Flashback: VA Gov Northam Hinted at Gun Confiscation Months Prior to Rioters and Looters Terrorizing Nation

When Democrats won the congressional majority in Virginia last November, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam was asked whether he supports confiscating assault weapons from gun owners.

“That’s something I’m working [on] with our secretary of public safety,” Northam said at the time. “I’ll work with the gun violence activists, and we’ll work [on] that. I don’t have a definitive plan today.”

A bill was proposed that would have, among other things, banned sales of assault weapons, but it failed to pass after an estimated 22,000 demonstrators, many of them armed, took part in a rally at the Virginia State Capitol in January protesting efforts to pass new gun legislation.

Seven other gun control bills did pass, however, including one measure that will restrict purchases of handguns to one per month and another that establishes a “red flag” law, or Extreme Risk Protective Order, to permit law enforcement to confiscate weapons from people deemed a threat to themselves or others. The bills will go into effect July 1st.

Northam vowed in April, during the middle of the pandemic, that he would “not stop and that piece of legislation will be introduced again to ban assault weapons [from] our streets.”

Richmond’s ABC 8 called this week “one of the most transformative weeks in Richmond’s long history.” Peaceful protests turned into riots. A GRTC bus was burned, businesses damaged and several stores looted.

Rioters blocked authorities from extinguishing an occupied house fire. “Inside that home was a child,” the Richmond fire chief said. Fortunately, tragedy was avoided.

Despite all of that, Governor Northam has been silent on reversing the gun control laws or ending his obsession with the ban so that citizens can protect themselves. He focused his attention on tearing down the state’s Confederate monuments instead.