More Than Twenty Virginia Counties Become Second Amendment Sanctuaries
BY Herschel Smith
4 years, 4 months ago
Virginia gun owners have gathered by the hundreds at Board of Supervisors meetings in counties across the state to send a message to the newly elected Democratic legislature in Richmond.
As of this writing, 23 counties and towns have declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries since Michael Bloomberg flipped the state legislature from red to blue earlier this month. Second Amendment sanctuaries exist in many states across the country, but no state has seen so many in such a short span of time.
“It’s sending a message to Richmond saying we don’t want any more gun control out here,” Philip Van Cleave told GunsAmerica. Van Cleave is the President of the gun-rights group Virginia Citizens Defense League, which has been fighting for Second Amendment rights in Virginia since 1994, when they helped turned the state from may-issue to shall-issue.
Van Cleave has been active in the gun rights movement in Virginia for over 20 years, and he says he’s never seen anything like this.
“Nothing even touches the activity in Virginia right now. A lot of gun owners were sleeping, but now they’ve woke the sleeping giant. All these gun owners that have been sound asleep have suddenly woken up.”
The numbers don’t lie. Of Virginia’s 133 counties and independent towns, 23 have already declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries, and another 53 are considering the measure.
“There are more coming,” Van Cleave predicted. “That number’s going to jump quite a bit.”
County Board of Supervisor meetings are literally overflowing with gun owners hoping to send a message to Richmond.
One thousand people showed up at a Board of Supervisors meeting in Shenandoah County, for example, and 700 people attended a meeting in Washington County. The meetings in Amherst and Amelia counties were standing-room-only with crowds flooding the hallways and the front laws.
On a larger scale, gun owners—when they show up—represent a massive voting block in state elections. Van Cleave pointed out that in a state of 8 million people, there are 2 million gun owners and 600,000 hold concealed carry permits.
Van Cleave admitted that when a county declares itself a Second Amendment sanctuary, the gesture is mostly symbolic from a legal standpoint. While all county employees, including any police force, are bound by the resolution, sheriffs and county attorneys are independently elected in Virginia.
But Van Cleave also pointed out that many sheriffs follow the county’s lead, and many others have independently vowed not to enforce new gun control.
It’s a bit late in the game to be waking up when the collectivists have been active for a hundred years.
As for the allegedly symbolic nature of the resolutions, it will be symbolic until the hard times come. When the state threatens to arrest county employees for refusal to implement whatever new laws they make, we’ll see where this all goes.
Either it’s a protest vote today and evaporates tomorrow, or real men and women go to prison when counties arrest state police for enforcing these new laws. There are hard decisions coming for everyone. And since the Sheriff and county attorneys are elected, the political work is just beginning.
There is a lot of catching up to do.
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On December 2, 2019 at 10:59 am, Pat A Hines said:
I met the Virginia State Police during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, August 2017. They were in full riot gear, but didn’t do much. They staged right in front of where I was, my job being to render emergency first aid to our people. I saw lots of interesting things that day.
I think that the increasing momentum of 2nd Amendment sanctuary resolutions will eventually morph into 2nd Sanctuary ordnances. Time will tell on that.
I’d encourage these counties to form a ring, a sort of bulwark, around the so-called blue counties adjacent to the Imperial Capital with the idea to seal them off and eventually boot them out of Virginia. Time will tell on this, too.
There are 95 counties in Virginia, almost 1/3 have passed 2nd Sanctuary resolutions, with more on the way, all to the good.
On December 2, 2019 at 7:50 pm, Longbow said:
“…with more on the way, all to the good.”
We’ll see.