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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...

Virginia Second Amendment Sanctuaries in Green, 8 January, 2020 Image from vcdl.org, cropped and scaled by Dean Weingarten The situation in Virginia is heating up. In a combination of gerrymandering mandated by the Federal courts, millions of dollars spent on a few local races by billionaires who hate the idea of an armed population, targeted advertising, organization by sympathizers of the Chinese communists, and apathy by the rest of Virginia voters, the Democrats have taken control of the Governorship and both the General assembly and the Virginia Senate, by rather slim margins. These are not yesterday's Democrats. These Democrats...

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....

Video: William Shatner – How Gun Control Works In this video the man most famous for playing Captain Kirk on Star Trek, and who starred as Denny Crane on ABC’s Boston Legal, offers a view on gun control not normally seen on television. Cool, calm, collected and right on target. This is how you do it. Priceless! Video link

In this video, the man who came to fame as Captain Kirk on Star Trek, and now stars on ABC’s Boston Legal, presents a view on gun control not normally seen. He also mentions the election.

* Fewer suicides occur when minimum wages are higher during periods of elevated unemployment, according to a new study. * Every $1 increase in the minimum wage is associated with a 6% reduction in suicide for high school grads. * Boosting the minimum wage by $1 could have saved 27,550 lives from 1990 to 2015, the study says. Raising the federal minimum wage, which hasn't increased in more than a decade, might accomplish far more than simply offering U.S. workers a boost in pay. New research suggests that lifting the baseline wage could also stop thousands of Americans from killing...

Overblown alarm over reasonable gun-control laws proposed in statehouses across the country has led to a movement by various local governments declaring themselves Second Amendment “sanctuaries” — vowing to establish local jurisdictions where state gun laws that they view as unconstitutional will not be enforced. These resolutions, to the extent they conflict with state law, lack legal effect: In Tazewell County, Va., for example, the “Sanctuary Resolution” approved by the board of supervisors purports to prohibit any county employee from enforcing, and any county funds from being used for the enforcement of, new state gun laws the county deems unconstitutional....

Evolv Technology, a 7-year-old maker of sensors and software aimed at detecting weapons or other threats concealed on people, is adding another high-profile investor as its CEO switches to a more technical role within the company. The Waltham-based company announced on Wednesday $30 million in a new funding round led by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s firm, Finback Investment Partners. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Co-Founder Bill Gates, is a returning investor in the Series C round. “Jeb and his group fully understood the opportunity here,” said Peter George, the company’s newly-promoted CEO. “As the former governor in Florida, where there have...

LAS CRUCES – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is calling on state lawmakers to pass a red flag law during this legislative session, saying it would save lives in New Mexico. “This is a temporary removal of a firearm from an individual who poses an extreme risk or threat to themselves or others,” the governor told a news conference in Las Cruces at the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office. She was flanked by Doña Ana County Sheriff Kim Stewart, Rep. Daymon Ely, D-Corrales, and Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces. Under the proposed legislation, a law enforcement officer or family member could...

NRA HQ Range in Fairfax, Virginia Virginia House Bill no. 567, prefiled on 6 January, 2020, and offered on 8 January, 2020, seems aimed particularly at the NRA headquarters range at 11250 Waples Mill Rd. in Fairfax, Virginia. HB 567 contains a number of provisions that single out the NRA HQ range from nearly all others. Here are the provisions of the bill: Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding in Article 3 of Chapter 12 of Title 18.2 a section numbered 18.2-511.2 as follows: § 18.2-511.2. Indoor shooting...

