Crosstalk: February 12, 2020

Alan Gottlieb is the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, an organization that is dedicated to promoting a better understanding about our constitutional heritage to privately own and possess firearms.  He’s the author of numerous books including, ‘Dancing in Blood: Exposing the Gun Lobby to Destroy Your Rights,’ ‘Politically Correct Guns,’ ‘The Gun Rights Fact Book,’ and numerous others.

Discussion began with gun rights in the state of Virginia.  Alan believes the reason lawmakers there appear to be turning a deaf ear to the people is because they’ve, ‘…sort of been bought and payed for.’  He cited former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who spent several million to get such people elected in Virginia and now the makeup of the legislature has them trying to rush through as many anti-gun bills as possible.  This runs the gamut from banning modern sporting rifles to banning magazines that hold over 12 rounds, limiting sales to one gun per month or letting local cities/counties ban guns on public property.

This is causing some ‘push-back.’  Many counties and cities have become Second Amendment sanctuary areas as a protest against such laws.  It’s now over 150 jurisdictions in Virginia alone. And the movement is spreading. In fact, the majority of counties in Illinois are sanctuary counties as well.

Is having cities and counties declare themselves sanctuary areas really an effective way to deal with this issue?  Alan isn’t sure at this point. While a county sheriff or city police chief must enforce their county ordinances and city laws, they are not prohibited from not enforcing a state law although he admitted that when it comes to guns, Virginia seems to treat things differently.

As this broadcast continued, Jim had Alan discuss ‘red flag’ laws and their effectiveness, those diagnosed with PTSD and firearm ownership, Joe Biden and John Kerry on gun control, the lawsuit against the Illinois State Police by the Second Amendment Foundation, legal cases concerning so-called ‘assault rifles,’ and much more.