Virginia: Richmond Police Plan Illegal Weapons Ban for Saturday

By AmmoLand Editor Duncan Johnson

Virginia –-(Ammoland.com)- I talked to a reporter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch about Richmond considering an illegal gun ban and they have updated the story with these new paragraphs:

The question of whether firearms can be banned at political demonstrations dominated discussion Tuesday during the first meeting of McAuliffe’s task force on civil unrest post-Charlottesville. First Amendment scholar Rodney A. Smolla, who gave the panel a briefing on constitutional law, called the topic “uncharted legal territory” but said authorities aren’t powerless to control armed crowds.

“If I am marching armed and loaded and expressing violent statements, the idea that that’s a threat is not at all far-fetched. It’s not at all theoretical,” Smolla said. “I would rather protect somebody’s life and then deal with the legal consequences after the fact.”

Meanwhile, the leader of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, the state’s influential pro-gun group, said Richmond authorities “cannot ban firearms” under any circumstances, citing a state law that prohibits all forms of local gun control not explicitly authorized by the General Assembly.

The group’s president, Philip Van Cleave, said he sees no reason why the upcoming rally should be treated as an exception, adding that …Read the Rest

Source:: AmmoLand