A day after a huge crowd showed up at a Virginia Beach City Council meeting to add their locality to over 100 of Virginia's Second Amendment sanctuaries, the state's governor and his  financier, Michael Bloomberg, in separate press conferences, tried to reassure the public they had no plans to confiscate guns.  Bloomberg and Ralph Northam made their comments in Richmond on Tuesday as Virginia's new Democratic legislative majority convenes to take up gun control measures.

The former New York City mayor insisted that "nobody's trying to take away anybody's handguns — or rifles or shotguns.  What we're trying to do is have sensible gun regulations."

Bloomberg also said confiscating AR-15-style rifles currently in circulation would be difficult.  "It's probably impossible to get all those back," he said.  "One can only hope that when people see the damage they can cause, and the danger of having them in their houses, they'll decide to just take them to the local police station and say, 'Please get rid of this.'"  Bloomberg is referring to the bill receiving the most attention, Senate Bill 16, which has no grandfather clause and would make it illegal to sell or even possess a number of firearms that are currently legal.

At his press conference with leading Democrats in the state Legislature, Northam parroted Bloomberg, stating, "We have no intention of calling out the National Guard.  We're not going to cut off people's electricity.  We're not going door to door and confiscate individuals' weapons...saying things like we're going to cut off people's electricity, I don't know where things like that come from, but they're intimidating, they provoke fear, they're not necessary."

Northam doesn't know where these things come from?  In early December, when Northam was asked by a  reporter if local governments would face retaliation for declaring themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries, Northam responded, "If we have constitutional laws on the books and law enforcement officers are not enforcing those laws on the books, then there are going to be consequences, but I'll cross that bridge if and when we get to it."

At the same time Northam was threatening law officers, a Democratic Virginia congressman named Donald McEachin suggested that the governor should send in the National Guard if necessary. 

Then there's the "intimidating" gun law proposals heading to the General Assembly this week.

From Bearing Arms (not a complete list)

• banning the most commonly produced and owned rifles in the United States
• banning magazines that can hold more than ten rounds of ammunition
• requiring background checks on most transfers of firearms
• fining gun owners who fail to report lost or stolen firearms
• prohibits individuals convicted of misdemeanor assault and battery of a family member from owning a gun.
• banning bump stocks and binary triggers
• turning state-owned and leased buildings into gun free zones
• rationing handgun purchases to one per month
• stripping parents of their ability to decide when their child is responsible enough to access a firearm.
• weakening firearms preemption law by allowing localities to ban firearms from permitted events.

While Northam and Bloomberg attempt to convince law-abiding Virginians they have nothing to fear, the  Virginia Citizens Defense League announced  a "Lobby Day Rally" on January 20 in support of "rooting out every nugget of gun control it can detect  in Virginia."

Photo credit: Eli Christman.