“Most Important Virginia Election Ever”

By John Crump : Opinion 

U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- It is usually hyperbole when pundits on both sides say that “this is the most important election in our lives”.

We heard it last year, and it might have been the most important election of the national level in our life times. What often gets overlooked is how import local elections are to our rights. These are the elections that really affect us as citizens.

This upcoming election cycle in Virginia might be the most important ever in the terms of our gun rights in The Old Dominion.

The Fourth Circuit Of The United State recently heard a case called Kolbe v. Hogan. This case was a second amendment challenge to the Maryland ban on modern sporting rifles such as an AR15 and AKM rifles. The state of Maryland considers these weapons to be “assault weapons” and systemically banned them under their law.

The Fourth Circuit Court ruled 9 to 5 that that Maryland law is Constitutional. They also stated it is Constitutional regardless of standards scrutiny applied to the law because the second amendment does not give citizens the right to own such Weapons.

This was more of a political decision than a decision based in law. It is a perfect example of legislating from the bench.

Furthermore the judges called the modern sporting rifle a “weapons of war”. They did not address the fact that no army on earth uses an AR15 as their standard issue rifles. The closest rifle would be the US with the M4 carbine which looks similar to the AR15, but is not an AR15 at all. They implied that the AR15 is not “in common use” and implied that it is “dangerous and unusual”.

The fact that there are 8 million+ AR15s in civilian hands were lost on the judges.

What the court did do is take the language that was used in the Heller v. Washington DC Supreme Court decision and applied it in this case. This was not in the spirit of what was said Heller v. DC, but the court seemed not to care about being intellectually honest. When Justice Scalia wrote that the government can regulate certain weapons that are “dangerous AND unusual” he never was talking about the modern sporting rifle. What the Fourth Circuit Court did do is invoke things such as Sandy Hook and Aurora, Colorado to further their political agenda.

The Fourth Circuit Court covers Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Virginia. If a similar law was to be passed in Virginia we would not be able to get help in federal court system due to this decision.

This would put us square behind the eight ball, and the Bloomberg gun-grabbers know this fact. They will be spending tons of cash in the upcoming election cycle

This year all 100 seats in the house are up for election. We cannot rest on our victory over the gun-grabbers in the last election. In Virginia as well as other states our rights are in danger of being taken away. We must look in the mirror and decide if we want to gamble with doing nothing, or if we want to embrace this election cycle and keep Virginia a pro gun state.

There are many things we can do to safeguard our freedoms by using the election process. First, we must find out what district we are in. This is very easy to do. The state of Virginia has a website where you can track down who is representing you in Richmond. This will also let you know their political affiliation, email, and telephone numbers. This information is not only crucial to this election, but should be for every election.

Second we must find out who is running in this cycle. We must back candidates that have a strong second amendment background. Most of this information can be found on the candidate’s websites. Also the NRA give a lot of candidates ratings. Being in Virginia you should also check out the Virginia Citizens Defense League.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League is an organization much like the NRA, but solely focused on Virginia. The VCDL has been on the front lines of guaranteeing the rights of Virginians to keep firearms. The VCDL has information on the candidates and their stances on firearm ownership.

About John Crump

John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on the history of the patriot movement and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss or at www.crumpy.com.