About 20,000 gun rights supporters rallied in Virginia’s capital city Monday, a show of force intended to show lawmakers opposition to gun control laws that are moving through the General Assembly.
The mood around Capitol Square was upbeat and even cheery. One of the gun rights supporters told me it felt like getting together with old high school friends, and the Second Amendment rally certainly had the feeling of a celebration.
Matt Young drove here from Spotsylvania to let lawmakers know that he does not support any effort to implement gun control.
“We’re here to represent the Second Amendment," he says. "Represent the people who actually care about the Second Amendment who, I believe, are some of the individuals who didn’t show up and vote to actually represent the firearm owners.”
Advocates for gun control showed up on Election Day, though, and now the New Democratic majorities in the House and Senate believe they have a mandate to implement universal background checks, limit the sale of handguns to one a month and ban assault-style weapons.
Travis Addington of Lee County says he actually can support some of that agenda.
“I have no problem with increasing the background checks and doing so," Addington explains. "I think that’s actually something that needs to be looked at. I think that would be good, but I feel as if these people are law-abiding citizens then they should be able to carry any gun they please.”
Capitol Police estimate 6,000 people flocked to Capitol Square, with another 16,000 outside the gates.
Many stayed outside the gates because they wanted to bring firearms with them. One of those was Bill Noxon of Chesterfield.
"This is historic, and I'm here because there's people trying to take our God-given rights away," he says. "And if they pass these laws, and it spreads across the country, we will no longer be a free nation. A disarmed citizenry is not a free nation.”
Worries about violence never became a reality, and the crowds departed shortly after the rally ended. One person, a 21-year-old woman from Richmond, was arrested and charged with violating Virginia's law against wearing a mask in public.
Less conspicuous, but no less passionate
As the rally gathered steam outside the capitol, inside a handful of gun control advocates woke up in lawmakers’s offices. The students are with the gun control group March for our Lives and they didn’t want to have to walk through armed militias to reach their lawmakers. So they spent Sunday night on the floor inside the Pocahontas Building.
Nupol Kiazolu is a student at Hampton University. She was in Charlottesville protesting the Unite the Right rally, and says the crowd outside gives her flashbacks. “Nonetheless I stand here unafraid and undeterred. And I know that I am out here for a righteous cause that’s bigger than me,” she said Monday morning.
That courage, in part, inspired Monica Hutchinson a local social justice organizer. For years she’s been to the capitol for lobby day with different progressive organizations. Those events were all cancelled this year, but she still decided to show up. “As a black woman in America, when am I ever safe? When do I ever feel safe? The answer is I don’t. But if I allow fear to change what I do today. If I allow fear to prevent me from from fighting the best way I know how. Then they won.”
A few offices away Delegate Elizabeth Guzman looked down from her window on the crowd below. She also made the decision to be here, despite fears for her life. Some groups circulated her picture, falsely targeting her as a sponsor of gun control legislation. “And I just need to protect myself," Guzman admitted. "So this morning I put my hair up, put on a hat and a coat." She removed the pin that each Delegate wears. "So they didn’t know who I am."
Saying she has a job to do, Guzman tucked her long hair back up into a hat before making her way back through the armed crowd to the capitol building.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
