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A Virginia judge has denied a motion to overturn governor Ralph Northam’s last-minute gun ban in the Virginia Capitol. The gun ban came ahead of a proposed protest march on the Capitol Building after the state’s Democratic leadership announced plans for sweeping gun reform in the state.
The judge, Joi Taylor, overturned the motion set by a coalition of gun rights activists, stating that Governor Northam has the authority to set emergency procedures due to his position as the head of the Department of General Services.
This means that Northam oversees the activities in the Capitol Square and can set emergency procedures in the area.
Northam’s last-minute emergency ban on guns from the capitol came earlier this week. The ban was a response to planned protests in the city on Monday against new gun control laws that will soon be passed by the Virginia state government.
A group called the Virginia Citizens Defense League organized the protest, stating that they intended to demonstrate peacefully. With their firearms brandished at their sides, of course.
Lawyer David Browne, who argued for the appeal to the ban, stated that carrying firearms is a form of speech and that all speech should be protected.
Since carrying guns is just another form of speech, Browne argued, the VCDL should be allowed to “peacefully assemble in the manner they see fit.” Authorities, however, feared that peaceful assembly would be impossible without the ban.
Northam and other officials in the state government feared that the proposed demonstrations could escalate into serious violence.
With the memory of the “Unite the Right” protest in Charlottesville in 2017 fresh in their minds, Virginia’s state leadership was eager to get out in front of this one.
“This is not another Charlottesville,” argued David Browne. “This is a completely different group of people.”
However, his words weren’t enough to sway Judge Joi Taylor, who upheld Northam’s ban and expressed that he had full authority to set emergency procedures in the Capitol Square.
As such, the VCDL protestors and their allies will have to make do with speech that is composed entirely of actual speech, and no firearms.
