2 more stick by their guns
CH, PG join growing list of passing firearms-rights resolutions, but Heights stops short of declaring a 'sanctuary'
Add two more Tri-City localities to the list of Virginia localities lining up behind a statewide effort to shield Virginia citizens’ rights to bear arms.
Packed houses in Prince George County and Colonial Heights Tuesday night saw their Board of Supervisors and City Council adopt resolutions supporting their citizens’ Second Amendment rights. They joined a bulging list of localities across the state answering the call of the Virginia Civilian Defense League to send a message to the 2020 General Assembly, particularly the Democratic majorities in both chambers, to tread lightly in deliberating long-promised gun-control legislation.
Prince George and Colonial Heights also joined Dinwiddie, Sussex and Surry counties as Tri-City area governments adopting what are being termed "2A resolutions," although the ones in Surry and Colonial Heights do not go as far as to declare themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries” as the others have.
A Standing Ovation
In Prince George, citizens overflowed the Board of Supervisors meeting room into the halls and other parts of the county Administration Building to push for the resolution. Organizers set up a table in the lobby of the building to gather signatures on petitions backing both gun-rights and President Donald Trump.
Prince George resident Curtis Johnson called the Second Amendment issue “our inherited right” to possess firearms.
“We have the right to bear arms, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to be here,” Johnson said.
It only took a few minutes for the board to unanimously adopt the resolution. As soon as board chairman Donald Hunter said, “That has been passed,” the gallery erupted into a thunderous standing ovation.
Del. Emily Brewer, R-Smithfield, whose 64th House District includes southeastern Prince George, attended the meeting and led the standing ovation. In a public-comment period after the vote was taken, Brewer thanked the supervisors “for sending such a clear directive” on where Prince George sides.
“Thank you for what you did tonight,” she said. “You stood up for the citizens of Prince George County.”
One resident who spoke during the period praised the board for telling Richmond it will “not enact unjust or unconstitutional laws” in Prince George.
The resolutions that are passing local governing bodies are non-binding, but the political message they are sending has prompted one Democratic state legislator to ask state Attorney General Mark R. Herring for an official opinion on them prior to the opening of the 2020 legislative session.
No 'Sanctuary' in CH
At City Hall in Colonial Heights, the council chamber was full, but no one in the gallery was permitted to address the resolution. Mayor Gregory Kochuba said before the resolution was deliberated that public comment would not be allowed because the resolution had not been advertised as a public hearing.
“City Council has a well-established policy of not accepting public comments for items that are on its meeting agenda, unless the item is subject [to] a public hearing,” Kochuba said beforehand..
But that did not stop some councilors from sharing their thoughts. Many seemed leery of passing anything with the word “sanctuary” attached.
“We don’t need protection from anything — we’re standing on the Constitution. So if you want to phrase something and you want a moniker for it, call us a ‘Constitutional community,’ because that’s what we’re standing on, the Constitution of the United States of America,” Councilor Michael Cherry explained. “We’re not hiding, we’re not running. We don’t need [a] ‘sanctuary.’ We're going to stand on the rights that we have, which were God-given.”
Cherry said he already has seen what Democrats are proposing for gun-control legislation “and it is not pretty.” He said the resolution should be symbolic of what council perceives as its constituents’ feelings.
“I do feel it is necessary to send a message to Richmond to not even try this course of action, to not even try to limit the freedoms that we have through the Second Amendment,” Cherry said.
Councilor John T. Wood said that law-abiding citizens exercising their constitutional rights do not need a sanctuary or refuge from someone else. He said the mentality that they should need a sanctuary due to being considered as aliens from what others believe to be the best for society cannot be permitted.
“If it is, we lose. We lose our rights, we lose our firearms, and ultimately we lose our nation,” Wood explained. “All power emanates from the barrel of a gun. I say that not to suggest it is true, but I say that to suggest that is what is in the mind of a tyrant; a tyrant seeks power, he knows a firearm is power and he seeks to restrict power in others and arrogate that under him and his minions — that’s what the framers of the Constitution knew.”
The Second Amendment rights resolution unanimously approved by councilors requests that the Assembly refrain from taking any action which would restrict the citizens of Colonial Heights from exercising their fundamental right to bear arms.
State Sen. Amanda F. Chase, R-Chesterfield, whose 11th Senate District includes Colonial Heights, attended Tuesday’s meeting. Afterward, she posted a video on her social media congratulating the city for “doing a fantastic job” on the resolution, despite omitting the sanctuary term.
“It is a strong resolution, nonetheless,” Chase, one of the Senate’s more ardent gun-rights advocates, said in the video.
Chai Gallahun, who reported from Prince George, can be reached at cgallahun@progress-index.com. Logan Barry, who reported from Colonial Heights, can be reached at lbarry@progress-index.com.