Who reading this wouldn’t like a free gun?

That’s, obviously, a rhetorical question. After all, who wouldn’t want a free gun? If you’re reading this site, the odds are really, really good that you’d gladly accept a free gun if you had the chance.

But what about a political candidate for local office who was giving away a free gun? What kind of an impact would that have on you?

For one Virginia city council candidate, he’s banking on it helping his cause.

A Hopewell man is giving away guns to send a loud message to lawmakers. Brandon Howard, 43, is a Second Amendment supporter who is on a mission to fight for gun rights, no matter the cost. He feels one way to promote his message is by running for public office.

“Bills are being put in place to take the rights of the citizens away,” Howard said.

Howard wants to be a councilman for the City of Hopewell.

“I know I’m the best person for this job,” he said, after losing when he ran four years ago.

Part of his campaign is to give away guns.

“Last Sunday, when I did my campaign kickoff, we gave away our first firearm which was a Diamondback AR-15.”

He’s partnered with local businesses to perform background checks on the spot to ensure the guns get in the hands of those who are eligible.

“I believe every citizen who wants a firearm, who is a law-abiding citizen, should have a firearm so I’m helping them do it,” Howard said.

I can find nothing to disagree with in that statement.

As noted, background checks will be conducted so the law will be adhered to.

Now, I don’t know whether this plan will work or not. The report doesn’t mention how one goes about submitting their name for one of these firearms, so it’s also unclear how it will help his campaign, other than to attract media attention. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course. Media attention is often hard for the campaigns to get, so this is certainly one way to fix that.

Howard’s pro-Second Amendment stance is one reenforced by an incident where he had to lawfully use his firearm while facing a knife-wielding robber. He held the suspect until the police arrived.

Now, he’s vehemently pro-Second Amendment and apparently wants to arm other people, which is a noble sentiment, to be sure.

So far, though, it’s too early to officially launch a political campaign in the city, but Howard appears to have a jump on everyone else. Especially with regard to media attention. Further, his effort comes on the heels of a couple dozen Virginia counties declaring themselves as Second Amendment sanctuary counties.

Hopewell is located in Prince George County, one of the counties that passed a Second Amendment Sanctuary resolution on Tuesday. I don’t want to speculate too much on where Howard stands on most issues, but I’m pretty sure he has no issue with what his county officials did.