It's not just plastic gun bills we need to watch out for

[vaskidmark]

From today's VCDL VA-ALERT, a report on the new Lt. Governor-elect's first public policy meeting:

THE ANTIS TIPPED THEIR HAND ON HOW THEY PLAN TO GET GUN CONTROL PASSED IN VIRGINIA (AND IN OTHER STATES, TOO)

Monday some VCDL members and I attended the mental health and gun control forum held by Lt. Gov.-elect Ralph Northam at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Let's cut to the chase:  the forum was how to pass gun control in Virginia using mental health as a guise.  The veneer was so thin that a blind person could see through it.

As predicted years ago, and confirmed at the forum, the gun grabbers now want to disarm citizens for MISDEMEANOR crimes and also for drinking too much.  We can expect to see some bills that attempt to do just that and we will fight them tooth-and-nail!  Misdemeanors should NEVER take away a civil right, EVER.

Here are the Cliff's Notes of what the antis said:

1.  Gun-control bills need to move through the General Assembly so fast that there isn't time for pro-gun opposition to build up steam

2.  If anti-gun legislative leaders can do so, they should bypass committees that might kill the bill and fast track it using various legislative tricks to get around as many pro-gun legislators as possible

3.  "Ask" for input on gun-control bills from gun-rights organizations, but do not actually accept their input or ideas.  Certainly do not accept any important changes, but instead just tell the pro-gun groups that you will get the bill passed without their blessing or input, then ignore them

4.  Use emotion and celebrity victims to push gun-control bills

5.  Get an anti-gun grassroots movement started to push the bills to legislators

6.  Use "scientific studies" (junk science is what I believe they were referring to) and statistics to prove the need for gun control and to show that pro-gun activists only have anecdotes and emotion and not science on their side

7.  "Educate" legislators early and quietly so that they can "respond" to any pro-gun arguments


NORTHAM BARELY CONCEALED HIS CONTEMPT FOR GUN OWNERS

Lt. Gov. Elect Ralph Northam spoke to the attendees.  At one point he basically said that gun owners who opposed gun control were close-minded.  As if anyone up on the dais with him was open minded.

Northam claimed to be a gun owner and to have hunted, yet he seemed clueless about how most hunting rifles are much more powerful than military-lookalike rifles, like an AR-15 or an AK-47.  His lack of knowledge on the subject didn't stop him from demonizing military-lookalike guns.  (Another "gotcha" in this farce of a forum: what exactly did military-lookalike guns have to do with helping people with mental health problems?)


SENATOR MCEACHIN'S REVELATION:  WASHINGTON, DC IS PART OF VIRGINIA!

When Senator McEachin got up to speak, he said that Virginia had been the home to MANY recent massacres.  Showing his astute knowledge of geography, McEachin cited Virginia Tech and THE NAVY YARD, which is in the gun-control heaven of Washington, DC, as two examples of recent Virginia massacres! 

Besides Virginia Tech and, er, the Navy Yard, where exactly were the other massacres that you claim happened in Virginia, Senator McEachin?  Perhaps Aurora, Colorado and Chicago, Illinois are part of Virginia, too?


BIASED STUDENT REPORTS ON FIVE STATES

Moderator and anti-gun professor, Richard Bonnie, had his students give reports on gun-control efforts in Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Delaware, and Florida.  The idea was to learn from these examples as to how to get gun control passed.

While the students doing Connecticut talked to some pro-gun groups, the New York students didn't bother talking to a single pro-gun group.  The students were universally critical of all the pro-gun organizations.  Did they all really feel that way, or were some of them afraid that Professor Bonnie would flunk them if they didn't tow the line?

There was an interesting nugget from the Florida group:  they claim that the previous NRA president, Marion P. Hammer, worked with gun control groups to get a mental health bill passed in Florida, but demanded the bill be kept, "low profile" to get her support.  The bill sailed through the Florida General Assembly with her help, it is claimed.

In Connecticut, they passed such a bad bill that even someone who voluntarily seeks mental health treatment loses their gun rights!  I'll bet few will be seeking treatment any more.

The students doing New York admitted that the gun control bill that passed there added some mental health provisions as an afterthought.  Another surprise!  Ok, ok, it is not a surprise at all.  This is about gun control, not mental health and that was just another admission of the same.


VCDL IS PREPARING FOR THE COMING MENTAL-HEALTH GUN-CONTROL PUSH

We have been warning gun owners in Virginia for well over a year now that mental health was going to be the next medium for gun control in the Old Dominion.  We also know that Michael Bloomberg and his puppet group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, is behind this push.

For  VCDL this push means that rather than just watching for gun-control bills to rear their ugly heads, we need to watch all mental-health bills, too.  And we need to watch those mental-health bills every step of the way, so that changes can't get snuck in later in the process.  This especially means watching for an changes made to a bill by the Governor.  Luckily, we have a lot of talent to call upon to make such monitoring possible.

Forget improving the state's mental health services even though that system's recent failre resulted in an attack on a State Senator by his own son.  It's still "If we get rid of all the guns there will be no more violence, no more wars, and the skies will be filled with unicorns farting rainbow trails."  I guess that when guns are gone knives will no longer be dangerous.

stay safe.

[RoadKingLarry]

The inmates are running the asylum.

[makattak]

Geee, it's such a good thing we didn't elect those scary "So-Cons" as Governor and Lt. Governor.

Sure dodged a bullet there.

[erictank]

Geee, it's such a good thing we didn't elect those scary "So-Cons" as Governor and Lt. Governor.

Sure dodged a bullet there.

Believe it or not, agree with it or not, there are those here in VA and elsewhere for whom firearms rights are not the be-all/end-all of political-electability considerations.

Apparently those people outnumbered the others.

Not like the R's here put any great effort into looking like attractive candidates.