MARYLAND’S WEST BANK EXPANDS

Congratulations to my fellow colonists of Fairfax County and your formerly besieged allies of Arlington, Charlottesville, Richmond, Norfolk… and poor little Danville.  Our latest election results can now put that Old Dominion thing securely into the realm of past, forgotten history—where all real history goes in the name of “progressive progress”, as it were.

So here we are, about to challenge the supremacy of Maryland for its lofty, effective “gun safety” schemes.  If our leftist leadership can resurrect the 30-some bills that were vetoed throughout our outgoing executive’s term, here’s some of what we have to look forward to:

·       Second Amendment civil rights suspended for adults under age 21

·       Expanded killing fields marketed as “Gun Free Zones”

·       Bans on various firearm modifications (primarily trigger upgrades)

·       More taxation to cover a new government gun control bureaucracy

·       Banning the latest, erroneously-defined iterations of “assault weapons”

·       Waiting periods to acquire a firearm AFTER being NICS approved

·       Magazine capacity limits

·       Universal firearm storage requirements as determined by bureaucrats

·       Red Flag laws with secondary (if any) concerns about due process

·       Firearm registration

·       License-to-purchase requirement

·       Ban on open carry

What else can we think of that has been done or tried in other anti-2A states and authoritarian countries? 

This is just a short list of the Constitution-challenging laws that would affect gun owners and potential owners.  Beyond these, there are officious restrictions, mandates, red tape and processes that will drive manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and licensed sellers out of business in New Virginia. 

My favorite was a proposal to ban all gun-related businesses that are located within one mile of any school.  (Don't try to rationally discern what that accomplishes.) Open the Google’s maps app and search “schools”, then draw a mile radius circle around each one.  99% of FFLs in VA would be shut down.  Big sporting goods stores would have to discontinue firearms sales. Gun show venues would be closed.  Whatever licensed businesses remained would be remote, inconvenient, and probably unable to handle the volume and demand of consumers.  The elimination of free market competition would give those few surviving businesses de facto monopoly status.  Imagine what they could do with prices and profit margins under those conditions.  Does that sound like a boon to them?  Maybe, until the anti-gun state focusses its attention on them.  The sheer added volume combined with the new administrative burdens would make remaining FFLs extremely vulnerable to zero-tolerance audits (similar to what we saw from Biden’s BATF).  If that little rural farmland FFL business that’s used to handling a couple dozen transactions a month is put in a position to process hundreds of sales and transfers, what is the likelihood that it falls behind or makes a few mistakes on its paperwork?  Virginia’s firearm market would soon look like that of the DC swamp, pre-Heller**.

Another significant contributor to the darkened future of the VA firearm industry is the imposition of arbitrary waiting periods.  Parabellum Sports was founded as a gun show sales operation. (In fact, PS was at that time restricted to gun show-only sales by the Timmy Kaine administration in Richmond and the newly entrenched aberration of one-party rule in Fairfax County [AKA, Maryland’s West Bank]).  Many gun show merchants travel hundreds of miles to attend the weekend events that may be the bread and butter of their businesses.  In my case, if I sell a couple dozen firearms at a show but cannot release them to the buyers, I have to pack up and leave the event with everything with which I arrived, keeping sold items separate form unsold.  Then, beginning X days later, customers start travelling to me to obtain what they were approved for and paid for, as I devote additional time and processing to accommodate this new state-mandated infringement.  That must result in added fees for my time and logistical burden, plus added cost in the form of time and travel to my customers.  Oppress the gun buyer and gun business—Mission accomplished!  I suspect many dealers will discontinue their participation in shows, especially ones at long distance from their home bases and local customers.  Reductions in show participation could force show organizers to significantly scale back the size, locations and frequency of their shows.

Vote, Flee, or Succumb

Is Virginia really this insane?  Did we vote our guns?  Did we vote our pro-American, Judeo/Christian, Western culture?  Did we vote our civility?  Did we vote our lawful, peaceful society?  Did we vote to beat the cheat?  DID WE VOTE SANITY?  Sadly, the statistics show “no”.

The un-Americans (documented and otherwise) voted.  The angry, college-degreed purple-hairs voted.  The locusts imported from failed blue states voted.  The confused, irrational social activists voted.  Voting and influencing election outcomes by any means necessary is a tenet of their political religion.

If we will not defend our freedoms and way of life at the ballot box, our only other options are to flee or to surrender. I won't consider mentioning other measures that the enemies of liberty have demonstrated little hesitation in implementing. WE are better than that-- for now.

** https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/supreme-court-case-library/district-of-columbia-v-heller