Virginia Gun Rights Rally: Thousands Converge On Richmond

RICHMOND, VA — Thousands of people from Virginia and across the country converged on Richmond on Monday to warn state lawmakers against enacting new gun control measures during the current legislative session. With Democrats taking control of the General Assembly in 2020, gun rights advocates have made Virginia a primary focus of their campaign against any new laws restricting gun ownership.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued a state of emergency late last week, making the Capitol grounds in Richmond off-limits to weapons for Monday's rally. Law enforcement intelligence analysts said they had identified credible threats of violence surrounding the event, along with white nationalist rhetoric and plans by out-of-state militia groups to attend. Last week, the FBI arrested three men in Maryland and Delaware, alleging they were heavily armed white supremacists heading to the pro-gun rally in Virginia.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League, a pro-gun group, organized the rally at the Capitol grounds in Richmond as part of the organization's annual gun rights lobby day. Rally participants and members of the public were required to go through a security checkpoint before entering the grounds, where guns were prohibited.

Because of the weapons prohibition, thousands of heavily armed protesters — many dressed in military camouflage and the vast majority white men — gathered outside the official protest zone with their weapons, holding signs and waving flags supporting President Donald Trump.

During the rally, speakers urged the crowd to fight the passage of new gun control laws in Virginia and across the country.

Stephen Willeford, a Texas man considered a hero for stopping even greater carnage at the November 2017 Sutherland Springs church mass shooting in Texas, told the crowd in Richmond: "All of America's eyes are on you, Virginia, wondering whether you will let your rights be encroached upon."

In response to calls for stronger gun control measures after a quarter-century of mass shootings in Virginia and across the country, Willeford cited Thomas Jefferson in saying the American people have the "right and duty to be armed at all times."

Willeford referred to three boxes in which pro-gun activists can defend their freedom: the soap box, which he was using Monday to speak to the thousands at the Richmond rally; the ballot box, where pro-gun voters can participate in elections to put gun rights supporters into office; and the cartridge box that armed Second Amendment supporters can use if the government enacts restrictions on gun ownership.

"Let's hope that we are generations away from using the cartridge box, because it's a last-ditch moment," he said.

In his remarks at the rally, Erich Pratt, senior vice president of Gun Owners of America, said pro-gun activists will not compromise on guns. He accused Northam of wanting to take Virginians' gun rights away.

"The passion and the activism that's here today, it has to be a way of life. We have to stay vigilant. We have to pray. We have to vote," Pratt said. "Or we are going to lose our rights. The governor may think he's won the day today. But he has only strengthened our resolve."