Today is the Birthday of Wildcatter Charles Newton. Newton achieved the ultimate goal of wildcatting when his self-created rounds were officially manufactured by Savage Arms. Learn how Newton went from attorney to creator of the .22 Savage and .250 Savage, and eventual founder of Newton Arms. Read Charles Newton: The Forgotten History of the Wildcatter Who Created the .22 and .250 Savage at Ammo.com

HOUSE BILL NO. 568 Offered January 8, 2020 Prefiled January 6, 2020 A BILL to amend and reenact § 18.2-308 of the Code of Virginia and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Article 4 of Chapter 7 of Title 18.2 a section numbered 18.2-287.5, relating to carrying or storing firearms in motor vehicles and vessels; exceptions; penalty. Patron-- Helmer Committee Referral Pending Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia: 1. That § 18.2-308 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted and that the Code of Virginia is amended by adding in Article 4...

Investor, CEO, and presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg says he would allow investors and employers to hire the “the best” workers from around the world instead of Americans. “This country needs more immigrants and we should be out looking for immigrants,” Bloomberg told the San Diego Union-Tribune on January 5.: For those who need an oboe player for a symphony, we want the best one. We need a striker for a soccer team, we want to get the best one. We want a farmworker, we want to get the best one. A computer programmer, we want to get the best one....

<p>RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg voiced strong support Tuesday for enacting new gun regulations in Virginia a few months after groups he backs spent millions of dollars helping Democrats win full control of state government.</p> <p>But the former New York City mayor said confiscating the military-style assault rifles already in circulation would be unworkable. And Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said he has no plans to confiscate guns or cut electricity to gun owners who refuse, responding to what he called “misinformation” spreading online about his gun control plans.</p>

RICHMOND, Va. -- Governor Ralph Northam (D - Virginia) wants to see the Commonwealth end its recognition of Lee-Jackson Day. Celebrated in Virginia on the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day each January, Lee-Jackson Day honors Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. "I don't think there's any secret that it's in honor of two individuals who fought to prolong slavery which is not a proud aspect of Virginia's history," Governor Northam said Monday after announcing his support for a proposal to establish Election Day as a new state holiday. "I think we need to move forward and...

Chart from California DOJ report, cropped and scaled by Dean Weingarten A study of the effects of California's institution of Universal Background Checks, along with a state ban of firearms ownership for people who had committed a violent misdemeanor, has been published in The Annals of Epidemiology, volume 30, February, 2020. The study covered a decade before the laws were passed to a decade after the laws was passed. It found the laws had no effect on firearms homicides or suicides. Here is the abstract of the paper,  from Science Direct: PurposeIn 1991, California implemented a law that mandated a...

When California started requiring people to pass background checks to buy ammunition on July 1, hunters hoped for the best and braced for the worst. What happened was far worse than we feared.The premise of the new law is that people who can’t have guns shouldn’t have ammo either. I don’t know anyone who disputes that. Bad guys shouldn’t have guns or ammo.~~SNIP~~Here’s where it fell apart: The state Department of Justice finalized regulations to implement the law just before it took effect. There was no time, and no effort, to raise awareness, no time for gun owners to verify...

In recent weeks NRA-ILA informed Virginia gun owners about gun control funding included in the state budget bill. The budget legislation, HB30, included a $250,000 appropriation to the Corrections Special Reserve Fund in order to provide for the “increase in the operating cost of adult correctional facilities resulting from the enactment” of Governor Ralph Northam and the Michael Bloomberg-bought General Assembly’s gun control measures. In other words, $250,000 of taxpayer money that will be used to lock up gun owners who don’t comply with Northam and Bloomberg’s unconstitutional gun laws. News of the quarter of a million dollar appropriation justly...

Virginia Democrats Mamie E. Locke and Kaye Kory will introduce a measure Jan. 8 that would allow prisoners to vote from jail in the state. The bill appears to allow prisoners to vote in the jurisdiction of the jail, potentially making inmates a powerful voting bloc in sparsely populated communities. It is one of numerous radical bills that could be passed rapidly after the Democrats take control of Virginia’s legislature for the first time in years. Democratic lawmakers in Virginia, who recently won control of the state’s legislature, proposed altering the state’s constitution to allow prisoners and mentally handicapped individuals...