PART ONE IN A CONTINUING SERIES ON THE IMPACT OF GUNS
As of Dec. 10, 49 localities in the commonwealth (highlighted in red) had passed Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions, according to the Virginia Citizens Defense League. (Click upper-right corner to expand image.)
At the urging of gun-rights advocates alarmed about potential restrictions being enacted by the Virginia General Assembly’s new Democratic majority, dozens of rural and suburban counties have rushed to pass resolutions declaring themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries.”
As of Dec. 10, the Virginia Citizens Defense League listed 49 such towns and counties, including Dinwiddie, Powhatan, New Kent and Goochland. (Hanover and Henrico also passed related resolutions on Dec. 11 that don’t use the word “sanctuary.”) Dinwiddie County’s resolution, approved Nov. 19, expresses the Board of Supervisors’ intent that county funds not be used “to unconstitutionally restrict Second Amendment rights” and promises to “oppose unconstitutional restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms through such legal means as may be expedient,” including court action. (Update: As of Dec. 29, the VCDL counted 87 counties, 10 cities and 18 towns as having passed resolutions, though some, as noted above, do not contain a sanctuary declaration. Fauquier County's Board of Supervisors, for example, voted to designate it as a "constitutional county.")
But such declarations are largely symbolic, especially given that no new gun laws have been considered yet, says Michael Kelly, a spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring.
“It’s not clear what a Second Amendment sanctuary is, what its proponents are hoping to accomplish or what authority they think they have to preemptively opt out of gun safety laws,” Kelly wrote via email on Dec. 5. “If the General Assembly passes new gun safety laws … we expect that everyone will follow the law and keep their citizens safe.” On Dec. 20, Herring issued an advisory opinion expressing that view, noting that the sanctuary resolutions "have no legal effect."
University of Virginia professor Richard C. Schragger, who specializes in constitutional law and local government law, concurs.
“These resolutions really are symbolic,” he says. “The areas passing these resolutions are doing so to make their voices heard.”
Virginia Citizens Defense League President Philip Van Cleave, who is leading the sanctuary effort, says that it’s more than a political statement against restrictive gun laws.
“We are prepared to fight back,” Van Cleave says. “We have a battery of lawyers to challenge such laws. We can go for injunctions while we work through the courts.”
Del. Jay Jones, D-Norfolk, requested a formal opinion from Herring. In a Dec. 2 letter, Jones wrote that “the legal precedent we would set allowing communities to selectively ignore those laws is alarming and indicative of the same mindset that nearly 150 years ago led this country to dissolve into civil war.”
The hundreds of Virginia residents asking their local governing bodies to take preemptive action are doing so out of “real concerns for their safety and fear that someone is coming to take their guns away,” says William D. Chavis, chairman of the Dinwiddie Board of Supervisors.
“Our county is big, and if something were to happen, a home invasion or the like, there is a real possibility that our law enforcement officers could not get from one end of the county to the other in time,” he says. “Our citizens need their guns for protection.”
A.J. Goode (Photo courtesy Carol A.O. Wolf)
Other gun owners are taking the latest developments in stride.
A.J. Goode, an Albemarle County native and a hunter for more than 40 years, says he is not worried about his personal safety, nor is he concerned that legislators in Richmond might ban future sales of assault-style weapons.
“I don’t hunt with them. No hunter I know uses one,” he said while on his way to go hunting near Esmont the day after Thanksgiving. “My rifles are all I need to hunt and protect my home.”
Goode emphasizes that people should be allowed to use their weapons of choice for target shooting, competitive events and gun collecting.
“Hunters already abide by regulations concerning what guns can be used and when and where,” he says. “I’m not worried.”
