In the wake of two mass shootings over the weekend, Governor Northam is blaming Donald Trump and calling on voters to reject gun violence on November 5th.
Recalling the mass shooting in Virginia Beach in May and the fact that a thousand state residents were shot to death or took their own lives with a firearm in the past year, Ralph Northam told reporters “This is an emergency.” Northam made the comments after an event in Charlottesville.
He scolded state lawmakers for failing to act during a special legislative session and suggested Donald Trump had encouraged attacks on people of color.
"I heard this morning that he denounced racism and bigotry, but I would hope he’d look in the mirror," Northam told reporters.
Northam said, 'Enough is enough!' and urged voters to elect people willing to enact common sense gun controls.
Once again, dozens of lives have been shattered by gun violence. @FirstLadyVA and I grieve with the communities and the families of those killed and injured in El Paso and Dayton.
— Governor Ralph Northam (@GovernorVA) August 5, 2019
The time to save lives is now.
Read my full statement here: https://t.co/LQUANFmzne
"There’s an election on November the 5th," he said. "I would ask every Virginian to pay attention to what’s going on in this country right now. That can be addressed on Election Day."
The governor has called on state lawmakers to require background checks for any gun sales, to reinstate the one-sale-per-month limit – a measure designed to stop gun trafficking, and to ban the sale of military-style weapons.
On Sunday, the Republican Speaker of the House of Delegates, Kirk Cox, wrote that he condemned "terrorism based on the twisted idealogy of white supremacism."
This weekend a pair of evil men committed evil acts of violence against innocent people living innocent lives.
— Kirk Cox (@kirkcoxforva) August 4, 2019
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
