Virginia’s Second Amendment Maneuvering

During the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on what lawmakers described as “growing threats” against the Second Amendment, Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) shone a spotlight on the State of Virginia’s latest maneuvering related to recent legislation targeting gun ownership.

Just one day before the session, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger suggested an amendment expanding the state’s proposed “assault firearms” ban to potentially include an even wider range of semi-automatic rifles and pistols, GOP lawmakers warned.

Virginia’s Hypocrisy

Spanberger said she generally approves of Virginia House Bill 217/Senate Bill 749, but recommended lawmakers amend the legislation’s definition of assault firearms to exclude the word “fixed” – a move gun rights advocates say leaves little doubt that the governor is “coming for our firearms.”

"Not only does it keep in place the de facto ban on some of the most common firearms in Virginia, it goes further and appears to create a ban on any firearm that can accept a magazine of more than 15 rounds,” House of Delegates Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, a Republican, said in a statement. "That includes the vast majority of firearms in Virginia that are in common use for legal purposes."

Sen. Paul highlighted what he called the “hypocrisy” of Virginia’s proposed anti-gun legislation, which would allow lawmakers to have armed security, but ban private citizens – most of whom cannot afford to hire protection – from having certain guns.

Responding to Paul, Ken Cuccinelli, senior fellow for Homeland Security and Immigration Center for Renewing America, noted that the proposed “assault firearms” ban exempts government officials and employees – but by doing so, acknowledges the “utility of the guns in question, which gets to the Supreme Court’s judge of historical utility of a particular weapon.” “The law itself acknowledges that and yet denies it to ordinary citizens,” he added. Cuccinelli’s assessment mirrored the opinion of the US Department of Justice, which warned it would pursue legal action if Gov. Spanberger attempts to ban constitutionally protected guns. "The Second Amendment protects the rights of law-abiding citizens to own and use AR-15 style semiautomatic rifles for lawful purposes," Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon explained in a letter to Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat. Apparently unfazed by the legal threat, Spanberger released a statement in which she claimed to support the Second Amendment while framing Virginia’s proposed “assault firearms” ban as a matter of “commonsense” public safety. Virginia’s General Assembly will determine whether or not to approve Spanberger’s changes.

‘For the Defense of Liberty’

As the sole witness on the first panel, Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) laid the foundation for the hearing, offering analysis on the Second Amendment’s purpose: “The simple and direct language of our Constitution is clear: The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” He continued:

“There are no qualifiers on who may keep arms, what types of arms they may keep, or for what purposes. And it certainly doesn’t say that the right to bear arms is about trivial matters like deer hunting or skeet shooting. The Second Amendment exists for one clear reason: defense. For the defense of one’s home, one’s family, and one’s community. For the defense of liberty and safety, not only from a lone assailant, but from the whole of tyrannical government.”

The Founders opposed tyrannical government so strongly that they affirmed the right of citizens in the newly established United States to overthrow even the government they themselves created. Clearly, when they wrote in the US Constitution that they intended to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,” they meant it.

Dig Deeper Into the Themes Discussed in This Article!

Liberty Vault: The Constitution of the United States