Citizen militia debate rejoined at Tuesday County Board meeting

During the second Public Comments portion of the meeting, the debate over the advisability of Warren County passing resolutions authorizing enactment of an armed citizen militia was revisited. The first four of six speakers divided evenly on the topic.

College student Sarah Downs and Paul Gabbert came down against, with Dusty Lipinski and Craig Anderson calling for County action authorizing what they feel is a citizen right inherent in both the U.S. and Virginia Constitutions.

Downs, a student of political ideology at Shenandoah University, first thanked Chairman Walter Mabe for his caution in approaching a previous request the board authorize a citizen militia in Warren County. She then expressed fear of what she called a historical tendency for such militias “to assimilate and acclimate to a certain political ideology that usually identifies with an extreme” philosophy, be it of the left or right politically.

Sarah Downs expressed fear of what she called a historical tendency for such militias “to assimilate and acclimate to a certain political ideology that usually identifies with an extreme” philosophy, be it of the left or right politically. Photos and video by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

She called for a trust in law enforcement “to do their job in protecting all rights within our county”, adding a call that “all gun holders are protected through the support of local law enforcement providing educational and training classes”, as well as “the enforcement of laws that protect all citizens, especially those most vulnerable to violence of any type, like children, women and those who fall into a minority group”.

Following Downs to the podium, Lipinski attempted to distance current militias from the “previous image” of extremism that Downs referenced. He said such local protections are needed because “the government in Richmond is going to pass laws anyway” that 2nd Amendment advocates see as unconstitutional infringements on their right to own firearms without legal restrictions of any kind.

Local enabling of citizen militias would offer citizens “further protections against any further unconstitutional laws” passed in Richmond Lipinski told the board.

Dusty Lipinski

Second Amendment advocates in Virginia have upped their alarm over what they believe are unconstitutional gun control bills on the table in the state general assembly since Democrats last year took their first majority in both houses since 1996. In fact, Tuesday was the final day of a five-day State of Emergency declared by Democratic Governor Ralph Northam in reaction to law enforcement intelligence and FBI arrests of seven members of a radical, racist, anti-government neo-Nazi group known as The Base last week.

At least some of those Base members arrested were believed to be planning to attend an annual gun rights rally on Monday, January 20, at the State Capitol in an effort to turn the demonstration into a violent, politically destabilizing one.

Next up was Gabbert, who told County officials, “I’m not looking to take guns away from people,” but adding, “We don’t need a militia – ever.”

He said he worried that militia members called to duty by local laws would be legally immune to prosecution if they killed someone during that deployment.

Gabbert also disputed a speaker from an earlier board meeting who called gun ownership “a God given right”.

“No, the only God given right is you obey the 10 Commandments and you get to heaven. The rest are government given rights,” Gabbert observed.

Paul Gabbert

Noting that he had lost a brother to a shot from a .22 caliber gun, Gabbert also questioned a previous meeting 2nd Amendment advocate’s contention that modern, semi-automatic assault weapons were “no different than a .22”

Final guns debate speaker Anderson said he had been at the Richmond gun rally the previous day and assured the Warren supervisors that the armed demonstrators who did show up across the street from the State Capitol grounds were “loved” by the on-duty police, one of with whom Anderson said he joked, “When are we going to tar and feather that …” – a possible reference to Democratic Governor Northam.

“What better way to honor Martin Luther King,” Anderson asked, than to have a pro-gun rights rally on his birthday. His point seeming to be that King wasn’t allowed to possess a gun or have a conceal-carry permit during his lifetime, and if he had one, perhaps he wouldn’t have been killed at long range by James Earl Ray utilizing a sniper’s rifle.

Anderson predicted that Democratic leadership and their soft stance on illegal aliens would mark an end to Constitutional law and freely elected presidents within the U.S. He also broached the possibility that the Shenandoah Valley and other parts of the state might be able to leave a Democratically-controlled Virginia to become part of West Virginia in order to avoid what he called “intolerable restrictions on the 2nd Amendment – I won’t mention all the other Amendments that are going to be violated … and this isn’t all just some pipe dream,” he told the Warren supervisors.

Craig Anderson

Anderson also expressed disappointment in a recent conversation with Warren County Sheriff Mark Butler, whom Anderson said, told him law enforcement was the American militia in the modern world.

Of the potential of red flag laws being passed by the state legislature and enforced locally, Anderson added, “Those red flag laws should terrorize everybody – you can be prosecuted if anybody doesn’t like you; your weapons are seized and you have to prove you are innocent.”

And so the debate rages over conflicting political and philosophical perceptions of gun rights versus the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were you to be on the wrong side of the next mass shooting in Virginia or the nation.

See the above speakers’ full remarks, as well as additional public comments speakers Greg Harold and Harold Baggarly, between whom there was some confusion when Chairman Mabe called Harold’s name to speak, in the linked Royal Examiner video:

To avoid confusion, above Greg Harold; below Harold Baggarly

Commentary: Can’t we do better than this? – State of Emergency as armed protesters head for Richmond