Free Republic

A Virginia state senator called Second Amendment supporters "little kids" at a public meeting over the weekend as tensions between gun rights activists boil over in the state. Sen. Dave Marsden, who supports Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, is an advocate of proposed gun control legislation and is part of the Democratic majority in the Virginia General Assembly. Instead of apologizing for the insensitive remarks, Marsden called Second Amendment supporters "mentally ill" in a letter he sent following a meeting with constituents. Mornings on the Mall host Mary Walter read part of Marsden's letter on-air and asked him to comment....

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia lawmakers have voted to ban firearms at the state Capitol, the first in what’s expected to be many contentious gun votes in coming weeks. Newly empowered Democrats in the General Assembly voted Friday to ban guns at the Capitol and a legislative office building, saying the move was needed to protect public safety.

Last year, a court ruled that 11 VA House districts were unconstitutional, finding that lawmakers improperly prioritized race to draw African-American voters into majority-minority districts. The court gave the General Assembly a chance to redraw the map last fall, but it became clear the Republican House and Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam could not agree on a plan. A federal court ruled last year that Dr. Bernard Grofman could re-draw the Virginia legislative districts however he liked. Grofman is a professor at the University of California-Irvine, whose degrees in Mathematics (1966) and his MA (1968) and PhD (1972) in Political Science...

A federal court gave final approval Thursday to the redrawn Virginia House of Delegates map that a court-appointed expert created to resolve the state’s long-running racial gerrymandering case. In a 2-1 opinion, judges for the Richmond-based Eastern District of Virginia ordered the state to adopt the map created by University of California-Irvine political science professor Bernard Grofman. The map could boost Democrats’ chances of taking control of the House later this year by tilting six GOP-held districts toward Democrats and imperiling the re-election campaigns of two top Republicans. Republicans had called Grofman’s map “legally indefensible,” saying it “attempts to give...