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Part 3. The cage: more last minute deterrents created to slow down or stop Lobby Day. Courts take a spineless position on violations of state law by the Governor.
PANIC AND TREACHERY IN THE DEMOCRAT LEADERSHIP The Northam administration and others in the Democrat leadership were clearly in panic mode. How could they minimize VCDL's Lobby Day, which resembles a snowball rolling down a mountain, continuing to gain speed, mass, and size as it went? The last thing the Democrats wanted was a massive show of opposition to their gun-control agenda, which was a key part of their legislative package aimed at repaying Michael Bloomberg for his huge political donations. The upcoming VCDL Lobby Day was receiving an incredible amount of coverage in both local and national media. The media had been watching the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement as it covered Virginia like a tidal wave, with their interest increasing as the map of Virginia turned more and more green. That intense coverage helped the movement jump Virginia's borders and take root in other states as well. But with word of Lobby Day and an associated massive gun-rights rally (usually incorrectly referred to as a "protest" by the media), the media changed its focus to the upcoming January 20th event. Coverage was everywhere you looked. What to do? What to do? The Democrats, with help from a media wanting to see a Charlottesville 2.0 for the sensationalism of it, had cards to play: 1. Make the event seem dangerous, a Charlottesville 2.0, with violence threatening to erupt at any time from White Supremacists, Antifa, NAZIs, anarchists, and other such groups attending In this effort, Democrat gun-controllers had help from even some in the gun community who were busy spinning conspiracy theories about how there was a set up being planned to cause mayhem and chaos on Lobby Day in an effort to discredit VCDL and harm the image of gun owners. I can't count the number of emails I received from concerned gun-owners with a link to the same article saying Lobby Day is being turned into a trap, similar to how American Indians would stampede buffalo off a cliff. Then there were rumors, probably created by some kid in his mom's basement, that the buses, and even the cars, headed to Lobby Day, would be stopped by police and searched for guns, which would be confiscated if found and the owner arrested. There was even a rumor that guns would be banned in the entire City of Richmond during the event. Not to be left out of the rumor mill, MS-13 gang members were supposedly going to be there, too. Oh, and one email with a link to a youtube video had this headline screaming: UN TAKEOVER OF THE UNITED STATES!! FLASH POINT FOR CONFISCATION IN VIRGINIA HAPPENING NOW! In a press conference six days before Lobby Day, Northam singled out VCDL to say that if our event wasn't peaceful (as it always has been in the past), it would dishonor Virginia. It sure sounded like Northam was hoping something bad would happen so he could blame VCDL for it. When the event turned out to be peaceful, Northam predictably took credit for the lack of violence. Sort of like a local news meteorologist taking credit for beautiful days. Rumors abounded of Antifa showing up in 7 buses, which soon ballooned to 50 buses. Then a new rumor said that the Richmond Antifa would be marching IN SUPPORT of Lobby Day, followed by another rumor that the marching report was a ruse and that Antifa was really planning violence. Other rumors said White Nationalists bearing NAZI flags would be present and itching for a fight with Antifa a la Charlottesville. You needed a scorecard to keep up with the crazy rumors and conspiracy theories flying in all directions. The media, loving the sensational angle of a gun-rights rally becoming a violent, hate-filled melee, were pumping up the headlines. Story after story talked about "White Nationalists", "threats of violence", "Another potential Charlottesville event", etc. Having a chance to paint gun owners as a bunch of racist hate-mongers was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. Here is a video collage of the media's fear mongering on Lobby Day and their attempt to smear VCDL. In the end, the massive amount of publicity was a two-edged sword that showed the world that gun owners are good, peaceful, and patriotic people that just want their rights left alone. Truth be known, gun owners were just being themselves. (Can we absolutely and definitively say that there was no one there planning to do harm? No. There may have been. But with 50,000 or so armed good guys, such plans may have been reconsidered.) 