Virginia’s Largest City Joins Second Amendment Movement

OK, Virginia Beach isn’t a Second Amendment Sanctuary City. But it’s the next best thing, thanks to Virginia Beach City Council.

On Monday, by a 6-4 vote, Virginia’s largest city declared itself a “Second Amendment Constitutional City.” A warning shot to the gun grabbers who are about to convene in Richmond.

Michael Bloomberg may have bought himself a General Assembly, but Virginians still have a voice.

With that vote the Beach telegraphed a not-so-subtle message to state legislators: Don’t use the hideous mass shooting in our city last May as an excuse to infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners. Especially not with laws that would have done nothing to deter the homicidal maniac who massacred 12 people at the municipal center.

It’s tempting to dismiss this council initiative as an empty gesture. After all, Virginia’s attorney general declared that these votes - about 116 jurisdictions have declared themselves to be in support of the Second Amendment so far - are meaningless.

Odd. I don’t remember AG Mark Herring weighing in when various commonwealth’s attorneys announced that they wouldn’t enforce Virginia’s marijuana laws.

But the huge crowds that swarmed City Hall this week and the speakers who demanded that their constitutional rights be protected signaled that if extreme gun laws are enacted even Northern Virginia’s legions of liberals may not be able to save Democratic seats in the next election.

Bills that would outlaw private indoor gun ranges are nonsensical, for instance. So are ammo bans.

Newbies like Virginia Beach Del. Nancy Guy should pay careful attention to what’s going on at home before getting swept up in the gun control frenzy at the capitol.

If Guy, who took $349,996 from Bloomberg’s far-left PACs, believes she was elected with a mandate to restrict gun rights, she is mistaken.

Despite her campaign coffer overflowing with out-of-state special interest money - from Bloomberg, abortion enthusiasts and unions - Guy would do well to remember that she won by just 84 votes.

We know what Bloomberg and other lefties expect her to do in Richmond. But what about the will of ordinary Beach voters?

Predictably, The Washington Post has expressed consternation over the Second Amendment sanctuary movement in Virginia.

The Post editorial board dismissed gun rights advocates as “mischief makers,” accused them of “vigilantism” and sniffed that they were mainly rubes from rural areas.

Now that Virginia’s most populous city joined in, the Second Amendment movement can’t be so easily dismissed.

As The Wall Street Journal pointed out in a recent editorial, the Second Amendment sanctuary movement makes sense, given laws passed in some states that appear to violate the Supreme Court’s Heller decision.

For the record, other than rare cases we don’t support “sanctuary” movements on the right or left. If you don’t like a law, the proper and lawful response in a democracy is to persuade elected leaders to change it.

But the sanctuary movement has a point about the Constitution. The Supreme Court confirmed in its landmark Heller ruling that individuals have the right to bear arms, but politicians have often ignored it. All too often the courts have acquiesced by upholding or refusing to review unconstitutional restrictions.

Giddy Democrats who are beholden to the nation’s chief anti-gun activist for many of their narrow victories should be cautious before hastily passing radical gun laws.

If they want to retain power beyond the next election, that is.