Gun rights groups say they will continue to challenge the new gun control measures signed into law recently by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, in some cases by directly taking it to the courts.
“We are preparing legal action on some of them,” Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), told The Epoch Times.
Democrats last year won control of both chambers of the state legislature—for the first time in more than two decades—and vowed to enact stronger gun control policies, saying they will help reduce shootings and deaths. In addition to the majority in the state legislature, the governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general also are Democrats.
The will of voters have been ignored, according to Mark Oliva, director of public affairs at the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), who said they were disappointed to see the measures becoming law as Northam kept Virginians under a statewide lockdown that prevented public protest against his overreach.
“Virginians voiced opposition to these gun control laws by overwhelmingly passing Second Amendment resolutions in the counties and cities,” he told The Epoch Times. “They assembled peacefully by the tens of thousands—as is their right—and did it without incident, to oppose these measures.”
The NSSF is against all of the legislation pushed by the governor. Although the new laws have “serious concerns,” Oliva pointed out that the most egregious of the bills, “which would have outlawed the most popular-selling rifle today and also outlawed the majority of commonly-owned shotguns and handguns and associated magazines,” was defeated.
Oliva said NSSF will again oppose and work to defeat the assault weapons bill when it is reintroduced next year.
Gun-control advocates, meanwhile, have said that they’re planning to replicate their success in Virginia in other states.