I think youre on to something there. Gov. Northam lost a lot of credibility with the PC crowd due to his, shall we say, Klan controversy. This gun grab is just his way of scoring some points with them.
From Northam's college yearbook page (at least no one had a scary assault rifle):
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/87/Ralph_Northam_yearbook_page_with_Klan_robe_and_blackface.png)