Governor Youngkin Protects Virginians From California-Style Gun Control Restrictions

Gun control legislation that hides behind “gun violence” prevention is seeping across the United States, But Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) won’t let it harm Virginians.

Virginia Gov. Glen Youngkin (R) protected Virginia firearm owners in March after vetoing numerous gun control bills, including a California-style ban on so-called “assault weapons.”

On March 26, Youngkin vetoed 30 bills that would “punish law-abiding gun owners” and “violate their constitutional rights,” according to a release. He also amended 6 firearm bills and signed 4 bills that make it harder for criminals to use guns in the commission of a violent act.

“I swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of Virginia, and that absolutely includes protecting the right of law-abiding Virginians to keep and bear arms,” Youngkin said.

Younkin signed a few gun control bills, but they do not impede a law-abiding citizen’s ability to practice their Second Amendment rights.

The governor signed HB 22 and SB 210, which prohibit the manufacture, sale or possession of an auto sear, a device used to convert a semi-automatic firearm into an automatic weapon. He also signed HB 36 and SB 44 which prevent parents from willfully allowing a child who poses a credible threat of violence to access a firearm.

“I am pleased to sign four public safety bills which are common sense reforms with significant bipartisan support from the General Assembly, and offer recommendations to several bills which, if adopted, will make it harder for criminals to use guns in the commission of a violent act,” Younkin continued.

Several of Younkin’s amendments, including HB 173, SB 100, and SB 363, ban the removal of serial numbers from non-antique firearms,and increase the penalty for using a plastic firearm in the commission of a felony.

(RELATED: California-Style Gun Registries Are Coming To Your State)

The War Against So-Called “Assault Weapons”

“Assault weapon” bans are spreading out of California like wildfire. (No pun intended)

Thanks to Gov. Younkin, Virginia doesn’t face firearms bans like many states across the nationthat designate “military style” or “assault-style” weapons as illegal. The only problem—they define a weapon based on appearance and not by function.

Sadly, a majority of Americans do not know this and go along with the charade.

The U.S. Army defines fully automatic firearms as “assault rifles.” The firearms that are being banned as “assault rifles” today are semiautomatic – meaning one trigger pull results in one shot being fired. The Left could not choose a more incorrect label.

But once again, they know this and do not care.

“The weapon’s menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons,” Josh Sugarmann, a gun control advocacy group’s communications director, stated in a Violence Policy Center paper.

That was in 1988. The left still doesn’t know what “assault rifle” or “assault weapon” really means. In 2021, President Joe Biden’s nomination for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), David Chipman failed to answer Senator Tom Cotton’s simple question—“What is an ‘assault weapon?’”

Chipman replied, “Any semi-automatic rifle capable of accepting a detachable magazine above the caliber of .22, which would include a .223, which is, you know, largely the AR-15 round.”

Biden’s nomination for the director of an agency that regulates firearms claimed to not know the definition of an “assault weapon.” The rest of the Left is equally as clueless, or righteously and intentionally misleading.

(RELATED: Stripping Americans Of Gun Rights To Arm Illegals. What Could Go Wrong?)

On The Move

Ten states and the District of Columbia have laws banning the manufacture, sale, and transfer of “assault weapons.” Some additionally prohibit their possession and 14 states and DC ban “large-capacity magazines.”

President Biden continuously calls on Congress to ban so-called “assault rifles,” and “gun violence” prevention (read: gun control) activists across the country relentlessly demonize everyday firearms.

 Law-abiding Americans need to speak out against the Left’s attacks on everyday weapons and protect the Second Amendment from its constant assault.