Virginia setting stage to jail gun owners: NRA lobbyists
WND Staff
December 26, 2019
The lobbying arm of the National Rifle Association is warning that Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is setting the stage to jail gun owners.
The radical idea long has been used by the most dedicated Second Amendment supporters as a way to encourage support for the constitutionally protected right to "keep and bear arms."
It's also been rejected and ridiculed by gun control advocates as ridiculous.
However, a new statement from the Institute for Legislative Action, the lobbying arm of the National Rifle Association, in the Daily Caller,bluntly warns that Northam "increases corrections budget in anticipation of jailing gun owners."
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"As if Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's wholesale attack on law-abiding gun owners wasn't enough, the disgraced public official and his Michael Bloomberg-bought allies in the general assembly now want the state’s hard-working taxpayers to foot the bill for their unconstitutional schemes. The budget bill (HB30) includes an appropriation of a quarter million dollars to carry out a host of gun control measures that Northam and his anti-gun allies hope to enact," the ILA explained.
"The $250,000 is appropriated 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 Northam’s gun control measures. Among the enumerated laws that this allocation is meant to fund is a ban on commonly owned semi-automatic firearms, the criminalization of private firearms transfers, and gun confiscation orders issued without due process."
There are a couple of problems that people should know about. First, it would be unconstitutional, the ILA said.
Then, the commentary warned, it won't make the state any safer.
"Long guns of any description are rarely used in violent crime. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data breaks down homicides by weapon type. In 2018, the FBI reported that there were five times as many individuals listed as killed with 'knives or cutting instruments,' than with rifles of any kind."
The ILA said rifles were used in fewer homicides than clubs and hammers, or hands and fists.
The federal government already found, "At best, the assault weapons ban can have only a limited effect on total gun murders, because the banned weapons and magazines were never involved in more than a modest fraction of all gun murders."
Further, "so-called 'universal' background checks do not stop criminals from obtaining firearms," the ILA said.
"Background checks don’t stop criminals from stealing firearms, getting them on the black market, or getting them from straw purchasers. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 75 percent of criminals in state and federal state prison who had possessed a firearm during their offense acquired the firearm through theft, 'Off the street/underground market,' or 'from a family member or friend, or as a gift,'" the report said.
The Constitution is implicated because the state's planned Red Flag law would allow authorities to deprive residents of their constitutional rights "without due process," the commentary said.
Northam, a Democrat, had announced plans for a "war on guns" after Democrats took the majority in the state's legislature.