Stafford set to take gun rights vote at Tuesday meeting

Last week, Prince William and Spotsylvania counties. On Tuesday, Stafford?

The county Board of Supervisors will take up the question of whether or not to become a 2nd Amendment Sanctuary (2A), where the right to bear arms as enshrined in the U.S. Bill of Rights is upheld. A public hearing will be held in the Board Chambers at 7 p.m. at 1300 Courthouse Road in Stafford.

I saw more than 1,000 people pack the Prince William County Government Center in Woodbridge on December 10 to argue in favor of that county becoming a 2nd Amendment Sanctuary. At their final meeting of the year, the Board of County Supervisors chose to be a “constitutional county,” choosing to affirm it’s support for the 2nd Amendment. The meeting adjourned about 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 11., following the vote.

Spotsylvania County passed a similar 2A resolution just prior to Prince William.

The Virginia Citizens Defense Leauge reports 93 of Virginia’s 133 jurisdictions have adopted some type of 2A policy. Fredericksburg and Loudoun County in Northern Virginia have rejected 2A resolutions.

The push to 2A comes after Senator Dick Saslaw (D-Falls Church) submitted a bill in the upcoming 2020 General Assembly session that aims to place tougher restrictions on guns. Saslaw’s SB16 would make selling, renting, trading, making, or transporting an assault rifle from another state into Virginia a felony, and would limit the number of rounds in an ammunition magazine to seven.

The rhetoric ramped up last week when federal legislators said they would deploy the National Guard to enforce gun laws in the state if needed.

Saslaw’s bill comes after a mass shooting in Virginia Beach where 13 people were killed, including the gunman, in a mass shooting in Virginia Beach.

In the county’s resolution, Stafford officials plead with state lawmakers not to enact new laws that infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners. It’ll be up to the elected county sheriff David Decatur to enforce the law if passed. Decatur did not return a request for comment for this story.

Here’s the proposed resolution Stafford leaders will take up on Tuesday night:

WHEREAS, Amendment II of the Constitution of the United States reads, “[a]
well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the rights of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed;” and

WHEREAS, Article I, Section 13 of the Constitution of Virginia states, “[that] a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state, therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power;” and

WHEREAS, the Board is concerned that unconstitutional or unlawful
legislation, which infringes upon the rights of the citizens to keep and bear arms under the Constitutions of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States, or which has the tendency to infringe upon or place any additional burdens on the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms, has or may be introduced in the legislative sessions of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia and/or the United States Congress; and

WHEREAS, the Board is concerned that unconstitutional or unlawful executive
and administrative actions or enactments, which infringe upon the rights of the citizens under the Constitutions of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States, or which have the tendency to infringe upon or place any additional burdens on the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms, may be or are being considered by the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia and/or the offices and agencies under his control; and

WHEREAS, the Board desires to express its deep commitment to the rights of
all citizens of Stafford County to keep and bear arms by standing as a sanctuary for Second Amendment rights and to stand in opposition, within the limits of theConstitutions of the United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia, to any efforts to unconstitutionally and unlawfully restrict such rights;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Stafford County Board of
Supervisors on this the __ day of _______, ___, that it be and hereby does proclaim and declare Stafford County, Virginia a Second Amendment Sanctuary, in which the rights of the citizens of Stafford County to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by Amendment II of the Constitution of the United States and Article I, Section 13 of the Constitution of Virginia are upheld; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Board opposes any and all laws that would
unconstitutionally restrict the rights of the citizens of Stafford County to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Constitutions of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board implores the Virginia General
Assembly, the United States Congress, and other agencies of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States Government to preserve, uphold, and protect the rights of citizens to keep and bear arms under the Constitutions of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States by rejecting any provision, law, or regulation that may infringe, have the tendency to infringe, or place any additional burdens on the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms; and

BE IT STILL FURTHER RESOLVED, that the County Administrator is authorized to forward a copy of this Resolution to the County’s elected representatives in the Virginia General Assembly and the United States Congress, and to the Governor of Virginia.