Richmond gun rally: Thousands of gun owners converge on Virginia capitol on MLK Day

"This is about losing one of the base freedoms that we have. Without it, all the others fall right behind it."

• By Bill Chappell/NPR

(Richmond) — The city of Richmond, Va., is under a state of emergency Monday morning as thousands of gun ownership enthusiasts and armed militia members gather at the Virginia State Capitol for a large rally aimed at quashing new gun laws. Gov. Ralph Northam has temporarily banned firearms from Capitol grounds, and some of Richmond’s streets are barricaded as officials try to ensure the demonstration takes place peacefully.

The Richmond gun rally is expected to draw a wide range of people, from staunch believers that the Second Amendment guarantees wide access to guns to religious leaders calling for peace.

“This is about losing one of the base freedoms that we have. Without it, all the others fall right behind it,” gun rights supporter Todd McManus of Shepherdstown, W.Va., told member station VPM’s Ben Paviour.

While guns were blocked from a rectangle-shaped vicinity of the Capitol, rally attendees walked with their firearms in plain sight on Richmond’s nearby streets.

Faith leaders are holding a prayer vigil for peace near the Capitol and invoking a spirit of fellowship on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

“We wanted to provide a counter-witness to potential strife, and certainly some of the conflicted relationship that’s going to be seen today,” Rev. Drew Willson tells VPM’s Roberto Roldan.

The pro-gun event, held on a holiday that honors a civil rights leader who himself became a victim of gun violence, has generated anxiety that it could draw white supremacists and violent extremists.

When Northam declared an emergency, he noted the possibility that some attendees might try to use the rally as an excuse to launch “insurrection” and violent attacks. A large counter-protest was called off, with several leaders saying the chance of violence was too high.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies made high-profile arrests of suspected members of neo-Nazi group The Base in three states last week, including one group that allegedly had built a functioning assault rifle. Law enforcement officials told NPR that some of those members had discussed attending the gun rally in Richmond.

The Richmond rally is part of Lobby Day, a push against gun control laws that the Virginia Citizens Defense League organizes annually. But this year’s event gained new importance after a wave of Democrats took control of the legislature — and promised to make gun control a priority. Lawmakers opened their legislative session on Jan. 8.

“Virginia Democrats are following through with an election-year pledge to pass new gun laws following a mass shooting in Virginia Beach last spring,” Whittney Evans of member station VPM reports from Richmond. “This has prompted a groundswell of grassroots activism from gun owners who say their constitutional rights are under attack.”

Speakers at the Lobby Day event include notable names such as Stephen Willeford — who is credited with stopping a mass shooting at a church in Texas — and Dick Heller, the defendant in the landmark Supreme Court case of District of Columbia v. Heller.

Northam and other law enforcement officials hope to avoid the deadly violence that flared up at another controversial rally in Virginia: the 2017 Unite the Right event in Charlottesville that left Heather Heyer dead and 19 others injured. Two state troopers also died when their helicopter crashed.

When Northam banned weapons from the Capitol area, he cited “credible intelligence” that tens of thousands of people were planning to converge on Richmond’s Capitol Square. Seeming to refer to The Base and other groups, Northam added, “a substantial number of these demonstrators are expected to come from outside the Commonwealth, may be armed, and have as their purpose not peaceful assembly but violence, rioting, and insurrection.”

The weapons ban is broad, including not only pistols and rifles but “sticks, torches, poles, bats, shields, helmets” along with pepper spray, laser pointers, drones, and “any item that can inflict bodily harm that is visible, other than firearms.”

Northam’s emergency order took effect at the start of the weekend and will remain in effect until Tuesday afternoon.Demonstrators stand outside a security zone before a pro-gun rally, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020, in Richmond, Va.