Virginia Declares ‘State of Emergency’ in Advance of Gun-Rights Rally

Editorial note: This is a Breaking News story and a BNA Community Alert.  The Black News Alerts editorial team would like our community to be aware of this advisory.

Fearing a repeat of the deadly march by white nationalists in Charlottesville in 2017, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Wednesday declared a state of emergency and temporarily banned people from carrying guns and other weapons on the grounds of the state Capitol, where thousands of gun-rights activists are expected to rally next week against stricter gun-control laws.

What We Know:

• Northam said he made the call after hearing “credible intelligence” from law enforcement that armed militias and hate groups, some from outside Virginia, planned to disrupt the event.

“They are not coming to peacefully protest. They are coming to cause intimidation and to cause harm,” Northam, a Democrat, said at a news conference.

• The threats of violence, picked up by state intelligence analysts on the internet and on dark web channels, included “conversations fueled by misinformation and conspiracy theories,” he said, and rhetoric similar to talk that preceded the “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville in August 2017, at which white nationalists clashed with counterprotesters, one of whom was killed when a man drove into a crowd.
• The temporary weapons ban and state of emergency will be lifted on Tuesday, Northam said.
• The Jan. 20 event is part of an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day tradition in which citizen activists, including those on both sides of the gun debate, converge on the Capitol to press issues directly to lawmakers. The rallies have usually been peaceful and orderly. But last November’s elections, in which Democrats took control of both chambers of the Statehouse after campaigning on gun control, has changed the dynamic of this year’s event, called Lobby Day.
• The Virginia Citizens Defense League has urged participants in the Jan. 20 rally to avoid confrontations with authorities, gun-control advocates and the media. The group’s president, Philip Van Cleave, in an online statement, asked militia groups not to try to provide security, saying police have that covered. “With a large Capitol, Richmond, and State police presence, not to mention enough citizens armed with handguns to take over a modern mid-sized country, we have the security base covered nicely,” he wrote. He said participants should not bring long guns, which are difficult to conceal.

The looming confrontation has put Virginia, whose government is under Democratic-majority rule for the first time in a quarter century, at the center of the national gun debate, with both sides portraying the state as a sign of where the rest of the country might be heading.

This is a Breaking News story and will be updated here.