Will Our County Support Militias To Defend Against Any Changes In Virginia Gun Laws?

Let's not even think about starting down this road.

At Wednesday's public hearing at Spotswood High School our community will consider whether our County should be declared a "Second Amendment Sanctuary." I also expect a second issue to be raised, that of supporting the establishment of a local militia such as Tazewell County has recently done.

Both actions concern me, and either could lead to a form of de facto secession from the rest of the Old Dominion, especially from the "North" (as in our northern Virginia counties) seen by many as left-leaning citizens bent on giving government more control of people's lives. A number of my ex-Mennonite and other good friends are all in favor of having even more citizens armed, and insist this would only be for purposes of protection and "deterrence."

But what if threats of force by militias failed to "deter" and we had a tragedy like that of the Davidian compound in Waco, Texas? Or what if a militia were to mount an attack on a state or federal facility in revenge for a perceived wrong as did the South Carolina state militia on Fort Sumter in 1861?

I know that may sound like an alarmist overreaction on my part, but militias are formed not for the purposes of negotiation or problem solving, not to work at mature constitutionally informed ways of bringing about fair and just outcomes, but to actually prepare to use armed force--or at least threaten to do so. And I tremble to think of what we might unleash as far as other groups, like neo-Nazi or white supremacist organizations, Black Panthers, the KKK, or communist cells following suit and establishing their own armed militias. Are we in danger of opening Pandora's Box?

So before the Board of Supervisors takes any action, could we at least allow for some needed time to have a blue ribbon commission of representative local citizens come up with a set of reasonable proposals that could bring us all together for the common good? Couldn't we get input from all interested citizen stakeholders to come up with a response that could be a good example for all Virginians to follow?

Meanwhile, I contend that any current proposed bills on gun legislation didn't just result  from northern Virginia liberals wanting to take guns away from law-abiding citizens. Rather, they are the result of grieving family members and friends and concerned citizens in general desperately wanting something done to end as much of the carnage as possible associated with events at Columbine, Aurora, Sandy Hook, Pensacola, Charleston, Parkland and other places too numerous to mention. Without those horrific disasters, there would be no discussions of the kind we are now having. None.

So gun owners need to make the case that the problem of gun violence has nothing to do with the ease with which people can access firearms, or that this is only a mental health problem (though as a mental health professional I see no reason to believe that US citizens have more serious mental health issues than other countries that have far, far lower rates of gun deaths).

And those who favor more restrictions on access to guns need to make the case that those kinds of restrictions actually contribute to the common good, and are not in violation of the Second Amendment.

Together we can find a responsible way forward.

Here are some more posts on gun violence https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/search?q=gun+violence