Virginia is in the middle of a popular revolt on the issue of gun control. In the last election, Virginia ended up with a Democrat controlled General Assembly as well as a Democrat governor. The underlying reason is that the growth of the federal government have created a situation in Virginia, like that in Maryland, where the DC suburban counties have the population density to effectively dominate state politics. This, when combined with a state GOP organization that has enough deadwood to rival and Australian wildfire, has created a perfect storm of stupid, self-defeating, and irresponsible actions that have turned the state from reliably Red to Blue in just over a decade.

Virginia Sanctuary Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey A. Kincaid Did Not Have An Opposing GOP Candidate https://t.co/sacwXZIksb #NewsandPolitics via @pjmedia_com — mathewsjw (@mathewsjw) November 7, 2019

Shortly after taking power, Virginia Democrats passed a bill that would require owners of modern sporting rifles to either give them up or risk becoming felons. From areas outside Fairfax and Arlington and other leftwing strongholds the reaction was swift. The Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins said he would create a new class of deputy sheriffs that would be open anyone with a modern sporting rifle. Since then the gun grab has been nearly universal, 91 out of 95 counties, 13 out of 38 independent cities, and 24 towns have adopted Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions which would effectively bar local law enforcement from enforcing the gun grab.

One would think that conservatives would be cheering on citizens pushing back on progressive overreach to defend their rights. But then one would not be on the staff of the Washington Examiner:

I’m pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment, and completely opposed to Virginia Democrats’ gun control agenda. But the “Second Amendment sanctuaries” cropping up around rural Virginia in response to pending anti-gun legislation in the state Senate are an affront to the rule of law and threaten the viability of our entire electoral system.

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The right way to fight anti-gun laws is in the courts. If they really do violate the Second Amendment — and I sure think they do — then the courts will eventually rule as much, even if the issue must go all the way to the conservative-majority Supreme Court. I sincerely doubt most of this anti-gun agenda would survive legal scrutiny if properly challenged by Second Amendment supporters in the judicial system. If, however, these laws somehow are upheld by judges even after appeal, then local government officials have no right to defy them. Refusal to abide by laws properly passed through our electoral system and then upheld by the judiciary … well, that’s just anarchy. It’s an affront to the rule of law and would turn our system upside down.

Really. Can you think of anything more icky and less likely to get you a contributor gig on CNN or MSNBC than being in favor of popular resistance to unjust laws. I can’t.

One of the staples of conservative media who are more interested in plaudits from Jake Tapper and the like as ‘reasonable conservatives’ than in actual conservatism it the ‘Conservative Case for [your favorite progressive topic].’ You can plug just about anything in there, abortion, homosexual marriage, ObamaCare, single payer, and find an alleged conservative writer who has taken up the cause. But now we’re entering strange new territory where protesting an infringement of one’s constitutional rights does not pass muster with those who decide what is conservatism.

When you read this you sort of hope that is just trolling and attention-getting, but you know it isn’t. Demanding that conservatives meekly fall in line and do what they are told is what these people are about because you falling in line is essential if they are to have any influence with the people whose approval they crave. They are the people who tried to sell us John McCain and Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush as presidential candidates.

If we follow the logic of this article, then the folks who participated in the lunch-counter sit-ins in 1960 were wrong and an “affront to the rule of law” because they did not wait for some rando judge to give them leave to execute their constitutional rights. Rosa Parks? She’s still in the back of the bus. Those cities, counties, and states who have been stomping on the abortion business by enacting zoning restrictions and other regulations? Welp, they are just way the f*** out of line because no judge okayed it. As an aside, just as President Eisenhower encourage the lunch-counter protesters, President Trump is weighing in on Ralph “Black-Face” Northam’s gun grab:

Your 2nd Amendment is under very serious attack in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia. That’s what happens when you vote for Democrats, they will take your guns away. Republicans will win Virginia in 2020. Thank you Dems! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 17, 2020

The entire premise of this article is sheer nonsense and sown with a profound ignorance of American history and of the American persona. Our rights are not granted to us by legislatures and judges so they do not require assent from either in order to be exercised. Our Founding Fathers had rather strong beliefs on this subject:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The fact that most of Virginia has now elected to ignore the law should be something that conservatives would cheer. The fact that elected officials across the state are making a public and principled stand against a grotesque overreach by the Democrat-run government is not a cause for concern but a cause for celebration.

There is no anarchy here. There is no more affront to the rule of law than there is in Fairfax and Arlington counties where Democrat prosecutors have declared they will not enforce marijuana laws (do a quick check of the dumpster fire of bad takes that is this guy’s archive for his principled objection to that…I’ll wait). This is how a free people conduct themselves. If you can’t handle that, maybe you should just take off the mask and stop pretending to be a conservative of any kind.