The big problem with being a pro-gun individual is that you can’t really trust either political party. While there are a handful of pro-gun Democrats, most of the party recoils in horror at the mere mention of a citizen owning a firearm. Republicans are much better, of course, but they’re not perfect. There are just enough cases of Republicans siding with gun controllers to make me skittish in offering blanket support for the GOP.

Apparently, my trust issues aren’t as bad as I thought. I was still shocked to see the Virginia Senate majority leader offering up a gun control proposal.

A top Virginia Republican is calling for a broad ban on guns in government buildings, surprise legislation he filed the day before state lawmakers are set to debate gun laws.

Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment filed a bill Monday that would extend a state prohibition on guns in courthouses to any “building owned or used by a locality for governmental purposes.” It would also increase the penalty for breaking the law from a misdemeanor to a felony.

…

Norment’s bill was unexpected, as Republicans have historically blocked gun-control measures and previously said Northam’s proposals have little chance of passing.

Norment, in a statement, declined to say what prompted him to file his legislation.

Honestly, I don’t actually care why he decided to file this. His reasonings don’t matter. Not to me, anyway.

What does matter is that he just betrayed the Second Amendment.

An NRA official offered this comment:

“Like every other gun control scheme proposed for this special session, this measure would not have prevented the tragedy at Virginia Beach,” National Rifle Association spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen said. “Instead of seeking to disarm law-abiding Virginians, lawmakers in Richmond ought to focus on real solutions to crime, including reforms to our broken mental health care system and enforcing laws already on the books.”

It should also be noted that at least one person killed in the Virginia Beach shooting was willing to be armed, but wasn’t due to rules against such things.

Norment is a complete idiot if he actually thinks this measure would prevent anything at all like Virginia Beach or any other shooting for that matter. If laws against murder were insufficient to stop the shooter, why would anyone think laws banning him from bringing a gun onto the premises would accomplish more?

That’s what’s so absolutely mindboggling about this. Every time we have a mass shooting, people think that a new law barring the carrying of weapons will somehow change things. Yet most of these shootings happen in places where most folks aren’t allowed to carry a gun for whatever reason.

This bill, should it pass, will accomplish nothing except to remind gun owners that Norment is not their friend.

I use the word “betray” very carefully. What he’s doing is exactly that, it’s a betrayal of the Second Amendment and the pro-Second Amendment supporters who voted for him in the belief that he’d work to protect their gun rights. He’s doing no such thing. On the contrary, he’s undermining them and making people less safe in the process.