Va. urges justices to uphold weapons ban at gun rally

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia urged the state Supreme Court on Friday to uphold a weapons ban at an upcoming gun rally in the capital, arguing it was necessary to prevent a repeat of deadly violence that erupted at a white nationalist rally more than two years ago.

State Attorney General Mark Herring’s petition — and simultaneous legal efforts by gun-rights groups to lift the ban — came amid the arrest of six men whom authorities linked to a white supremacist group known as The Base. At least three of them were planning to attend the pro-gun rally on Monday in Richmond, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an active investigation.

Virginia has become ground zero in the nation’s raging debate over gun control, as a new Democratic majority in the state legislature has promised to pass an array of restrictions, including universal background checks and a red-flag law.

In his legal brief to the Supreme Court, Herring called Gov. Ralph Northam’s executive order banning guns from the Capitol grounds “a carefully limited Executive Order” that “does not prevent anyone from speaking, assembling, or petitioning the government.”

“Instead, it temporarily precludes private possession of firearms in a sensitive public place during a specified time to protect public safety,“the brief says.

Herring argued Northam’s order would help prevent the kind of violence that erupted at a 2017 white nationalist rally in the city of Charlottesville. One woman was killed and more than 30 others were hurt when a white supremacist drove his car into a crowd. No one was wounded by gunfire at the rally.

A circuit court judge on Thursday upheld Northam’s ban after gun-rights groups filed a lawsuit against it, arguing that it would violate their Second Amendment right to bear arms and their First Amendment freedom of speech.

Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League — the group sponsoring the rally — called Richmond Circuit Court Judge Joi Taylor’s ruling “mind-boggling.“

The Defense League and the organization Gun Owners of America immediately filed an appeal of the ruling to the Supreme Court. It was not clear when the high court would rule. Northam’s ban went into effect at 5 p.m. Friday and was scheduled to remain in effect through Tuesday afternoon.

President Donald Trump jumped into the fray on Friday, tweeting that the Second 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,” Trump tweeted.

In imposing the ban Wednesday, the governor said law enforcement officials had found credible threats that the rally on Monday — Martin Luther King Jr. Day — could include “armed militia groups storming our Capitol.“

Virginia’s solicitor general, Toby Heytens, told Judge Taylor on Thursday that law enforcement had identified “credible evidence“that armed outof-state groups planned to come to Virginia with the possible intention of participating in a “violent insurrection.”

The FBI has said the six men arrested — in Delaware, Georgia and Maryland — were linked to The Base, a collective of hardcore neo-Nazis that operates as a paramilitary organization. The Base has proclaimed war against minority communities within the United States and abroad, the FBI has said. Unlike other extremist groups, it’s not focused on promulgating propaganda; instead the group aims to bring together highly skilled members to train them for acts of violence.

One of the arrested men had discussed traveling to Ukraine to fight alongside “nationalists” and compared the white supremacist group to al-Qaida, a prosecutor said in court Thursday.