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Hundreds of gun rights supporters attended a City Council meeting in Lynchburg VA to tell councilmembers they want the city to declare itself a Second Amendment sanctuary. Olivia Johnson reports for The New and Advance:
A packed city hall chamber echoed with calls against statewide gun control legislation in Lynchburg on Tuesday night.
City council did not declare itself a Second Amendment sanctuary at its meeting, and council did not approve an attempt to amend the already-approved General Assembly legislative agenda to add language stating the City of Lynchburg does not support current proposed statewide gun control.
At-large council member Beau Wright, Vice Mayor MaryJane Dolan, Mayor Treney Tweedy and council member Sterling Wilder voted against the resolution. Ward IV council member Turner Perrow and Ward III council member Jeff Helgeson brought the resolution forward and voted in favor alongside At-large council member Randy Nelson.
At least 200 people attended the 7:30 meeting and 11 attendees spoke during the public comment portion, all opposing gun control legislation. By 6:40 p.m., most chamber seats were filled — some attendees said they thought the meeting started at 7 p.m.
Both Perrow and Helgeson spoke with attendees for about 30 minutes before the meeting. Perrow and Helgeson were outspoken throughout the meeting in opposition of gun control legislation.
Wright said Lynchburg should not be discussing state and national issues on a local level.
“We have to enforce the laws, that’s our job. We can disagree with those laws, and that’s why we have elections,” he said. “The resolution from us … wouldn’t carry legal weight.”
The push for Second Amendment sanctuaries stems from concerns following the Nov. 5 statewide election, which flipped Virginia’s legislative majority from Republican to Democrat.
Nearby Bedford and Nelson counties passed measures declaring themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries on December 9 and 10 respectively.
The trend comes as a response to Democrats winning control of Virginia’s legislature. Couple that development with Virginia’s openly anti-Second Amendment Democratic Governor Ralph Northam (he of blackface and post-birth abortion fame) already in office, and many Virginians are now worried about their rights.
Cities declaring themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries” can’t preempt the laws of their states, but that doesn’t mean they can be forced to help the Federal government or the State government do the dirty work of infringing on the constitutional rights of Americans. There is a good case to be made that the Sheriff Mack ruling protects towns, cities, and counties from being forced by states to disarm their citizens. That’s why the list of municipalities declaring themselves sanctuaries for the Second Amendment is so large.