2. Take away the ability of gun owners to protect themselves in the General Assembly and Capitol buildings Those of us who carry a firearm for self-defense realize that a gun left at home is useless and we also realize that public mass-shootings almost always happen in gun-free zones. So, banning guns at the General Assembly and Capitol buildings would be a strong disincentive to gun owners wanting to attend Lobby Day. And that's exactly what the Democrat leadership in the House and Senate did. As frosting on the cake, the Governor declared a state of emergency and banned guns on the Capitol grounds outside of the buildings as well. (See below for more information on VCDL's and GOA's lawsuit on the Governor's gun ban.) That ban was so extreme that even police who were not actually assigned to work security at Lobby Day were not allowed to be armed! The two sheriffs who spoke at the rally, Sheriff Danny Diggs and Sheriff Scott Jenkins, were unarmed as they did so. The sky, apparently, was getting ready to fall in Richmond on January 20. Northam was going to miss it, though, as he conveniently had plans to be in another state that day. What was funny is that the Democrats, not wanting to take responsibility for their cowardice and treachery, said it was the Capitol Police that wanted the General Assembly gun-ban. Unfortunately for the Democrats, the Capitol Police publicly denied it (scroll down to paragraph 7) and gun owners never believed it for a moment. 3. Fence in a large part of the Capitol grounds where the Lobby Day speakers would be and make it an extreme gun-free zone. Toilets? Not allowed either. Suddenly liking the idea of walls keeping people out, and with the added benefit of making the Capitol look like East Berlin, Northam put fences around the west side of the Capitol grounds, separating the armed citizens outside the fence, from the unarmed citizens inside the fence. No toilets were allowed in the fenced in area, either. Hmmm - no guns, no toilets, fenced-in cage with one way in and one way out. The Democrats really, really wanted to discourage people from surrounding the stage where the speakers would be. They wanted photos to show the speakers talking to themselves and not to a huge, motivated crowd. To help achieve the goal of minimizing the photographic impact, they also limited the number of people who could enter the cage to 6,000 and blocked the crowd from standing on the east side of the Capitol grounds. 4. Push local garages to close and disallow street parking nearby so parking would be hard to find If you can't find a place to park, it is going to be difficult to make it to Lobby Day. Local garages were asked to shutdown and street parking was restricted. We did have a large remote parking area with shuttle buses, but even that parking lot was not capable of being filled to capacity, as half of it was reserved for another event. 5. Make no accommodations for those with handicaps to get access to the Capitol, the General Assembly, or the cage The Capitol Police and the Virginia Department of General Services advised VCDL that there would be NO special accommodations for handicap access to the Capitol area on Lobby Day. Nor was there any special parking areas for the handicapped. There was a handicap drop-off point about four blocks away from the Capitol, with an uphill return trek when Lobby Day was over. Many people contacted me, frustrated that they couldn't attend due to the Commonwealth ignoring the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations. I heard that at least one has filed an ADA complaint. I hope they win big! 6. Get rid of the biggest lightning-rod as fast as possible: SB 16, the semi-automatic gun ban Even the NRA got into the act of discouraging attendance at VCDL's Lobby Day. They claimed that VCDL's Lobby Day was going to be "too late" to stop gun-control bills being heard on January 13th, so they held their version of Lobby Day a week earlier. That was odd because 1) only some Senate gun bills and no House gun bills were going to be heard that day and 2) there is a long process before bills become law - a week that early in the session wasn't going to be significant. But, VCDL got behind the NRA Lobby Day anyway and pushed for our members to attend it, too. It was not to the advantage of gun owners that any such thing be attended in small numbers. (Unfortunately, the NRA did not reciprocate by asking their members to attend VCDL's Lobby Day.) Several thousand gun owners filled the General Assembly Building on January 13th, with some wearing NRA shirts given out at the event, but pretty much everyone was sporting a Guns SAVE Lives sticker. To get rid of a political hot potato, SB 16 was withdrawn by its patron, Senator Dick Saslaw, as the first order of business in a committee hearing that day, though it wasn't even on the agenda for consideration. Other gun-control bills moved forward, some having been toned down. VCDL AND GOA FILE A LAWSUIT TO FIGHT BACK ON THE CAPITOL GROUNDS GUN-FREE ZONE EDICT
Just one week before Lobby Day, the Governor declared a phony state of emergency and banned firearms on the Capitol grounds, effective Friday through Tuesday. He had clearly overstepped his authority, so VCDL and GOA filed a lawsuit to get an emergency stay on that ban.
