On January 20th, thousands of gun owners from all over the world gathered at the Virginia capitol building to protest proposed gun bans in the state of Virginia. This was a very peaceful protest; no one was harmed and thousands of people had guns on them. 

Leading up to this event, many news sources, one being the Washington Post, had portrayed it as the beginning of the “second civil war”.  Other news outlets such as MSNBC said it was a white supremasist rally and thought it would be violent. All these news sources were later proved wrong when they protested the gun restrictions peacefully. However, six people were arrested before the event for allegedly being involved with a violent neo-nazi group. 

After the protest was over, many of the protesters stayed to clean up any mess that was left behind. This isn’t seen very often and wasn’t done at the March for our Lives event in Washington DC where they were protesting for more gun restrictions. 

These restrictions are a direct infringement on the Constitution, more specifically the second amendment. The second amendment states, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”  

Senior Alec Hess stated, “My favorite part about this rally is that people are being active for their rights and marching for what they believe in.” 

While the people of Virginia were getting denied their second amendment right, they exercised their first amendment right, the freedom to assemble and free speech to protest these unconstitutional laws. 

Sophomore Gabriel Manan exclaimed, “I believe we will see more protests like this, especially after this one was so successful!”  

Trump went to Twitter on the day of the protests bashing all democrats as gun grabbers as well as saying that now Republicans will win Virginia in 2020. 

On Tuesday, January 21, many bills were shut down by the house of delegates; nearly a dozen Republican backed gun bills. Some of them included being allowed to carry a gun in places of worship, allowing concealed carry without a permit, limited gun free zones, and strengthened mandatory sentencing rules for gun crimes. 

As of now, people are unsure what will come out of this. Will Virginia still pass these unconstitutional gun restrictions or will they lay off? If Virginia gets it done, will it lead to other states following them? Either way the 2020 elections aren’t that far away and people can make their voice heard on many topics, so this will be a major talking point.