Steve Helber/AP Photo
Pro-gun demonstrators hold a flag and signs in front of the Virginia State Capitol on Monday.
RICHMOND, Va. – Thousands of pro-gun demonstrators thronged the Capitol District on Monday, surrounding the Capitol building in closed-down streets and making their way through a security checkpoint through which only unarmed protesters were allowed.
“We’re incrementally losing our Second Amendment rights and it’s time to put a stop to it,” said Larry, a protester from Charlotte, North Carolina, who traveled 280 miles to Richmond to attend the rally.
Armed protesters were not allowed beyond the perimeter of fencing surrounding the Capitol, but hundreds walked the streets, wearing assault rifles slung across their torsos. Others holstered pistols at their hips, and still others completed the look with head-to-toe camo clothing and bulletproof vests. Demonstrators had body cameras strapped to their chests, recording everything in front of them. And some wore helmets. Notably, many armed protesters were masked, technically breaking Virginia law.
Virginia’s government is controlled by Democrats for the first time since 1994, and just a week into the legislative session, thousands from around the country descended on the Capitol to object to proposed legislation that would, among other changes, require background checks for all gun purchasers and limit purchases to one per month. Governor Ralph Northam’s decision to ban firearms from Capitol grounds, and rumors that he would send the National Guard to dispel violence, only incited people to come out in droves.
Many protesters were beyond the fenced perimeter, unable to hear the speakers. Nevertheless, as one man texted his wife, “I’m just honored to be here.”
Martin Luther King Day is Virginia’s annual citizen’s lobby day, where people advocating myriad interests come to Richmond to advocate for their agenda. For example, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is hosting a dinner in a Richmond hotel tonight, where they plan to welcome Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn, the first female Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.
Governor Ralph Northam’s name was on the lips of thousands of demonstrators and dozens of posters. Chants of “Hey hey! Ho ho! Racist Ralph has got to go!” turned a traditionally progressive chant on its head. The Northam controversy stems from the revelation of a photo of the governor in blackface in his college yearbook—an incident protesters on the right have turned to their advantage. The image was reproduced on T-shirts and posters at the rally. Protesters also excoriated the fencing precautions state police forces took to cordon off armed protesters from unarmed protesters, and called for Northam to come out of the Capitol building to be “with the people.”
“It’s really about control,” said Dennis Kotch of Rochester, New York, who drove down to the event. Kotch’s daughter lives in Virginia. “For all of the conversations we’ve had concerning civil rights, I think a lot of people don’t understand the first and most profoundly fundamental right is that of self-defense.”
In a poll taken just before November’s elections, three-quarters of voters said that gun policy was “very important,” and a majority supported statewide bans on high-capacity ammunition clips and assault weapons. A majority also supported limiting gun purchases to one per month. The Washington Post-Schar School poll also showed that an “overwhelming majority” support expanding background checks and allowing for “red flag” laws that enable law enforcement to confiscate weapons from someone deemed dangerous. But even red-flag laws seemed to anger protesters; many signs bore slogans like “No red flag laws!”
In 2019, a shooting in Virginia Beach killed 12 people, and the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 that killed 33 still loomed large in many voters’ minds. Democrats seemed to use gun safety issues to their benefit in 2019, winning both legislative chambers. Legislators quickly ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, becoming the 38th and final state needed to meet the threshold for a constitutional amendment. Elsewhere, lawmakers have tackled an ambitious legislative agenda.
But the rally on Monday was a show of force for the pro-gun movement. Just from my reporting, I noted protesters from Texas, Arkansas, New York, Iowa, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Kentucky, North Dakota, Michigan, Ohio, and North Carolina. The line they all chanted was “We are all Virginians today.” The Virginia Citizens Defense League organized buses from all over Virginia to charter protesters to and from Lobby Day, as it’s known in Virginia.
“Predators prey on the weak, so it’s incumbent upon us to stay vigilant,” said Jeff Kline, who told me he was once attacked by a group wielding switchblades, and was saved by a combat Marine. “I was saved by an armed citizen and now I am one.”
Speakers included Gun Owners of America’s Erich Pratt, and Dick Heller, whose federal lawsuit reached the Supreme Court and overturned the District of Columbia’s gun ban. But because many protesters were beyond the fenced perimeter, they were unable to hear them. Nevertheless, as one man texted his wife, “I’m just honored to be here.”
Some of the more surprising posters kept up with the theme of refashioning progressive taglines in their own design: One poster series included “Gun rights are trans rights” and “Gun rights are women’s rights.”
Protesters were garbed in Revolutionary-era hats, and nearly everyone had a hunting-orange sticker that read “Guns save lives” distributed by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a pro-gun advocacy group.
Security forces were light in comparison to other mass demonstrations, according to reporting from Lois Beckett. But a loose line of police stood guard in front of the Capitol building, police cars patrolled the city, and at least two helicopters surveyed the protest from above. There were no arrests.
As Jonathan M. Katz wrote this morning in his newsletter “The Long Version,” supporters and opponents of gun control have often “squared off” on this day in January. But the blue wave in November meant that pro-gun activists turned up the heat.
In the days before the rally, the FBI announced that it had arrested six white supremacists, three of whom are associated with a right-wing group known as The Base. Northam declared a state of emergency over the weekend, citing concerns about a repeat of Charlottesville, where tensions between protesters and counterprotesters boiled over and one protester was killed. Delegate Lee Carter (D-50), an outspoken gun-control advocate in Virginia, faced so many threats he stayed in a safe house during the protest.
Carter noted on Twitter that there were credible threats to legislators, legislative staff, and members of the public. Just because there has not been violence yet doesn’t mean that precautions were unnecessary or that there might not be violence later, he wrote, adding that the Proud Boys and Light Foot Militia are still in Richmond.
Pro-gun advocates have attempted to separate their message from the threats of violence and messages of white supremacy from neo-Nazi groups. The organizers didn’t want bad optics; they were hoping for a peaceful protest to generate positive media coverage for their movement. One protester I interviewed carried a sign that read “Love guns hate nazis.”
“When the Nazis came and invaded the first thing they did was take guns away,” said Eddie, a Richmond resident from Chicago who was holding up the sign with his Ukraine-born wife Makayla. “That’s kind of like the double meaning of my sign is keep our guns and keep your hands off of them.”
But in a group this big, everyone has their own message—including “Dems for NRA.”
“We’re at a time in American history where we are faced with violations of our liberties far exceeding the very things that prompted the war of independence in the first place,” said Dennis Kotch. “We wanted to be present to show this support for this long overdue movement nationwide.”
This story has been updated.
