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A law professor friend recently mentioned a wise aphorism he pounds into the heads of his students:

Never pass a law you’re not willing to kill to enforce.

Sound alarmist?  As a former police officer, I can assure you, gentle readers, it is anything but.  Police officers are routinely killed during traffic stops, enforcing misdemeanor traffic laws.  Realistically, unless the state is willing to kill to enforce any and every law, the law can’t be enforced.  Ultimately, the threat of a loss of liberty or life undergirds every law.  It’s true, thank goodness, that deadly force is rarely necessary because Americans are an uncommonly law abiding people.  They are willing to obey most laws most of the time because they understand the necessity of the social contract: they obey the law because living in a society with the rule of law provides enormous benefits.

In addition, professional police officers are not an occupying army.  They live in the communities they serve, not rule.  Wise supervisors tell their new officers to treat every citizen the way they’d like their mother or wife to be treated by a police officer.  Wise cops in general carefully consider which laws they enforce.  They know that if the public doesn’t support them, they can’t possibly succeed or survive.  So they are careful to maintain the rule of law and the social contract.  They don’t enforce laws that are obviously unconstitutional, laws written by thoughtless, arrogant politicians to “send a message,” laws that accomplish nothing for public safety, laws that would turn the public against them, laws that would put the public in the position of resisting them with deadly force and that would put them in the position of killing citizens to burnish the egos of politicians that think themselves rulers rather than public servants.

Police officers have wide discretion.  They don’t have to blindly arrest everyone for every possible crime they commit, and believe me gentle readers, we want them to have and exercise that discretion.  Why?  Because there are so many local, state and federal laws it is virtually impossible not to break many of them every day.  We’re all inadvertent and unwitting criminals, or would be if the police had no discretion.  In addition, there are tens of thousands of regulations that put us in the mercy of merciless bureaucrats who can seize our property and impose massive fines, almost always without due process, frequently with no appeal.  Don’t get me started on the IRS.

With that in mind, I wrote Virginia: Stepping Back From The Precipice?  just before Christmas of 2019.  It chronicled the intention of Virginia D/S/C politicians to outlaw constitutionally protected firearms and accessories and to seize that property, with deadly force.  They are even talking about calling in the National Guard to do their dirty work.

In response, nearly every one of Virginia’s counties has declared itself a Second Amendment Sanctuary.  The point is simple: they’re telling their legislators they’re their servants, not their rulers.  They’re telling them they won’t stand for unconstitutional attempts to seize their liberties.  They have made no threats of violence, but underlying their actions is the same steel that defeated the most powerful military force of the 1700s, and Virginia’s D/S/C despots don’t like it one bit.  How dare Deplorables refuse to obey us, their moral and intellectual superiors!?

Because they have not said they won’t go door to door, seizing guns and arresting the law-abiding, it is surely reasonable to believe that’s exactly what they intend.  There is, however, another reason, as The Washington Examiner explains:

Virginia’s pop-up gun sanctuary movement has turned its attention to fighting the governor’s call for a $4.8 million, 18-officer team to enforce his proposed ‘assault weapons’ ban.

Two key groups issued an alert this week to push gun owners to four budget hearings Thursday around the state, asking them to quiz state legislators if they will vote to ban or confiscate weapons.

‘We understand that this is short notice. But it would have a significant impact if many of our members could show up and make a 3-minute statement and ask questions of the legislators in attendance,’ said the Virginia Citizens Defense League.

‘We see in the governor’s proposed budget that he wants $4 million and 18 new law-enforcement positions to enforce a ban on commonly-owned firearms,’ said Erich Pratt, Gun Owners of America senior vice president.

‘Gun owners want to know: Is this money going to be used for the gun confiscation?’ he added.

Of course it is.  For what else would it be used?  Changes in law don’t normally require 18 new positions and millions of dollars.  The police merely enforce the law when it’s appropriate, however, D/S/Cs know that’s not the way things are going to work this time.  The police are going to uphold the Constitution, and they can’t have that.

The gun control side is also working overtime to win support for gun control initiatives, including expanded background checks and a ban on modern sporting weapons such as AR-15 rifles and pistols.

At today’s budget hearings, the groups have urged their members to ask questions about Northam’s budget that includes $4.8 million for an 18-person force to implement his proposed assault weapons ban.

It also features more than $2 million to hire 10 more to enforce other gun control proposals, including universal background checks, a one gun purchase per month limit, and ‘extreme risk legislation.’

One can safely expect “extreme risk” to have a broad interpretation.

We need to get as many pro-gun Virginians as possible to attend these meetings and demand to know if the delegates and senators plan to allocate money — as delineated in budget — to confiscate common, household firearms from Virginia citizens,’ VCDL wrote in an email alert.

