I guess it wasn't terribly surprising since the House is Democrat controlled. It is even less surprising that every single Republican voted against the bill. I suppose the fact that several Democrats voted against the bill as well was a little bit of a shock but if I were to dig into the areas these Democrats are from we would find that their races were probably pretty close and they fear their chances of getting re-elected since this vote is getting nationwide coverage whereas most of the time people wouldn't even remember that state legislature exists.
The bill, if approved by the state Senate, would change many aspects of gun ownership, including
- Owners of semi-automatic "assault weapons" would need to register it with the government
- all magazines capable of holding more than 12 rounds would become illegal and possession of such an item would be classified as a felony.
- All "silencers" would become illegal and possession would also become a felony
This comes just weeks after the massive 2nd amendment rally which saw a massive turnout in Richmond, Virginia that went by without incident and only a couple of minor arrests.
There is some speculation going on about how the Senate will handle this bill passing the House, but many are presuming it will get shut down since the last time such a bill was presented to the Senate the bill failed to make it out of committee and was never even discussed on the Senate floor.
If it does pass, it will then be up to the governor, who is a big supporter of gun control, to either sign it into law or veto it.
It will be interesting to see what sort of impact this has one the voters in Virginia, since the last state-wide election had a pathetic voter turnout of around 30%. There are a lot of conservative Virginians who might now have their blinders off and realize that state election actually DO affect their lives in a meaningful way.
Since I am a conservative, I sincerely hope that the liberals experience great trouble in their re-election campaign.
Virginians! If you care about your rights take notice of this and make the necessary steps to protect them. These people are supposed to be working for you! If this is genuinely what the people of Virginia want (and I don't think that is the case) then so be it. Just don't try to bring that malarkey down here to North Carolina.