A state judge in Richmond denied VCDL's request for an emergency stay and wasted precious time in announcing the ruling. Note: this was not an actual ruling on the merits of the lawsuit, just on the request for a stay. With the clock ticking, VCDL appealed the stay request to the Virginia Supreme Court the weekend of Lobby Day. The Virginia Supreme Court punted by claiming that the lower court in Richmond had provided insufficient information about the ruling for the Supreme Court to make a determination if the lower court erred or not.
My reading was that both courts did not want to issue a stay for fear that something might happen on Lobby Day and they didn't want to be blamed for it.
The actual lawsuit against the Governor is still pending. We refuse to back down.
THE CLOCK STRIKES MIDNIGHT
The night before Lobby Day, gun owners and reporters flooded the large restaurant where VCDL was having its pre-Lobby Day dinner. The place was packed! I was doing almost non-stop interviews with the press.
One unexpected surprise was that Kenneth Hall, who recorded the VCDL Fight Song for us, had flown in from Nebraska to attend the dinner and Lobby Day! Ken had sent me an email telling me he had gotten off work, bought an airplane ticket, booked a car and a hotel room, and would be there on Sunday. Unfortunately, his email was buried with 25,000 other emails that arrived in January that I simply couldn't read at that time. Ken's a great patriot and it was a pleasure to meet him in person.
At the conclusion of the dinner, VCDL leadership headed to our hotel rooms in Richmond so we would be ready bright and early on Monday morning, January 20, 2020.
FINAL THOUGHTS FOR PART 3: GUN CONTROLLERS HAVE NO SHAME AND EMBRACE CORRUPTION. EXCELLENT RESPONSE ON WHY WE WERE AT LOBBY DAY Gun controllers know how to play games. For example, when the NRA had their lobby day on January 13, a hearing room was divided in two. One side for gun owners and the other side for the gun controllers. The Democrat leadership and the gun-control groups wanted it to look like there were as many people on their side as there were gun owners on our side. One problem: while the gun-owner side was full with a few thousand standing outside the doors waiting to get a seat, the gun-control side of the room was mostly empty! Rather than let gun owners in the front of the line take the open seats, the Capitol and State Police were ordered by Democrat leadership to go find gun-controllers in line and escort them into the room to take those seats!
Yes, gun controllers are that petty, corrupt, and fake. They also made the police look extremely bad, as gun owners who were waiting their turn in a long line saw the police picking sides by escorting the red-shirted gun controllers from the back of the line into the meeting room.
I witnessed the above with my own eyes and it was also documented here. Seeing the gun grabbers in action always makes me so proud and appreciative of the wonderful people on our side.
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As was mentioned above, many people forwarded an item on Lobby Day being a trap, similar to how the American Indians would stampede a herd of buffalo off a cliff. That no matter what we did on Lobby Day, it was a lost cause and many people could be hurt or worse.
I saw the fantastic answer that Board member Bruce Jackson sent one of the forwarders and I wanted to share it here:
Whether my presence results in my voice being heard or not, I am taking the chance. I am going because freedom is worth it.
Whether my involvement results in my voice being heard or not, I am taking the chance. I am going to do everything within my power to stop this insanity before it begins, because freedom is worth it.
Whether my exposure results in my voice being heard or not, I am taking the chance. I am going. If I do not come home, as some of the naysayers suggest, so be it, because freedom is worth it.
And so it is...
UPCOMING PARTS IN THIS SERIES ON VCDL'S LOBBY DAY 2020
Part 4. Lobby Day 2020 arrives and the deterrents failed: an eye-popping, 100% peaceful event, with a massive turnout of patriots determined to save the Commonwealth from tyranny. Also a birds-eye view: select video from the VCDL president's body camera
Part 5. Postscript: the positive effects of Lobby Day 2020 on the upcoming 2020 and 2021 elections, gun-control bills in the General Assembly, and the perception of gun owners in the press
Part 6. Lobby Day 2020 articles, photos, videos, and gun-owner comments: wall-to-wall coverage of that historic event!
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