Virginia – -(AmmoLand.com)- The third year after a presidential election doesn’t get a lot of attention. After all, there are only two governors’ races that headline results on the first Wednesday after the first Monday. But there are many other races decided on this coming election day.
Included in them are the state legislative elections in the Commonwealth of Virginia. There are 100 members of the House of Delegates and 40 members of the State Senate, and all 140 of those seats are up for grabs this year. This could matter a great deal for Second Amendment supporters.
Why? Because the House of Delegates and Virginia Senate are controlled by Republicans, and the Republican leadership is pro-Second Amendment. This mattered, because in the wake of a tragic shooting in Virginia Beach, that leadership successfully put the kibosh on Ralph Northam’s effort to advance an anti-Second Amendment agenda in response to the shooting.
These elections are going to be tougher than we might expect. Litigation has led to new district maps drawn by a professor in California for the 2019 election, and these lines are much friendlier to anti-Second Amendment extremists. As a result, we could see pro-Second Amendment majorities wiped out – and worse, the new leadership controlling the General Assembly in Virginia will be ardent foes of our rights, eager to rubber-stamp the injustices that Northam sought to inflict upon law-abiding citizens in the wake of the Virginia Beach shooting.
This is a disaster in more ways than one. While one more state adopting anti-Second Amendment laws is bad enough, Virginia is a special case, since the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America are both headquartered there. Many of those who would work for the NRA or GOA are likely to own the modern multi-purpose semi-automatic firearms that Northam wants to ban. This means that the talent pool for these groups will be greatly depleted, even as the full-spectrum fight that Second Amendment supporters are facing requires that the best talent be hired for the fight for our freedoms.
Now, hiring that talent will be more difficult to do, and the successful hires will be more expensive. Worse, the sheer propaganda victory that passing Michael Bloomberg’s wish list in the state where NRA and GOA are based in will be significant as well. This is largely due to the fact that Second Amendment supporters are losing the suburbs, largely due to their failures to have pro-Second Amendment solutions to concerns their fellow Americans have and to keep in mind how their Second Amendment support comes across.
The news is not all bad. Non-Second Amendment issues could take the fore, including the impeachment effort against President Trump. The 1998 mid-terms saw a backlash against the impeachment of Bill Clinton on much stronger evidence than there is against Trump. In addition, Second Amendment supporters could have an opening via Kanye West, who has expressed support for our rights. This could change things in urban areas, and affect statewide races.
In addition, next year, the Supreme Court could shift the legal and political landscape with its ruling on New York City’s regulations. But the real key to keeping Virginia a pro-Second Amendment state is going to be a lot of hard work by Second Amendment supporters. We must effectively use our First Amendment rights to save our Second Amendment rights.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
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