Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe (D) took a page from the current Biden administration and decided to label violent crime—which he also mislabels as “gun violence”—as a “public-health crisis.”
McAuliffe, who served as the governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018, states on his campaign website that he will “treat gun violence as the public health crisis it is,” and that he intends to create an “Office of Gun Violence Prevention.” Not to stop there, McAuliffe also mentions he has “never been afraid to stand up to the NRA, and that won’t change now.”
Much like President Joe Biden (D), McAuliffe misguidedly blames firearms for the actions of violent criminals, and rather than going after said criminals, he would prefer to punish law-abiding Americans by restricting their Second Amendment rights.
Of course, loaded, misleading phrases like “gun violence” and “public-health crisis” are designed solely for political gain. In reality, this is just a dishonest ploy that attempts to paint firearm ownership itself as some sort of nefarious action. But merely exercising a constitutional right is certainly not a “public health crisis.”
So, what is McAuliffe’s plan, exactly? He intends to ban some of the most-commonly owned firearms--which he mislabels as “assault weapons”—to ban “high-capacity magazines,” and more.
If this “plan” sounds familiar, that’s because much of it mirrors that of the Biden administration. Repeatedly, the president has stressed a desire to enact these same measures, and has even directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help him “cure” this “epidemic.”
As for McAuliffe’s bid to return to the governor’s mansion, it should come as no surprise that one of the major donors bolstering his campaign is none other than failed presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg. The former New York City mayor, you’ll remember, leaned heavily on his anti-Second Amendment platform during his campaign for the Oval Office. Of course, this campaign was short-lived, and Bloomberg dropped out of the race after several losses in early primary states.Election day in Virginia is Nov. 2, and Second Amendment supporters in the Old Dominion will have to make their voices heard.
On the back of last election’s results in Virginia, anti-gun legislators sought to enact many of the most-burdensome restrictions on your Second Amendment rights. Thankfully, the most-egregious of these was defeated, but many still got through. It’ll be up to voters this time around to make sure those past results are not replicated.
