BELLEVUE, WA – Virginia’s embattled gun owners were the margin of difference when it counted to take back the governor’s office, the Assembly and other key races, essentially setting the stage for “a return of common sense to the Commonwealth,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.
“Old Dominion gun owners were not about to allow anti-gun Democrats enjoy another two years of power after what happened in January 2020,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb observed. “They knew what Terry McAuliffe’s return to Richmond would mean for their Second Amendment rights. His party’s politics of attacking gun owners, and their outrageous record of eroding gun rights brought gun owners to the polls to say enough is enough.”
“What is most gratifying,” he continued, “was to see savvy gun rights voters ignore the despicable last-minute ad buy by desperate Democrats to suppress the gun vote by painting Republican Glenn Youngkin as an anti-gunner, when it is their own candidate who has a deplorable record on gun rights.”
Tuesday’s victory by political newcomer Youngkin and a return of Republican power to the Assembly should send a message across the Potomac River to Democrats in Washington, D.C. that their extremist gun ban agenda is washed up, Gottlieb suggested. The Virginia election was not only an example of voters taking back their state, it was a referendum on Joe Biden’s big government administration and Capitol Hill Democrats who have allowed radicals to take over their party.
Add to that the wins by Republican Winsome Sears in the race for lieutenant governor, the first Black woman elected to statewide office in Virginia, and Republican Jason Miyares as the new state attorney general, plus the apparent capture of the House of Delegates makes it a clean sweep.
“We know Youngkin is a gun owner,” Gottlieb stated, “and we also know McAuliffe is a gun banner. Virginians made their choices loud and clear Tuesday, and we are optimistic the incoming governor will exercise good judgment and common sense where gun ban zealotry and social prejudice against gun owners have guided the agenda for the past four years.
“McAuliffe’s brand of socialism, with its strong anti-rights component, has been soundly rejected,” he said. “We are hopeful the new leadership will quickly reverse the extremist policies adopted by the previous radical Democrat administration. If Republicans capture the Assembly, as it appears they have, they should move immediately in January to repeal Northam’s one-handgun-per-month law, and restore state preemption for gun law uniformity across the Commonwealth.
“Congratulations, Virginia gun owners and governor-elect Youngkin,” Gottlieb concluded. “You gave every gun owner in America a reason to be excited about the upcoming 2022 midterm elections.”