Virginia Lawmaker Blasts Northam's Hypocrisy Over 2A Sanctuary Threats

Consider this some bonus content from today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co. Shortly after I finished producing today’s show, I had the opportunity to speak with outgoing Virginia House Majority Leader C. Todd Gilbert about the state’s Second Amendment Sanctuary tsunami and the reaction from Governor Ralph Northam and others.

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Gilbert says the calls by folks like Rep. Donald McEachin to call out the National Guard to force Second Amendment Sanctuaries to fall into line leaves him speechless.

“Instead of recognizing the very legitimate concerns going on throughout Virginia that are played out on pretty much a daily basis, county by county, as these Second Amendment Sanctuary resolutions are enacted with hundreds and even thousands of people showing up at those events; rather than recognize that legitimate concern and that energy and that very much organic coming-together of law abiding citizens for what it is and maybe saying ‘whoa, maybe we need to revisit what we’re getting ready to do’, instead they’re kind of doubling down and that’s disconcerting.”

Gilbert also says Northam is a hypocrite for saying counties will face “consequences” if they don’t abide by new gun control laws, given the fact that several newly elected commonwealth’s attorneys backed by George Soros have indicated they won’t be enforcing some state laws, without a peep of complaint from the governor.

“They were quite open about the fact that they weren’t going to enforce certain laws, namely marijuana laws and other things they were just going to choose not to enforce, and they were hailed by the Left as being on the cutting edge of progressivism. You didn’t see the governor threatening any of those folks with taking them out of their jobs or bringing in the Attorney General to prosecute cases instead of them. But something like this, where we’re talking about a constitutional right, not even something that’s an issue of state policy or not, where state policy is about to run afoul of the United States Constitution, and all of a sudden we have to come in and fire all the police and replace the prosecutors who won’t enforce it. I just think they are really setting themselves up for a very bad outcome in terms of dividing Virginia into two Virginias.”

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Gilbert is right, and even before November’s elections there were commonwealth’s attorneys who were declaring they wouldn’t enforce some of the state’s drug laws. In April of this year, Portsmouth Commonwealth Attorney Stephanie Morales announced she would be dismissing misdemeanor marijuana cases brought to her by police. I’ve been unable to find any quote or comment by Governor Ralph Northam indicating there would be consequences if Morales ignored state law.

It would be bad enough if Northam and his cohorts in the legislature were actually taking a principled stance in opposition to the Second Amendment, but the truth is even worse. Northam doesn’t care when law enforcement doesn’t enforce certain laws, as long as they enforce the laws he wants. This isn’t about a fight between the state and county governments, it’s a fight between a political party that screams #Resist when they’re not in power, and #Comply when they are.

I’ll give you another example. Virginia’s Attorney General Mark Herring declined to defend a law in Virginia banning same-sex marriage because he believed it was unconstitutional. Yet the AG has excoriated sheriffs and commonwealths attorneys who may decide they don’t want to have anything to do with laws they believe are just as unconstitutional as Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage.

As for whether there’s any hope in swaying enough Democrats to block some or all of the gun control proposals being pushed by Northam, Delegate Gilbert wasn’t optimistic. Bad ideas are soon to be bad laws in Virginia, and beyond the litigation that will inevitably be filed, what happens after that is anyone’s guess.

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Be sure to check out the entire interview with Del. Gilbert above, because the whole discussion is worth a listen. We’ll be talking much more with Del. Gilbert and other lawmakers in the crucial weeks ahead.

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