Virginia’s Top Democrats to Call for Stricter Gun Laws

Governor Northam.

With the guns and the silencer - which many believed allowed the Virginia Beach shooter to take more lives - legal in Virginia, Virginia's top three Democrats are calling for stricter gun laws.  For many years the road block to more sane gun laws in Virginia - and across the country - has been Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly and other state legislatures who are bought and owned by the gun lobby. The ftutory framework act that no law abiding citizen needs a silencer means nothing to Virginia Republicans and Virginia ranks 5th in the nation in terms of the number of silencers on the streets (Texas ranks first).  Virginia's top Democrats are saying enough is enough after last Friday's deadly rampage and are calling for reform of Virginia's ridiculous pro-gun statutory framework which puts gun rights ahead of the safety of all Virginians.  A piece n the Washington Post looks at the renewed call for common sense changes to Virginia's gun laws.  Here are highlights:

RICHMOND — All three of Virginia’s statewide elected officials plan to stand together Tuesday to call for tighter gun safety policies in the wake of Friday’s mass shooting in Virginia Beach.

Gov. Ralph Northam, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and Attorney General Mark R. Herring, all Democrats, expressed frustration over the weekend that Republicans who control the General Assembly have repeatedly stifled efforts to consider any form of gun control.

One top Republican suggested Monday that he was open to taking up the issue, though he did not commit to specifics. “I was in Virginia Beach yesterday, and I think there ought to be a meaningful discussion legislatively and in the community about gun control,” said Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (James City), according to an account in the Virginia Gazette newspaper that was confirmed by his spokesman.

Norment was addressing about 80 protesters who had gathered outside his office in Williamsburg. They were chanting and holding signs calling for gun control, citing the horrific events Friday, when a Virginia Beach city employee shot and killed 12 people in a municipal building.

But Norment, who voted against a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines this year, added via email that none of the failed legislation met standards for “merits, practical application, and efficacy.”

The topic is especially sensitive in an election year when all 140 seats in the legislature are on the November ballot. Republicans are nursing two-seat majorities in both the Senate and the House of Delegates, and Democrats are hoping to inspire bigger-than-usual turnout to change the balance of power.

Polls have shown that Virginians increasingly favor tightening the state’s gun laws, which are among the most permissive in the nation. A June 2017 Quinnipiac University poll found that 91 percent of Virginians supported requiring background checks for all gun buyers, for instance.

Northam on Tuesday could call for a special legislative session to force the General Assembly to take up gun control, according to two people familiar with the governor’s plans. . . . Northam hinted at possible action in interviews over the weekend.
“We have stepped up our enforcement of some of the gun laws, but . . . when the laws are as weak as they are in Virginia, it makes it that much harder to keep our commonwealth safe,” [Attorney General Mark] Herring said Monday in an interview.

Though he would not discuss what Northam might propose Tuesday, Herring said he favors requiring universal background checks for gun purchases; banning high-capacity magazines, silencers and “bump stock” devices that accelerate firing; reimposing the one-gun-a-month law; and passing “red flag” laws that allow police to seize weapons from someone whom the courts have deemed to be a threat.

On Sunday, Fairfax spoke at a church in Virginia Beach and called for similar measures.
 The issue — as well as the need to console a grieving community — has drawn all three executive branch leaders back into the limelight after several months when they kept relatively low profiles. Northam and Herring are under fire for blackface incidents from their youth, and Fairfax has denied accusations from two women that he sexually assaulted them in separate incidents in 2000 and 2004.
 Another powerful Republican on Monday seemed in no mood for compromise.

Sadly, I suspect Virginia Republicans will continue to take the gun lobby's blood money.  They need to be voted out of office in November, 2019.