Five years ago, the Virginia Citizens Defense League's annual Lobby Day rally turned into a 2A Woodstock with tens of thousands of gun owners and Second Amendment supporters packing downtown Richmond and the state capital grounds. Democrats had just taken complete control of Virginia's goverment for the first time in decades, and gun control (including a semi-auto ban with no grandfather clause) was their top priority heading into the legislative session.
I spoke at that rally, and the sight of that throng of armed citizens will stay with me the rest of my days. And the turnout had an impact legislatively as well. The gun ban eventually died in the state Senate thanks in large part to the pressure put on a couple of rural Democrats, but anti-gun activists were still able to get about a half-dozen bills enacted into law that year.
Democrats are once again pushing a semi-auto ban this session, but the VCDL's Lobby Day rally on Monday was a far cry from the crowd that took over downtown Richmond in 2020.
Many of those gathered at the Richmond rally consider the new president an ally on firearms but think the most pressing issues will play out in statehouses, not Washington. So they fretted about their crowd size.
VCDL treasurer Pat Webb, recovering from recent foot surgery, rolled up to the microphone with one knee bent on a scooter.
“If I can come out here on this knee scooter, then I want to hear the excuses of the people who didn’t show up today,” she said.
Brendan Mooney, a gun rights activist who traveled from Idaho to attend a massive rally outside the Capitol in 2020, wanted to know where everybody was.
“I made it and you made it. What I don’t see is all the other people, right?” he said, recalling his failed effort to encourage people he met at area gun shops over the weekend to take part in the rally. “There’s a lot of people out there that just don’t care. They’re like, ‘Well, we got [ Gov. Glenn] Youngkin in, so we’re good. We got Trump now.’”
He sounded wistful for a time when Democrats were on the verge of ushering in a host of gun-control laws, if only because activists were highly engaged.
There are movements and there are moments, and 2020 was a moment for the Second Amendment movement in Virginia. In the weeks after the 2019 election and leading up to the Lobby Day rally scores of counties and towns adopted Second Amendment Sanctuary resolutions. Gun owners were energized because of the imminent threat to their right to keep and bear arms. There was an urgency that year, but with Youngkin serving as a backstop to the Democrats' anti-2A agenda I don't think many Virginia gun owners are all that concerned about the threat to their rights this session.
If Mooney wants to see those crowds return to Richmond, however, he may get his wish. Virginia will elect a new governer this year, and every seat in the House of Delegates is up for grabs as well, which means there's the potential for another Democrat trifecta in 2026. The Dems haven't moderated their anti-gun positions over the past five years, and a sweeping semi-auto ban would once again be among their top priorities if they keep control of the House and recapture the governor's office this November.
The cold weather and Donald Trump's inauguration undoubtedly helped to depress turnout at the VCDL Lobby Day rally this year, but there's also a sense of complacency that's set in among a lot of gun owners in the state since Youngkin was elected. I suspect that once the gubernatorial campaigns really kick off in earnest that will change, since Democrat Abigail Spanberger is running on an extreme anti-gun platform and likely Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears has been an outspoken Second Amendment advocate during her time in office. Our right to keep and bear arms will be a campaign issue this year, and 2A activists are likely to emerge from their hibernation as we get closer to Election Day.
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