I really hate hypocrisy, and I hate it from any side. It’s one thing to take the argument of “well, they’re doing it, and it’s working, so while I hate it, I’d rather not lose everything.” It’s another to pretend that your preferred policies are sacrosanct while any variation on that is the worst thing ever when the other side tries it.
For example, take the concept of sanctuary cities/counties/states. For quite a while, very blue cities engaged in sanctuary policies with illegal aliens, where they’d arrest someone, find out they’re illegal, punish them (maybe), then put them back out on the streets without notifying ICE. They’ve done it for decades at this point, and the left as a whole has been acting like they’re completely justified in doing so, even though the Constitution gives the federal government authority on immigration.
But The New Republic is very concerned that some prosecutors in Virginia aren’t going to prosecute gun control laws. They call it “unnerving,” as a matter of fact.
When Governor Abigail Spanberger signed a new assault weapons ban in Virginia last month, it got almost zero national news coverage. Yet it amounted to an important milestone: It marked the first time in U.S. history that such a gun control measure was passed into law by any state government in the American South.
So it’s sadly fitting that passage of this law has been greeted by what you might call its very own nullification movement.
That’s right: In a brewing situation that has gone largely overlooked, a number of county-based prosecutors in red areas of Virginia are publicly declaring that they will not enforce the new ban on assault-style weapons. This movement is taking shape as a direct, openly confrontational challenge to the authority of Spanberger and the Virginia legislature that passed the measure—and it only appears to be growing.
“It is an abdication by MAGA elected officials of their duty to enforce the law,” State Delegate Dan Helmer, a Democrat who represents a northern Virginia district and co-sponsored the measure, tells me. The law bans the sale, purchase, and manufacture of many military-style semi-automatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazines of more than 15 rounds, among other things.
Yes, yes, it’s so terrible that commonwealth attorneys in Virginia are using the prosecutorial discretion that Democrats in the state gave them via state law, following a court decision mandating that CAs did, in fact, have to prosecute marijuana crimes. They didn’t like the idea of CAs not being able to pick and choose what crimes to prosecute, so they passed a law specifically to allow it, and now they’re very upset because some are going to use that authority in a manner they don’t like.
Plus, let’s be real here, The New Republic and its readers might try to pretend that the laws are all about public safety, but they’re not. They might pretend, as Helmer has tried, to make this about law and order, but it’s not.
“The context is a culture of lawlessness that pervades the Republican Party under Trump, and it’s extending down to Republican elected officials who feel empowered to ignore the law,” Helmer told me. “Your duty if you’re a commonweath attorney or a sheriff is to enforce the law, and if you’re not willing to do that, you should resign.”
Helmer, so far as I can tell, didn’t take issue with the previously mentioned CAs deciding not to prosecute marijuana-related offenses, so it’s really not about prosecuting the law regardless of what the law may be. It’s about prosecuting the laws he likes as opposed to those he doesn’t.
Just like it is with many of these people.
Again, they said nothing about violent illegal aliens being returned to American streets thanks to immigration sanctuary policies. They have tried to argue that such is righteous and that ICE is wrong for going into these areas and rounding up the same illegal aliens, many of whom have committed multiple violent felonies, only to be permitted to remain in the United States.
Even if I were to accept the idea that we shouldn’t deport illegal aliens who are just trying to make a life for themselves, I’m absolutely blown away by the concept that deporting violent illegals is controversial, that it’s something we can’t all get on the same page about. That should be a universal thing, especially if you’re someone who wants to call the GOP “lawless.”
Violent illegals cause a lot more problems than so-called assault weapons do.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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