Posted on 10/07/2017 5:30:50 AM PDT by Perseverando
Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced Friday that he’ll seek new gun-control legislation in Virginia in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, including bans on bump stock devices, high-capacity magazines and “military-style assault rifles.”
McAuliffe, who will leave office early next year under Virginia’s term limit, has already pushed unsuccessfully for universal background checks and restoring the state’s scrapped one-handgun-a-month law, but the Republican-controlled General Assembly has routinely blocked new gun restrictions.
The legislation McAuliffe called for Friday would also face steep odds, but the announcement might put Republican lawmakers on the defensive with all 100 seats in the House of Delegates up for grabs in next month’s election.
“The terrible tragedy we witnessed in Las Vegas earlier this week should be a wake-up call to leaders in every corner of this country, particularly here in Virginia, where the mass shooting at Virginia Tech taught us the heartbreak of these events firsthand,” McAuliffe said in a news release. “Elected officials who have the honor of serving here in Richmond have a responsibility to do everything we can to prevent the next mass shooting from happening in our commonwealth.”
Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, the Democratic candidate for governor, said Friday that he too supports banning bump stocks, high-capacity magazines and “assault weapons.”
“Until I do not have a breath left in my lungs, I’ll stand up for the safety and security of all Virginians,” Northam said in a statement.
Though Republicans and gun-rights groups have resisted calls to ban assault weapons, calling the term ill-defined and overreaching, proposals to ban bump stocks appear to be building broad support. The Vegas shooter used the devices, which convert semi-automatic rifles to function as if they were fully automatic, to rapidly spray bullets into a crowd at a country music concert, killing 58 people and wounding more than 500.
Ed Gillespie, the Republican candidate for governor, said Friday that he too would support banning or regulating bump stocks.
“It seems pretty evident to me that we rightly outlaw automatic weapons in this country and that bump stocks effectively serve to get around that law,” Gillespie said.
Gillespie said he understands the “emotional response to do something” after a mass shooting, but data show that violent crime has gone down as gun ownership has risen.
The head of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun-rights group that lobbies at the General Assembly every year, sent an email to his members Tuesday night urging them to “stay in the fight” after Las Vegas.
“There is no compromising with gun controllers. Their version of compromise is for gun owners to give up everything and gun controllers to give up nothing,” wrote VCDL President Philip Van Cleave. “ And, until all guns are confiscated, the gun controllers will never, ever be satisfied.”
Gillespie will be an immense improvement over Northam, anc certainly over Terrible Terry McAwful.
“”McAwful’ will probably be reelected by all the brilliant intellectuals in the electorate along with all those brilliant illegal aliens who have been give brilliant intellectual status by the brilliant intellectual Democrat party.
/s/
IMHO
fake politicians
so sad to see such a nice great state with great leaders of the past and Generals to go more like MA, NY, NJ every year.
Never let a crisis go to waste, even if it isn’t in your state.
Virginia is a “one and done” gubernatorial state. McAwful only has one term. Ralphie Northam, the current Lt. Gov and far left wacko is running for governor opposed by Gillespie and FOB = Friend of Bush..
Sorry, my bad. McAwful will definitely be out of here in January. Hopefully Gillespie will be the replacement.
Northern VA is one huge lefty voting block.
I have to grit my teeth every time I pass a 1,000,000+ suburban home in the metro with a “Everyone is Welcome!” happy clappy sign by the driveway.
If the right gets the governorship, I’ll be very surprised.
The state has gone blue and no longer purple.
From: VCDL President
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2017 19:43:34 -0400
VCDL sends its very sincere condolences to the families and friends of those hurt or murdered at the festival in Las Vegas on Sunday night and pray for all affected by that tragedy.
I avoid commenting on such events until I have enough facts to do so.
Here are some thoughts at this point:
* Gun control: the gun-grabbers are calling for more gun control (surprise) because of 50 victims in the Las Vegas attack. BUT, France has every gun-control law the gun-grabbers want, except complete confiscation, yet 130 people were killed and hundreds injured in Paris in 2015 by terrorist using guns and bombs! A truck was used to kill 77 people in Nice in 2016. Gun control is the answer? Clearly not.
* Bump-fire stocks: bump-fire stocks and other bump-fire devices have been available for years now and there are probably thousands of them in use. In all those years, this is the first time I've heard of one being misused. Heck, you can bump-fire a semi-automatic rifle without any changes to the gun at all based on how you hold the gun! Bump-fire is nowhere near as accurate as a machine gun and is mainly used for plinking.
* Silencers/suppressors: while silencers were not used, Hillary Clinton implied that if the murderer had a silencer, the police would have had a harder time finding him. Pure hogwash. Silencers lower the volume of a shot to where it won't damage your hearing, but each shot of a suppressed rifle is still almost as loud as a jackhammer. There is a company that has equipment to determine where a shot was fired from and they said that a silencer would not defeat their system.
* Background checks: the murderer passed multiple background checks, so, as usual, universal background checks would not have done anything to prevent this tragedy.
* Will there be a push for more gun control at the federal and the state level? Yes
* Will this slow down national reciprocity and removing some of restrictions on silencers? Probably. Republican leadership (Rep. Scalise excepted) can get weak-kneed way too easily.
* Will any gun control pass? Yes, IF gun owners don't stay in the fight. Lobby Day in Richmond is Monday, January 15th, 2018. VCDL will also get involved if any serious gun control is introduced in Congress.
* There is no compromising with gun controllers. Their version of compromise is for gun owners to give up everything and gun controllers to give up nothing. And, until all guns are confiscated, the gun controllers will never, ever be satisfied.
VCDL will continue to monitor the media for more information about the murderer and his motives.
oooohhhh, what a shocker!
The hack dem politicians rush to the crisis trough to gobble up every scrap of publicity like hogs in a corn field. Disgusting panderers. Virginia can thank God this A$$hole is term limited out. Clinton boot licker! Moron.
Says the guy who has armed body guards.
How about we ban liberals, leftists, or subject them to background checks if they attempt to purchase any lethal weapons, such as automobiles, pens, computers and, oh yes, firearms.
Fortunately that can’t happen as VA has a one 4 yer term limit on Gov.
How stupid does he think the people of Virginia are? Oh. Wait a minute. They voted for him twice, didn’t they?
Probably planning to be a lobyist?
“might put Republican lawmakers on the defensive”
MacAuliffe’s gun ban proposals are opportunistic exploitation of murder victims for political purposes. He knows Republicans will vote against his extremist crap; he just wants to stoke a wedge issue to drive emotion-driven, anti-freedom Dems to the polls. MacAuliffe is crawling over dead bodies to take the lowest possible road. Nothing new with that.
He and Cuomo. Two peas, but hopefully Virginia is smarter than NY was. NY totally controlled by demorats. Virginia has a chance.
He is rumored to have said “mommy made me”
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