stupid and 99.99% of the time those people are just trolls. 

And I also think this order if unenforceable. Thousands of people are going to be at this event and now most of them will be carrying handguns concealed. Unless the police are going to try and search everyone and anyone they won't be able to do a damn thing. Plus if people bring rifles the cops won't be able to disarm people without risking a firefight erupting. 

The entire situation reminds me of the Bundy Ranch standoff. In that case hundreds of people showed up to a protest armed to the teeth. Nobody died but the government was unable to enforce the restrictions on civil rights they wanted to because they were terrified of a confrontation. A few people got arrested and convicted for pointing guns at people, but that was that. There were no major consequences for the vast majority of people that attended that protest and the government backed down in the end. 

The same thing will happen here. If people show up armed the cops won't do anything because they won't be able to without potential violence happening. They also know that if they do send in cops to disarm people and people get hurt it's going to be very bad optics and will cause blowback the likes of which we haven't seen in this country in a very long time. 

I know some people are arguing that the rally isn't necessary as the courts will likely overturn the laws and the most hated one, the AR confiscation, has been tabled. I disagree. This isn't about any future court cases it's about showing the Virginia Democrats that their actions are unacceptable and that they have crossed a red line. To back down now, when it's clear pressure is working, is just dumb. 

Plus, I think that the red flag laws are a bigger threat anyways. I know that most gun rights supporters see these laws as ripe for abuse and that they will result in the deaths of a lot of innocent citizens and police. If the law passes I fully expect them to be used against the people that oppose Ralph Northam and the Democrats. 

I still think that it's more likely that nothing big will happen at this rally. Gun rights supporters have always been remarkably well behaved despite the active threat against their rights and their lives that the gun control movement represents. And political violence in general is extremely rare in America. 

But it's still frustrating that Northam and the Democrats are behaving this way. From my view here in Wisconsin it's like they are doing everything possible to cause violence and disorder. All they would have to do is respect the 2nd amendment and drop these insane laws and then everyone would be happy, but they seem determined to do everything in their power to force a confrontation.