Reply to Should Chap Peterson be worried?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A Salim volunteer knocked on our door a few weeks ago to talk about his stance on guns. Chap himself came through the week after. We've always been in Chap's district, so it's nice to see he's not taking his old territory for granted.[/quote]

Agreed. Chap has committed to doing something about gun violence in his debates and on his youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfZHi8_39Sg[/quote]

This is interesting.  He says that he voted in the past for an assault weapon ban in VA, and would do so again.  This seems at least somewhat at odds with what I've heard about him elsewhere.  Would be interested to know what actually happened on that issue.[/quote]

In 2020 when they actually had a chance to ban assault weapons, he killed that effort and went on Fox News complaining about an assault weapons ban is terrible. This year, when there was no chance of passing an assault weapons ban and he was being primaried, he voted for a more limited measure that would ban *some* assault weapons. There was no chance of passing anything this year with a GOP controlled House and Governor. It was an act of political theatre so he could say he voted for an assault weapons ban, when the truth is Chap Petersen is the reason they're not banned.[/quote]

Here is a pretty detailed article from the Post detailing what happened and why:  [url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/why-northams-assault-weapons-bill-never-really-had-a-chance-in-the-virginia-senate/2020/02/23/64e02b6c-5334-11ea-929a-64efa7482a77_story.htm[/url]l.  Chap definitely voted against the assault weapons ban, but he wasn't the only Democratic Senator to do so.  Joining him were progressive champion Scott Surovell, as well as a number of rural Democrats:

On the eve of the legislature’s Jan. 8 opening day, Petersen and Democratic Sens. R. Creigh Deeds (Bath), John S. Edwards (Roanoke) and Lynwood W. Lewis Jr. (Accomack) told their caucus they would not support the assault weapons bill.

[quote]Deeds and Edwards said the legislation’s definition of “assault firearm” was imprecise. Lewis — who was not on the committee that ultimately killed the bill — said a ban on future sales would be ineffective given the “tens of thousands” already in private hands in Virginia.

“The sanctuary nonsense kind of got people spooked,” said Sen. Mamie E. Locke (D-Hampton), who supported the measure.

Northam had asked Sen. Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria) to introduce his proposed ban in the Senate. It never materialized.

“I did spend a lot of time working on that,” Ebbin said. “However, I can also count votes and . . . I decided to focus on a few things that I thought might have a better chance.”

Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) had submitted his own version in November but struck it a few days into session. That left the Senate with no assault weapons bill to consider — until the House version, proposed by Del. Mark H. Levine (D-Alexandria), squeaked out of that chamber hours ahead of the Feb. 11 “crossover” deadline.

This is what a blue state looks like: Rapid change roils Virginia Republicans.

The Senate Judiciary Committee docketed the bill right away, even before Northam’s seven other gun-control bills, which cleared the House nearly two weeks earlier and will be heard Monday. Northam, Public Safety Secretary Brian Moran and House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) spent the days ahead of last week’s meeting asking for more time to address objections.

“This was no surprise to anyone that we were going full steam ahead on these eight bills,” Moran said.

Last week, four of the nine Democrats on the Senate committee — Petersen, Deeds, Edwards and Scott A. Surovell (Fairfax) — sided with Republicans to reject the assault weapons bill for the year, sending it to the state’s Crime Commission for study. The vote was 10 to 5.

The only real surprise was Surovell, who wrote on his blog afterward that he does not support civilian ownership of assault weapons as someone who “lived through the 2002 D.C. sniper attacks while crouching in my car getting gas to avoid being shot.”

But Surovell, like the others, had issues with how the bill defined the weapons. He was concerned by a provision forcing owners to give up large-capacity magazines. Without a buyback program, which the bill lacked, the mandate could constitute an unconstitutional “taking” of property, he said.

Surovell said he believes those problems can eventually be worked out but said doing so would take more time than legislators can spare amid this year’s legislative avalanche.

“In a part-time legislature, there’s only so much oxygen in the room,” he said. “I was just voting to continue the discussion.”[/quote][/quote]

This isn't a fair comparison at all. Deeds, Edwards, and Lewis represent more red districts than Chap. There is no excuse for voting against an assault weapons ban when you represent Fairfax and 70% of the voters are Democrats. There's no excuse for Scott to vote against it either, but I don't live in his district so I don't have the opportunity to vote against him (and he didn't get any formidable opponent, sadly)[/quote]

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