The five Democrats on the House Firearms Subcommittee apparently don’t think so, or else they scuttled Poindexter’s common-sense bill simply because it was proposed by a Republican. A bad decision either way.

Meanwhile, the General Assembly gave final passage to a red flag bill (SB 240), patroned by Sen. George Barker, D-Alexandria, and endorsed by Gov. Ralph Northam that would allow law enforcement to confiscate firearms from people who are deemed a potential threat to themselves or others, even if up to that point, they haven’t done anything criminal or violent.

But the same legislature killed a bill that would have given convicted criminals more mandatory jail time after they’ve already proven to be a real threat by using a gun to commit a serious crime. If this doesn’t make any sense to you, welcome to the club.

Virginia has become the epicenter of a national debate between gun control advocates and Second Amendment sanctuary proponents, with neither side willing to come to a mutually acceptable compromise.

But when Democrats in Richmond vote to preemptively take a gun from a person who hasn’t broken the law, but not to increase the penalty for someone who actually used a gun to commit a crime, they send the message that their real focus is scoring points with their political base, not reducing actual gun violence in the commonwealth.