As he vowed a week ago, Democrat Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has called a special legislative session next month in response to the May 31 shooting incident in Virginia Beach that left a dozen people dead, along with the shooter who was killed by police gunfire, according to Fox News.
The session will begin July 9, as reported by WJHL News, and Northam’s agenda includes the following:
- Ban so-called “assault weapons,” suppressors and bump stocks
- So-called “universal background checks”
- Return of the one-gun-per-month limit
- Restricting child access to firearms
- Expand local authority to regulate firearms
- Require reporting of lost or stolen firearms
Northam may have an impossible sales job because this agenda, which appears to be a resurrection of the governor’s anti-gun wish list, would have had little if any impact on the killer’s ability to commit the crime, as reported by Liberty Park Press June 3.
Mass murderer DeWayne Craddock bought the two .45-caliber handguns recovered at the scene two years apart, so the one-gun-a-month law seems a moot issue.
He did not use a so-called “assault weapon” in the attack, nor was there a bump stock involved. One of the recovered handguns was fitted with a suppressor, but the other was not. To obtain that suppressor legally, the killer had to pass a more rigorous background check, on top of the checks he already passed when purchasing the handguns. Why would Northam want to ban firearm that was not involved in the shooting?
Both times the killer passed background checks, so the “universal background check” requirement is a non-starter. Until the May 31 shooting, Craddock had no criminal background to prohibit him from lawfully buying a firearm.
Calling for a restriction on child access is not relevant because no child was involved in the incident.
Neither of the guns was lost or stolen, yet Northam wants lawmakers to adopt a requirement that puts one more burden on lawful gun owners. Why?
Local authorities could adopt all the regulations they want, but that would not have stopped Craddock, who ignored laws and regulations already in existence, to shoot down a dozen people. Indeed, none of the measures, had they been in effect last month, would have prevented the tragedy because they had little or nothing to do with the circumstances.
Republicans control the General Assembly, so Northam’s extremist wish list may be dead on arrival.
So the question is why does Northam want all of these gun control measures adopted? It’s because he’s not interested in the tragedy other than to exploit it. The governor’s real purpose is to push restrictive new gun control laws.
Editor Dave Workman collaborated with Alan Gottlieb on Dancing In Blood: Exposing the Gun Ban Lobby’s Playbook to Destroy Your Rights, and Shooting Blanks: Facts Don’t Matter to the Gun Ban Crowd.
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