Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger is reportedly “fuming” this week after the state failed to get a single justice on the Supreme Court to support her after she violated the state constitution in her attempted gerrymandering of the state. However, Spanberger may have just guaranteed another trip to the Supreme Court when she said the quiet part out loud about the new state gun ban.
After the Democrats took power recently, they went on a frenzy of tax and liberal legislative measures. The sharp move to the far left is out of sync with a purple state that remains roughly evenly divided. While Spanberger (who ran on being a moderate) has pushed forward many of these measures, she sought to moderate one bill banning so-called “assault firearms.”
Spanberger released a statement that:
“I am signing this bill into law because firearms designed to inflict maximum casualties do not belong on our streets. We are taking this step to protect families and support the law enforcement officers who work every day to keep our communities safe. While the General Assembly chose not to adopt my amendment that specifically carves out certain firearms frequently used for hunting, I will work with the patrons to clarify this language.” (emphasis added)
The governor’s acknowledgment that the law covers common hunting models will likely be cited in Second Amendment challenges. If the law is not amended, she could prove the main witness against her own signed legislation.
Even with such an amendment, the bill is problematic. I have previously written about my skepticism over bans on AR-15s and other so-called “assault weapons,” though some courts have upheld such bans.
We have a Second Amendment protection of gun ownership, with over 490 million guns in private hands, as of 2022. In 2008, the Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, recognizing the Second Amendment as encompassing an individual right to bear arms. The Supreme Court further strengthened the right in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen.
The AR-15 is the most popular gun in America and the number of these guns in private hands is continuing to rise rapidly, with one AR-15 purchased in every five new firearms sales. There are an estimated 32 million currently in private hands in the United States, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
These AR-15s clearly are not being purchased for armored deer. Many are purchased for personal and home protection; it is also popular for target shooting and hunting. Many gun owners like the AR-15 because it is modular; depending on the model, you can swap out barrels, bolts and high-capacity magazines, or add a variety of accessories. While it does more damage than a typical handgun, it is not the most powerful gun sold in terms of caliber; many guns have equal or greater caliber.
Again, lower courts are divided on both the bans on semiautomatic weapons and the magazine bans. Eventually, the Supreme Court will have to resolve the question. If the Virginia law remains unchanged, Spanberger may find that her signing statement will feature greatly in the appeal.
All these Blue Politicians are figuring out how to continuously end-run SCOTUS on any ruling they don’t like – just keep passing variants of the laws that failed because it takes inordinate amounts of time to wind through the gerrymandered court systems in our country. Leftist District Court Judges uphold the law, then the somewhat centrist Appeals Courts strike it down but may leave the strike down in place as it winds up at SCOTUS maybe! During the interim – mission accomplished with bans, registrations of deplorables buying the guns, ammo, and accessories, etc. All good intel for the State to further target the ‘domestic terrorists’ with ‘monitoring’ and other intrusive compliance methods! Do this over and over and the State eventually wins no matter what! What Second Amendment Right????
While Democrats now speak openly about the coming apocalypse of a new Socialist Order in America, this rhetoric has provoked fear in many. Yet they also fear the consequences of becoming too kinetic in pursuing it. Among those fears are the 32 million AR-15s, backlash at the ballot box, over-taxation, and, now, it seems, their own tool: redistricting.
Spanaberger and the criminals that tell her what to think, yeah, but no one makes the argument for 2A more clear than marc elias
“…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Which part of that clear statement do these fornicating @$$h013 politicians fail to grasp?
If Virginia survives her term of office one can only hope that this charlatan has set the sun of her political career.
Someday the D’s will realize that this is not the Warren or Burger Court, and that their efforts to rewrite the Constitution for sake of a “present convenience” will not work with this Court (with apologies to Edmund Burke).