Liberal Virginia Governor Vetoes Bill Allowing Abused Women the Right to Protect Themselves

-By Warner Todd Huston

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (D, Clintoista) just vetoed a bill that would have allowed victims of domestic violence and abuse carry a concealed firearm without first going through the normal, time consuming permit process, especially if they have already filed for a protective order. And you thought Democrats for women’s safety, didn’t you?

McAuliffe, a long time Clinton operative, vetoed House Bill 1852 which would have authorized Virginians over the age of 21 and who are not otherwise prohibited to carry a firearm, to carry a concealed firearm for 45 days after an order of protection is filed against a purported abuser. The bill would have covered the waiting period that Virginians generally experience after applying for a concealed carry permit. Meaning that the bill would have allowed a vulnerable person (usually an abused woman) to get her right to carry a concealed handgun right away instead of having to remain unarmed for well over a month leaving her vulnerable to her abuser during that period.

The bill was passed with lopsided margins in both houses of the Virginia legislature. It passed 63-31 in the state’s House of Delegates and 26-14 in the Senate.

But the great support the bill saw in his state notwithstanding, McAuliffe opposes the bill. In his veto statement McAuliffe claimed that the bill would bypass the training and background checks required for the state to issue concealed carry permits in the normal way. The Gov. also said it would make domestic violence situations worse.

This bill would eliminate the application and training requirements associated with concealed handgun permits and allow petitioners to carry a concealed weapon immediately upon the issuance of any protective order. It is identical to House Bill 766/Senate Bill 626 (2016), which I vetoed.

The bill perpetuates the dangerous fiction that the victims of domestic violence will be safer by arming themselves. It would inject firearms into a volatile domestic violence situation, making that situation less safe, not more.

In 2014, there were 112 family and intimate-partner related homicides in Virginia. Sixty-six of those deaths were with a firearm. I will not allow this bill to become law when too many Virginia women have already fallen victim to firearms violence at the hands of their intimate partner.

For the most part, this statement was empty of logic.

McAuliffe claimed that it would make domestic violence situations “less safe, not more.” He goes on to say, “too many Virginia women have already fallen victim to firearms violence at the hands of their intimate partner.”

This turns reality on its head and treats women… women who have been abused by men, women whose lives are in danger, mind you… as the dangerous perpetrator! This privileged liberal is saying that women who have been abused are prone to acting like crazed gunslingers who would take after their abusers with murderous intent!

In truth, all these women want is to be able to protect themselves because, as we all know, you absolutely cannot trust police to protect you in these type of situations. Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that police have no Constitutional duty to protect us. They are only there to investigate crimes that have already happened.

But Clinton bag man McAulliffe went out of his way to deny these vulnerable women their right to protect themselves, a right that is enshrined in our Constitution, by the way.

Unsurprisingly, gun rights advocates excoriated McAuliffe for his decision, according to the Free Beacon.

“Governor McAuliffe claims we don’t need to introduce a gun into a ‘volatile situation,’ where there is a protective order in place,” Philip Van Cleave, the Virginia Citizens Defense League’s president, told the Beacon on Tuesday. “He’s completely wrong. That situation is exactly where we DO want to introduce a firearm. Knowledge that the victim is armed is a great incentive for the aggressor to stay away.”

Van Cleave noted that the first few days after an order of protection is approved against an accused abuser are crucial for the victims.

“Protective orders really enrage the aggressor and the vetoed bill would have allowed the victim to be fully armed, yet in a discreet manner, even during those initial 48 hours,” Van Cleave added. “Sadly, the governor’s veto will likely cost innocent lives.”

The bill isn’t necessarily dead. It takes a two-thirds majority in both houses to override a veto, so it is possible the bill might go into law despite this Clintonista’s obstruction.

The National Rifle Association also commented on the governor’s move noting that his interest was all about politics and had nothing to do with public safety. After all, McAuliffe is a long time anti-gun zealot.

“Victims of domestic abuse should be free to protect themselves with more than a piece of paper,” NRA spokesperson Catherine Mortensen, said. “This bill would allow a victim of abuse who already has a protective order to immediately protect herself with a concealed firearm. Governor McAuliffe is siding with the gun control lobby that funds his campaign over victims of abuse who want more than a piece of paper to protect themselves.”

The Virginia Gov — who was born in New York and spent most of his adult life in Washington D.C. — has accumulated a history of vetoing nearly every gun bill that comes before him. Last year, for instance, he vetoed two gun bills at once, one of which would even prevent police officers from storing guns in their own vehicles. It took some major political wrangling to finally get McAuliffe to sign some of those bills last year.

Further establishing his anti-gun bonafides, McAuliffe was the happy recipient of tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions by anti-gun former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

But that isn’t McAuliffe’s only far left resume. He was also a longtime Clinton operative having been a major fundraiser for Bill and Hillary as well as the Chairman of the Democrat National Committee from 2001 to 2005. He was also co-chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign for president before he ran for Virginia governor.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing news, opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that wrote articles on U.S. history for several American history magazines. Huston is a featured writer for Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart News, and he appears on such sites as Constitution.com, CanadaFreePress.com, BizPac Review, and many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.

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