OPINION:
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s hopes to ban AR-15s in the commonwealth were just stalled, due to recent rulings from judges that blocked implementation of gun controls passed by Democrats in the General Assembly that were set to take effect July 1.
Attorney General Jay Jones has vowed to keep up the fight, and even after losing an attempt to consolidate several separate challenges to the ban into one case — so as to speed-demon the ban through a Democrat-friendly court — he continued to express full confidence in the state’s case and pledged to go forth aggressively with the legal battle. That, even as the Department of Justice sued Virginia, too, over the attempted ban. And all that, even as the U.S. Supreme Court has accepted a couple of high-profile Second Amendment cases that could determine the fate of AR-15s around the nation.
And so begins another round of reckless, feckless, frivolous, costly court dramas, courtesy of Democrats who love, love, love to spend tax dollars on their anti-constitutional designs.
If Democrats had to pay for their own legal lawfare, court dockets everywhere would suddenly clear.
On guns, on the Second Amendment, on using the courts to curtail the right of law-abiding citizens to carry, both open and concealed, Democrats never met a court ruling they couldn’t find cause to continue to challenge. AR-15s may be among the most common firearms-of-choice for American citizens. Courts may have previously ruled that firearms not deemed “dangerous and unusual” are generally fit for personal possession. But Democrats don’t like ‘em — so Democrats won’t give up the fight to outlaw them.
And not only in Virginia.
Because Democrats have pushed and pushed and pushed to outlaw AR-15s, as well as any number of other firearms and magazines they could sweep into suits against the Second Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court has been forced to take up a couple of cases that will ultimately clarify the boundaries of the phrase “dangerous and unusual.”
Lawyers for Cook County, Illinois, who are defending that state’s ban on so-called assault weapons, wrote in their filings to the high court that “assault rifles are the weapon of choice for criminals and terrorists set on quickly massacring innocents, but are rarely put to lawful public use,” The New York Times reported.
So citizens shouldn’t have them, they say.
Connecticut — the high court’s second gun case — has a similar ban on AR-15s, and attorneys for the state are making the same argument as those from Illinois. But lawyers for the gun rights’ plaintiffs seeking to overturn Connecticut’s ban say the AR-15 is so popular, it’s been dubbed America’s rifle.
In other words: They’re usual.
Put another way: They’re not unusual.
Deep taxpayer pockets keep the Democrat-driven suits alive, though.
Virginia is additionally making the left’s tried-and-true — or is it tired and true? — for-the-safety-of-citizens and for-the-good-of-the-children pleadings.
“We want to keep our communities safe,” Jones said, of Virginia’s attempted ban on AR-15s; the one that was challenged by Second Amendment supporters practically the second the signatures of Democrats on the legislation had dried.
“I’m a parent, I have two young boys. I want to make sure that they grow up in safe communities, just like every other citizen here in Virginia,” Jones said.
Well, that’s rich. How about enforcing immigration laws in Virginia — so as to keep illegals from murdering innocent citizens and such, and so forth, and so on? In April, of the four murder cases in Fairfax County alone, three defendants were illegal immigrants. Doesn’t seem like a very safe community. Just sayin’. Maybe more AR-15s in the hands of law-abiding citizens, not fewer, is the real solution to making communities safe.
Anyhow.
Virginia’s courts — the U.S. Supreme Court — all the Democrat states’ courts in between: The Second Amendment is the left’s greatest villain and Dems’ playbook seems focused on the singular campaign called If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again. And then when defeated — try, try some more, because after all, taxpayers are picking up the tab.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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