Virginia Democrats blocked a pay raise for sheriff departments across the commonwealth over the law enforcement officers' staunch opposition to gun control, a state lawmaker has claimed.

During passage of the Virginia budget last week, state Sen. Bill Stanley (R) introduced an amendment to give each Virginia sheriff's department a 3% pay raise. Unfortunately, every Democrat rejected his proposal.

According to Stanley, state Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw (D) admitted that his party rejected the pay raise because law enforcement across Virginia so openly opposed Virginia Democrats' aggressive gun control agenda, the majority of which even went to far as to declare their jurisdictions "sanctuary counties."

"Hey Stanley, you want to know why your sheriffs didn't get a raise? — because they came to our committees and said that they weren't going to enforce our laws," Stanley claimed he was told.

In a Facebook post, Stanley condemned Democrats' actions, saying that "hypocrisy has a name."

Tonight (just now) on the Senate floor, I tried to amend the state budget to give all of our men and women of Virginia's Sheriffs' Departments a 3% raise for this year. It was defeated, with all democrats voting "no." When I went to get a vote count from the clerk, Majority Leader Dick Saslaw came up and said this to me: "Hey Stanley, you want to know why your sheriffs didn't get a raise? —because they came to our committees and said that they weren't going to enforce our laws." When I asked him which law was he talking about, he said "gun control".



I was shocked that the Democrats are now punishing our local Sheriff's Departments (by eliminating a pay raise for them), for the their choice to protect and defend our citizens' Second Amendment rights. Democrats want to restrict a citizen's right to protect themselves, but won't pay our sheriffs' deputies to protect Virginians. Hypocrisy has a name.

In response, Saslaw admitted that Stanley is telling the truth about their exchange.

"He didn't lie ... I said it," Saslaw told WTVR-TV. "All I said was a lot of people are upset that these people come in and say they're not going to enforce our laws. That's all."

Ultimately, the state Senate approved only a one-time bonus of $200 for Virginia sheriff department employees, WTOP-TV reported. The state House, however, has approved a pay raise.