The hard won freedoms our European American ancestors fought and died for are being turned upside down by the very same elements who called us racists and bigots, and even misogynists, for warning everyone else about it.
MIDLOTHIAN, Va. — Lisette Johnson had been a lifelong Republican. She became an activist on gun safety after she was shot by her estranged husband more than a decade ago, and she asked her Republican state senator for his backing on gun control bills.
“I thought everyone would be on board with this, like, what objection could they possibly have?” Ms. Johnson said. “But it became very clear that the people interested in this were not the people I had aligned myself with, who were Republicans.”
Her senator voted against gun limits, and in November, Ms. Johnson was among the residents of her central Virginia district who helped turn that traditionally Republican legislative seat over to a Democrat as part of a wave that flipped both legislative chambers and handed Democrats control in Virginia for the first time in 25 years.
On Thursday, Virginia Democrats pushed through a sweeping package of gun restrictions that have angered gun rights activists around the nation, prompting a massive pro-gun rally in Richmond this month and spurring counties in Virginia and elsewhere to declare themselves as Second Amendment sanctuaries.
Along mostly party-line votes, the state’s House of Delegates approved seven measures, including limiting handgun purchases to one each month, requiring background checks for all firearms sales and transfers, and imposing a “red flag” law, which allows the confiscation of guns from people deemed by courts to be dangerous to themselves or others. Earlier this month, the Senate, split largely along party lines, approved four gun limits, including limiting handgun purchases, allowing municipalities to ban guns in certain public areas, and background checks.
Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat,…
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