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Virginia State of Emergency/Gun Lobby Day January 20 2020

crescent

Philosopher
crescent
Joined
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Colorado
I've been following this for a bit.

1: Virginia elected a bunch of Democrats, many of whom promised to enact gun control legislation if elected.

2: The Dems followed through, passing some gun control laws. Background checks, limits on per-month purchases, red flag laws, a few others. They considered bans on assault rifles but that died in committee.

3: "Lobby Day" is apparently an annual thing. Gun rights and guns control advocates both people hold events that day.

4: Lobby day is on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

5: As a result, there will be a big pro-gun rally/protest at the Virginia State Capitol on MLK day.

That is, a big pro-gun rally at the (former) capitol of the (defunct) Confederate States of America, on a holiday named after Martin Luther King Jr.

Did I mention that the usual militia and white supremacist groups will be there? Alex Jones and his friends?

So now the governor has declared a state of emergency.

Virginia governor declares state of emergency following militia threats over gun reforms

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued a state of emergency on Wednesday that bars any weapons from the Richmond’s Capitol Square from Friday to Tuesday, after he received credible intelligence that hate groups and armed militias are planning violence at next Monday’s Lobby Day against gun control legislation.

....The announced weapons ban will include sticks, bats, chains, projectiles, and firearms, similar to the prohibitions issued on airlines and in courthouses,
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Charlottesville Banned These Far-Right Activists, but They’re Bringing Their Guns to Richmond
Shoaff, a Tennessee resident, has gone further than most other right-wing personalities in his calls for violence in Richmond. In a December broadcast, he advocated for the hanging of Rep. Donald McEachin, an African-American congressman, after McEachin suggested Northam could use the National Guard to enforce new gun laws.

“I hope to see you personally on Lobby Day, because I would love nothing more than to tell you to your face that you’re a coward, you’re a tyrant, committing treason,” Shoaff said in a December livestream. “And as a good friend of mine said just a few minutes ago, treason is punishable by death. I’m not telling you that I’m going to kill you, I’m telling you that your acts constitute treason, and the punishment for treason is hanging in the middle of the street.”
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As Virginia gun rally approaches, Alex Jones and his Infowars outlet hype prospect of violence
Jones and his associates are also preemptively claiming that any violence that does occur at the rally, planned for January 20 outside the Virginia Capitol, will be a “false flag,” a similar claim to what he’s said about violence that occurred at the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

Jones said that he and “dozens of our people” will be at the January 20 rally, and he has invited white nationalist Richard Spencer to join him.
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From what I understand, the State of Emergency is limited to the capitol grounds. Lots and lots and lots of Conspiracy Theories flying around about using the National Guard to seize guns, bringing in the United Nations, all the usual nonsense.

As I said, I have been following this for a bit, wondering how big of a thing it will be. Gun advocacy people on social media are claiming that 100,000 to 150,000 pro-gun people will be there, many from out of state (dozens of busloads from Texas, according to some). The organizer has asked people to not bring long guns and to not wear camouflage or other military-looking gear. Then again, if it snowballs enough his requests may just be ignored.

Hopefully this just fizzles out, as these things often do.
 
I'd love to organize a big prank with a bunch of black men dressed in classic Black Panthers uniforms, maybe wearing masks and have them force their way into a city council building to see the reaction from Fox News and the right wing.

unarmed of course, to play it safe.
 
Venom said:
I'd love to organize a big prank with a bunch of black men dressed in classic Black Panthers uniforms, maybe wearing masks and have them force their way into a city council building to see the reaction from Fox News and the right wing.

unarmed of course, to play it safe.
Click to expand...

Would still be potentially deadly for the black men involved.
 
crescent said:
I've been following this for a bit.



1: Virginia elected a bunch of Democrats, many of whom promised to enact gun control legislation if elected.



2: The Dems followed through, passing some gun control laws. Background checks, limits on per-month purchases, red flag laws, a few others. They considered bans on assault rifles but that died in committee.



3: "Lobby Day" is apparently an annual thing. Gun rights and guns control advocates both people hold events that day.



4: Lobby day is on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.



5: As a result, there will be a big pro-gun rally/protest at the Virginia State Capitol on MLK day.



That is, a big pro-gun rally at the (former) capitol of the (defunct) Confederate States of America, on a holiday named after Martin Luther King Jr.



Did I mention that the usual militia and white supremacist groups will be there? Alex Jones and his friends?



So now the governor has declared a state of emergency.



Virginia governor declares state of emergency following militia threats over gun reforms











Charlottesville Banned These Far-Right Activists, but They’re Bringing Their Guns to Richmond







As Virginia gun rally approaches, Alex Jones and his Infowars outlet hype prospect of violence





From what I understand, the State of Emergency is limited to the capitol grounds. Lots and lots and lots of Conspiracy Theories flying around about using the National Guard to seize guns, bringing in the United Nations, all the usual nonsense.



