Dana Mathewson

Let's hear it for the Good Guys!

RICHMOND, Va.— Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's push to ban the sale of assault weapons has failed after members of his own party balked at the proposal.

Senators voted to shelve the bill for the year and ask the state crime commission to study the issue, an outcome that drew cheers from a committee room packed with gun advocates.

Four moderate Democrats joined Republicans in Monday's committee vote, rejecting legislation that would have prohibited the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms, including popular AR-15 style rifles, and banned the possession of magazines that hold more than 12 rounds.

The bill was a top priority for Northam, a Democrat who has campaigned heavily for a broad package of gun-control measures.

The legislation also engendered the biggest pushback from gun owners and gun-right advocates, who accused the governor and others of wanting to confiscate commonly owned guns and accessories from law-abiding gun owners. Northam has said repeatedly he does not want to confiscate guns, but argued that banning new sales of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines would help prevent mass murders.

[...]

Northam has been able to get much of his gun-control agenda passed this year, but struggled with the proposed assault weapon ban. Earlier proposals to ban possession of AR-15-style rifles or to require owners to register them with state police have been scrapped. The governor had hoped a watered-down would win over enough Democratic moderates for passage.

An estimated 8 million AR-style guns have been sold since they were introduced to the public in the 1960s. The weapons are known as easy to use, easy to clean and easy to modify with a variety of scopes, stocks and rails.

Lawmakers in both the House and Senate have already advanced several other gun-control measures and should finalize passage in the coming days. Those bills include limiting handgun purchases to once a month, universal background checks on gun purchases, allowing localities to ban guns in public buildings, parks and other areas, and a red flag bill that would allow authorities to temporarily take guns away from anyone deemed to be dangerous to themselves or others.

The article is here: https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/virginia-lawmakers-reject-assault-weapon-ban There'll be more on the subject as Gov. Blackface attempts to steal Virginians' freedom to defend themselves, and I'll do my best to keep you posted. Meanwhile, it's heartening to observe that some Virginia Democratic lawmakers aren't drinking the Kool-Aid!

And here's some information about, and from, one of the Good Guys. It's nice to know that not every Democrat in the country is a Leftist!

Virginia Democratic State Sen. Chap Petersen said Tuesday he was surprised that a controversial assault weapons ban bill was brought to the state's Senate from the House of Delegates.

Appearing on "Fox & Friends" with host Pete Hegseth, Petersen said that he voted to stop the gun-control measure because it needed some amendments he could not overlook.

"I had two problems with the weapons ban bill we voted on yesterday," he said.

According to Chapman, the first problem was that the categories of weapons and component parts that were impacted were too broad.

Secondly, he said that the retroactive portion of the bill was unfair.

"In other words, if you went out and legally purchased a weapon or legally purchased a particular part, just simply by owning that you could become a class VI felon or class I misdemeanant. And that, to me, it's not fair, it's not due process, and that was what really bothered me the most," he told Hegseth.

[...]

The bill,which advanced after a shooter killed 12 people at a Virginia Beach municipal building in May of 2019,would have prohibited the sale or transfer of assault weapons as of July 1, but critics claimed the measure was not clear enough on how it defined assault weapons.

Northam, who had personally lobbied senators ahead of the vote, was "disappointed" in the outcome, but expects the state's Crime Commission to give the measure the detailed review senators had called for.

Any action on assault weapons in Virginia is now put off until at least 2021.Virginia's legislative session will end on March 7.

Democratic Sen. L. Louise Lucas audibly referred to the defectors as a "bump of wimps" from the dais, according to The Washington Post.

However, Petersen said that listening to his constituents and pro-Second Amendment activists were very "helpful" and mattered to his decision-making process.

"I probably would have voted the same way anyhow, but it was important to hear from people," he concluded.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/va-democrat-joins-gop-in-voting-against-gun-control

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