As one might expect, the obvious intentions of would be tyrants are having an effect on the free market:

With Virginia Democrats taking over all branches of state government, a firearms store owner in the state says sales of guns, magazines, and ammunition are up 200%, and more of his customers are paying in cash.

‘This is the largest Christmas and November, December that we’ve had, basically, since Trump has come on board. The only other person that was a better salesman right now is when we had President Obama,’ said Jerry Rapp, owner of SpecDive Tactical, in Alexandria, comparing the administrations of President Trump and his White House predecessor, Barack Obama.

The trend is not only happening in Virginia, as PJ Media reports:

Guns really are the gift that keeps on giving, and if December’s near-record NICS background checks mean anything, Americans gave a lot this holiday season. Looking back at the year as a whole, 2019 was another record-setter, with over 28 million background checks. That’s a 3% jump over the previous record from 2016. December was no slouch, either, with nearly 3 million NICS checks — the second-highest month on record.

Back to Virginia:

‘Every time [Obama] turned around he was going to ban something or make something illegal. But even that isn’t even close to the amount of sales we’re selling right now of magazines, of guns, of every kind of gun from pistol, rifle, shotguns, to AR platforms’ and ammunition, Rapp told the Washington Examiner. ‘We can’t keep it in stock.’

That’s what tends to happen when state officials threaten to fire and arrest police officers and threaten to call out the National Guard against the law-abiding.

Virginia freshman Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton, who was previously a state senator, has proposed legislation in Congress to use credit card data to track gun purchases. The bill faces long odds on Capitol Hill. News about her idea has made it to Virginia firearms customers.

Rapp said his clients are increasingly concerned about privacy issues. Since the November elections, they’ve been purchasing with cash rather than credit cards.

Rapp, whose business includes gun safety training, says that some of the proposed legislation also affects his course instruction.

‘From a gun place, the biggest [proposed legislation] that affects me right now, because we’re a training company that sells guns, is if you are a trainer or if you train your son or daughter, that you could become a felon, but as a training place, we do safety,’ Rapp said.

The D/S/C’s wholly owned propaganda arm, the media, is hysterical:

A new line of attack on Virginia’s fast-growing gun sanctuary movement, which is propelling similar pro-gun efforts in other states, compares it to slavery, drawing criticism from movement leaders who have won support in 91% of the state’s counties.

In the latest Washington Post slam on the movement, dubbed ‘vigilantism’ in a recent editorial, the paper gave space Sunday to a critic who said the ‘thinking’ behind the organic movement is what propelled slavery and opposed the civil rights movement.

Peter Galuszka called the movement ‘disturbing,’ ‘reactionary,’ ‘hysteria,’ ‘ugly,’ and ‘dangerous.’

Consider that, gentle readers.  Galuszka, and many others, are saying that about law-abiding citizens defending an express, unalienable right. Galuszka, and like minds, are also trying to link honest citizens supporting the Second Amendment to the anti-civil rights and anti-abolition movements.  Pro-liberty means pro-slavery! There is no comparison.  The Second Amendment sanctuary movement enslaves no one.  It requires nothing of anyone other than that government leave fundamental, unalienable freedoms, and those exercising them, alone.  It was, in fact, the exercise of the Second Amendment by black men and women that saved innumerable lives in those dark days, despite government writing and trying to enforce laws denying them arms.  Even today, gun owners and the NRA work to ensure Black Americans–all Americans–have their Second Amendment liberties.  Government, as in Virginia, works against them, and every American.  Galuszka is far from on the side of the angels, rather the other direction in fact.

Those pushing tyranny are also claiming the American people overwhelmingly want gun control.  This is an old tactic.  Were it true, they would have achieved their goal—total citizen disarmament—decades ago.  In the same way, if the American people want the D/S/C agenda, they would not have elected Donald Trump, nor would his approval rating be rising even as they do their worst to remove him from office.

For the time being, the sanctuary movement threatens D/S/C’s hold on political power, and also threatens non-cooperation in gun grabbing efforts.  However, Virginians are preparing for escalation should D/S/Cs be so stupid and bloodthirsty as to ignore them and their liberties.  At the moment, Gov. Ralph “I Don’t Remember If I was In blackface or The KKK Hood” Northam, whose college nickname was “Coonman” continues to want to kill Virginians immediately after birth, and thereafter should they disagree with his anti-liberty designs.

If Northam and his fellow D/S/C thugs don’t listen to the people, there will be blood.  Reactionary?  Dangerous?  Dangerous, yes, but it is Northam and his supporters that are reactionary.  It is they that impose danger.  They’re seeking to violate multiple provisions of the Constitution.  The Sanctuary movement seeks to preserve them.  This isn’t remotely about public safety.

Here we see the reality of D/S/C rule.  Should D/S/Cs take the Congress and the White House, Virginia’s despotic legislature will be their model.