As I said, I have been following this for a bit, wondering how big of a thing it will be. Gun advocacy people on social media are claiming that 100,000 to 150,000 pro-gun people will be there, many from out of state (dozens of busloads from Texas, according to some). The organizer has asked people to not bring long guns and to not wear camouflage or other military-looking gear. Then again, if it snowballs enough his requests may just be ignored.



Hopefully this just fizzles out, as these things often do.
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Any chance of summarizing this to thick kiwis like me to understand.

Ie like just a paragraph
 
The self-sabotage of overheated rhetoric and the conspiratorial mindset.

Pro-gun people have a legitimate grievance here. Militia nuts talking about executing duly elected politicians and establishing martial law don't really help their situation.

They don't want another Charlottesville, where the police took a "hands off" approach and let the violence unfold unhindered. Can't really blame them for that.
 
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SuburbanTurkey said:
The self-sabotage of overheated rhetoric and the conspiratorial mindset.

Pro-gun people have a legitimate grievance here. Militia nuts talking about executing duly elected politicians and establishing martial law don't really help their situation.

They don't want another Charlottesville, where the police took a "hands off" approach and let the violence unfold unhindered. Can't really blame them for that.
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Not sure I'd describe their grievance as legitimate. Pro-gun groups and militias have linked arms before. I'd wager the Venn-diagram for membership and/or support is fairly round.
 
uke2se said:
Not sure I'd describe their grievance as legitimate. Pro-gun groups and militias have linked arms before. I'd wager the Venn-diagram for membership and/or support is fairly round.
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It's legitimate in that people do oppose these gun control measures that are about to be made law. This isn't some made up conspiracy theory, people do oppose AWB laws and the others being considered.

Pro-2A culture is heavily infiltrated with these anti-government militia kooks and it makes it unappealing to non-extremists who might otherwise agree.
 
SuburbanTurkey said:
It's legitimate in that people do oppose these gun control measures that are about to be made law. This isn't some made up conspiracy theory, people do oppose AWB laws and the others being considered.

Pro-2A culture is heavily infiltrated with these anti-government militia kooks and it makes it unappealing to non-extremists who might otherwise agree.
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My pet theory as for why "Pro-2A culture" is so heavy with anti-government freaks is that the reason for being in the "Pro-2A culture" isn't a love for guns, but a hatred for other people and a deep rooted wish to be able to shoot those people.
 
uke2se said:
My pet theory as for why "Pro-2A culture" is so heavy with anti-government freaks is that the reason for being in the "Pro-2A culture" isn't a love for guns, but a hatred for other people and a deep rooted wish to be able to shoot those people.
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The reactionary right is really into guns for many of the reasons you state.

Leftists like myself also like guns, but for different reasons. Organizations exist to advocate for instructing people in the use of firearms without all the right wing propaganda. The Socialist Rifle Association is one such group, in which I am a member. There's probably a chapter near you, if you live in the US.
 
Update:

Three members of the Neo-Nazi group "The Base" were arrested by the feds in advance of their plans to travel to the armed VA rally.

One of the arrested was a Canadian ex-soldier who was kicked out of the Army after being discovered as a white supremacist. He has experience with explosives as a combat engineer. He illegally entered the country and was picked up and armed by his two comrades.

They were arrested in possession with a rifle that was suspected as being converted to automatic fire.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/us/politics/fbi-arrest-virginia-gun-rally.html

Seems that the Governor had good reason to call a state of emergency and disarm protesters.
 
Salon has an article:

State of emergency: High tension in Virginia as right-wing gun fanatics descend on Richmond

Thousands of pro-gun fanatics are expected to descend on the Virginia state capital on Martin Luther King Day, and, until Northam's declaration of a state of emergency, clearly had expected to brandish weapons and look as menacing as possible to lawmakers who want to reform the state's gun laws. Many have taken to social media, saying they are showing up armed anyway and promising a "boogaloo," which is far-right code for an armed insurrection against the government.
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(This paragraph is worth reading in the original article because it contains a whole bunch of links to the posts where people are making these claims. Disturbing stuff).

"Far-right internet personality Joshua Shoaff, who has more than 540,000 Facebook fans," argued on a livestream last week that Northam should be "walked up to the steps of a swinging rope that's placed around your neck, because you, sir, are a tyrant and you're committing treason."

Shoaff has already been banned from carrying firearms in the city of Charlottesville for the role he played in the riots there, but when contacted by Sommer, he stood by his claim that legislators who support gun control should be murdered.
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There are an absure number of links embedded in the article. People are very, very amped up about this.

I hope this just fizzles out into a big nothingburger, I think there is a good chance this turns out to be just handful of crazy people yelling things.

But the gun nut right wing social media is going crazy right now. Not in a good way.
 
Jesus!
Who, incidentally, pretty much all of these idiots will claim to worship; despite being against pretty much everything he'd have stood for, if he existed, which he probably didn't.
 
Trebuchet said:
Jesus!
Who, incidentally, pretty much all of these idiots will claim to worship; despite being against pretty much everything he'd have stood for, if he existed, which he probably didn't.
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These guys remind me of those violent murderous dickheads who worship Allah.
 
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