A buddy of mine sent me some information about Virginia that I wanted to confirm before posting.
From the Washington Examiner:
Virginia governor’s call for 18-person gun ban force comes under fire
If I may say, that sounds like a very predictive headline.
Virginia’s pop-up gun sanctuary movement has turned its attention to fighting the governor’s call for a $4.8 million, 18-officer team to enforce his proposed “assault weapons” ban.
Two key groups issued an alert this week to push gun owners to four budget hearings Thursday around the state, asking them to quiz state legislators if they will vote to ban or confiscate weapons.
“We understand that this is short notice. But it would have a significant impact if many of our members could show up and make a 3-minute statement and ask questions of the legislators in attendance,” said the Virginia Citizens Defense League.
“We see in the governor’s proposed budget that he wants $4 million and 18 new law-enforcement positions to enforce a ban on commonly-owned firearms,” said Erich Pratt, Gun Owners of America senior vice president.
I wanted to confirm this allegation. It is (mostly) true.
From the 2020 Executive Budget Document, Part B: Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security:
By my count, that is 28 people, 18 for direct assault weapon ban enforcers, and 10 for bureaucrats for background checks, and other gun legislation enforcement.
The total cost is around $7.5 million dollars for two years.
Consider this information of the state of Virginia’s gun sanctuary movement:
For starters, the sanctuaries have spread dramatically. They’re up to 93 jurisdictions — covering roughly 40 percent of the population, by my quick spreadsheet tally. That’s huge, though the biggest victory, in Prince William County, is likely to be overturned when the county board flips to the Democrats, and some of these places have passed vague resolutions in support of the Constitution rather than the more aggressive language proposed by the Virginia Citizens Defense League.
Here is a map:
So my first question is: “how will 18 law enforcement officers and 10 bureaucrats police that much ground and 40% of the population?”
My next question is: “does that budget number include the cost of body bags, funerals, and survivor benefits for the widows and orphans?”
There is no way only 18 LEOs are going to be able to avoid serious “resistance” if in some of those rural counties.
My last question is: “who will be the 18 people that apply for the job of being one of the guys who go door to door to enforce an assault weapon ban?”
I can’t answer these questions, but nevertheless, it’s on the budget.
Miggy,
Last I heard was 114 counties and cities. The cities noted are their own political entities, and are not a part of a county. The VCDL is vigorously organizing lobbying efforts to go to Richmond and calmly address this egregious and roughshod activity by the Left.
One method which might work in Florida: the VCDL and other organizations are arranging buses from all parts of the Commonwealth to bring voters to Richmond to participate in the lobby effort. Check out the VCDL website for details.
May God bless you and your fellow citizens in Florida as you oppose the assault against the rights of free citizens!
Selling life insurance to these 18 would seem to be a losing proposition.
The folks coming to your door to arrest/kill you if you don’t hand over your weapons are not the only offenders, it’s the governor ralph two-faced hitler and the nazi state politicians who are the true enemy. I notice they are not talking about revealing criminals of their weapons, just law abiding citizens. I make the prediction that if you shoot us down, we will “become more powerful than you can imagine”. Death to the Inquisition, #Iwillnotcomply
28 people sounds like a small number to actually do the enforcement.
28 people sounds just about right, however, for being the command structure of a considerably larger organization that they will be tasked with building up over the course of, say, 5 years.
I’ve been saying this years. If some government decides to confiscate guns, the first couple of gun owners are going to get SWATed in the Middle of the F***ing Night and will most likely die. But word of what happened will get out. Soon, maybe the next night, another SWAT team will be decimated by fire from behind; or from some place other than the one they’re raiding and go home without fulfilling their mission. At some point, either their boss, their county sheriff, Governor Blackface or some other level of “boss’s boss’s boss” is going to get their head shot off. It could easily get worse than that.
It’s going to be a level of ugly the world has never seen. Somebody (Bracken?) has said, “Bosnia times Rwanda times 10” That sounds about right.
When the budget is passed – it will, because it would be an unfavorable position to hold up the state budget for $7.5 million – yet even the governor’s minions will acknowledge* this whole gun confiscation scheme as a Really Bad Idea, what happens to the $7.5 million?
Sure, its chump change but who wouldn’t want a piece of $7.5 million?
*I’m pretty sure they already have at least privately. When the do so publicly, everyone can breath a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, a few elite pocket the $7.5 million.
Wait a minute. Am I suggesting that this was nothing more than a scheme to raid the state budget for the enrichment of a few persons? No, I am not saying it was nothing more than that. Certainly it was that plus a few other things. Namely, to test the waters, to see how much gumption the People have.
Even a government buffoon, the worst of the buffoon family, could see that there was no way this 18 man team would work. In fact, why everyone is not ROFLAO is beyond me.
Blooming Idiot wanted some return on his money. How they massage the data acquired by the public release of Gun Confiscation scheme is above my pay grade. What data? The data on those persons and organizations they flushed into the open.
No effort to get guns out of the hands of criminals. The only thing they want is to take the guns away from those who might fight back against the islammunization of America.