Charlottesville Mayor asks Virginia for permission to suspend local gun rights
Although not a single shot was fired during last week’s protests in Charlottesville, Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer asked the Virginia Legislature on Friday for permission to suspend his constituent’s Second Amendment rights.
Signer, a Democrat, issued a verbose, six-page manifesto, outlining his plans for the progressive Southern college town, and requested Virginia’s Governor call an “emergency session” of the state legislature to change the state’s gun laws, granting local authorities such as himself permission to suspend citizen’s gun rights whenever they are “reasonably deemed to pose a potential security threat.”
The Mayor’s statement was published in its entirety by CBS affiliate, WTVR.com and may be read here.
The Mayor said, “In a new age of domestic terrorism, we need to re-examine the balance that we strike between public safety and violent protests,”, adding, “While I am friends with many gun-owners and am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, that right, like all constitutional rights, comes with limits.”
No gun violence was reported at Charlottesville protest
No gun violence occurred during the recent Charlottesville protests, and Mayor Signer’s statement did not explain why, in the absence of such gun violence, he believes a suspension of his constituent’s second amendment rights is warranted, other than his statement’s generalized concerns about ‘domestic terrorism’.
Signer sought to blame President for the violence
Immediately following the violence in Charlottesville, Mayor Signer sought to deflect blame or responsibility for the chaos. Signer accused President Trump for the violence, even accusing the president of encouraging white nationalists.
In an interview on CNN on Sunday, Signer played the blame game, pointing a finger at the President, saying, “Look at the campaign he ran… Look at the intentional courting, on one hand, of all these white supremacists, white nationalists … and look on the other hand at the repeated failure to step up, condemn, denounce, silence, put to bed all of these different efforts, just like we saw yesterday. This isn’t hard.”
White House strongly rejects attempts to blame the President, denounces all hate groups
On Sunday, a White House spokesperson soundly rejected Signer’s attempts to lay the blame for the violence on the President. The spokesperson told reporters that Mr. Trump condemns violence on all sides, specifically singling out the white supremacist organizations involved in the incident, stating “The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.”
Mayor Signer: Sanctuary city efforts, allegations of totalitarianism, and membership in Bloomberg’s anti-gun organization
Signer is no stranger to constitutionally-questionable activities. In January, Mayor Signer made news when he instructed the Charlottesville City Manager, Maurice Jones, to advise the City Council on becoming a “Sanctuary City”, to permit illegal immigrants to shelter in the city in violation of federal immigration laws.
Signer has also come under criticism for what some describe as his “totalitarian” and “unconstitutional” management of the Charlottesville City Council meetings. In June, Signer was criticized for ordering officers to physically remove John Heyden from a public city council meeting after Heyden had asked the council to explain its diversion of more than $250,000 in city taxpayer funds to “Virginia Organizing”, an adjunct group of then-President Barack Obama’s “Organizing for America” democratic fund. When Heyden asked the council why it had not permitted public comment on the issue before diverting the funds, Mayor Signer ordered a police officer to Heyden removed from the public meeting.
In June, Signer joined Bloomberg’s anti-second amendment organization
Despite his claims of being a “strong supporter of the Second Amendment”, in June, Signer joined New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s organization, “Mayors Against Illegal Guns“, an anti-second amendment organization that the NRA describes as “gun-grabbing crooks at city hall”.
The group has been plagued by scandals and corruption, including multiple criminal counts filed against a number of its “mayor-members” for bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud, honest services mail and wire fraud, travel act bribery, material false statements, money laundering, embezzlement, grand theft, and conspiracy.
In the wake of the recent events in Charlottesville, Mayor Signer now seeks authority from the Virginia state legislature to deny his constituents their constitutional rights under the second amendment whenever local authorities such as himself decide such rights are “reasonably deemed to pose a potential security threat”.
