Prince William Times, a publication in one of the largest counties in Virginia, put up a Facebook post last night about a board of supervisor’s meeting. The post says ‘Hundreds have turned out to the Prince William County Board of Supervisors’ meeting tonight to hear debate on their “second amendment sanctuary” resolution.’, there are four pictures of the event included. In the pictures included in the Facebook post, you can see orange circles on a number of people.
The orange circles have printed on them ‘Guns SAVE Lives vcdl.org’. However, you cannot see this in the photos attached to the Facebook post. Some noticed this right away and took to the comments to call out the News source.
SEE FACEBOOK POST BELOW:
Prince William Times added another photo into the comments and in this photo that they would use in the article, they wrote you can read the text on the sticker. A person commented below this photo with remarks about ‘fixing camera or refraining from editing?’ The response from the Prince William Times was that they took that photo up close and that they didn’t have a good camera. Later in the thread, they stated they only had a cellphone camera.
Prince William Times continued to reply to critics of the main Facebook post’s photographs with different photographs showing the text in the pictures. Some remained unconvinced, but a few others came to the support of Prince William Times. It seems after a while they stopped responding to people about the photos and just let the thread run.
SEE SCREENSHOTS FROM COMMENTS ON FACEBOOK POST BELOW:
After the November election in Virginia, the state turned blue, and Democrats have a majority in both houses of the state legislature as well as the Governor’s seat. A number of gun control bills were proposed for the 2020 legislative session. In response to both of these counties and municipalities have started to adopt “second amendment sanctuaries” resolutions. According to Dana Schrad, executive director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, in a statement given to USA Today, the resolutions are “meant to put political pressure on elected officials.” Ultimately, Prince William County voted themselves to be a “constitutional county” in support of second amendment supporters, one being the Chairman of the board of Prince William County for over a decade, former U.S. Senate candidate Corey Stewart.
Prince William Times reports:
Supervisors approved a resolution early Wednesday declaring Prince William a “constitutional county” rather than a “Second Amendment sanctuary,” removing language barring local funds from being used to enforce state and federal gun laws.
The board voted in favor of the revised resolution 6 to 2, with Supervisors Frank Principi, D-Woodbridge, and Victor Angry, D-Neabsco, voting against it. About 50 Virginia counties have passed related initiatives – some declaring themselves “sanctuary” counties, others using the more moderate “constitutional county” moniker — in recent weeks.
The resolution was introduced for the first time at about 12:15 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 11, after the board heard about three hours of public comment on Board Chairman Corey Stewart’s proposed “Second Amendment sanctuary” resolution, which he introduced Tuesday, Dec. 3.
Richard Schragger, a professor at the University of Virginia Says “It’s mostly a political statement,” he goes on to say “In Virginia, state law supersedes local law. Citizens and local officials have to comply with state law even if a county declares itself to be a Second Amendment sanctuary.” in the same USA Today article.
According to the Virginia Citizens Defense League as of this article, “in 2019 there are now 78 Second Amendment Sanctuary counties, towns, and cities, with many others in preparation to do so.” It’s important to note that not each locality has voted on the same type of resolution and some have differences in name and function.
The VCDL here appears to really just be highlighting the localities that have taken ‘pro-second amendment’ actions. See the list of their list of those places that have passed the second amendment sanctuary resolution below:
- Alleghany
- Amherst
- Appomattox
- Augusta
- Bath
- Bedford
- Big Stone Gap
- Bland
- Bluefield
- Botetourt
- Bristol
- Buchanan
- Buckingham
- Campbell
- Caroline
- Carroll
- Charlotte
- Chesapeake
- Colonial Heights
- Craig
- Crewe
- Culpeper County
- Cumberland
- Dickenson
- Dinwiddie
- Town of Exmore
- Floyd
- Franklin (City)
- Galax
- Giles
- Gloucester
- Goochland
- Greene
- Greensville
- Town of Grottoes
- Halifax
- Henrico
- Henry
- James City
- King and Queen
- King George
- King William
- Lee
- Louisa
- Madison
- Martinsville
- Mecklenburg County
- Middlesex
- Nelson
- New Kent
- Northampton
- Norton
- Nottoway
- Orange
- Page
- Patrick
- Pittsylvania
- Poquoson
- Powhatan
- Prince George
- Rappahannock
- Roanoke County
- Rockbridge
- Rocky Mount
- Rural Retreat
- Russell
- Scott
- Shenandoah
- Smyth
- Southampton
- Spotsylvania
- Strasburg
- Surry
- Sussex
- Tazewell County
- Warren
- Washington
- Wythe
It seems the use of the cellphone camera, taking pictures from some distance and glare made the stickers hard to see or appear to be edited. Let us know what you think, do you think they were edited for censorship or was it just user error on the part of Prince William Times?
