skeeter wrote:
"I think we've finally arrived at the point we need to take a stand or just accept what the left has planned for us."
You've summed up the situation that is about to come to a head in Virginia in one succinct sentence.
How far are the leftist democrat-communists willing to go there?
We KNOW what their goals are. And we KNOW how communists have behaved elsewhere.
Given that, how far are traditional, freedom-loving citizens willing to go in order to STOP them?
Will the democrat-communists of Virginia be stopped by [only] peaceful protests?
I'm not a betting man (I've never bought a single lottery ticket for myself in 70 years), but if I was, I WOULD NOT bet on that.
Just sayin'...
In their stated intent to continue with measures peremptorily decried on a very wide basis within the state, I'd bet nothing anyone says will make a difference.
Those Democrat legislators who might waver from the totalitarian agenda will be denied any funds for reelection they themselves do not raise and will be met with strongly backed primary challenges, same as the threat made in the US House by Dems to those who mulled not voting to impeach Trump.
While a scant few may entertain the thought of standing fast with their constituents, most will see it as a losing game, at least for the current term, and perhaps as losing in the future anyway. For politicians to do the right thing in the face of such is rare.
Right now, yes, the idea of standing up for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is essential to America and Virginia as well.
With the intent of ANTIFA to be present (something I would never trust), and the possible insertion of paid "crisis actors", the situation as it stands is ripe for exploitation by a few paid agitators and miscreants who would create an incident with others or worse yet pull off some sort of false flag operation to guarantee those who come to rally for their Rights are painted with the worst brush possible.
Those whose policies are the subject of this rally will see this as an opportunity, correctly handled, to further their agenda, not as cause to back down.
Are there people among the anti-gunners who would commit some atrocity in this rally?
Let's look at the "Water Protectors" protesting the completion of a pipeline, a pipeline which has only experienced leaks because someone intentionally damaged it (yep, an environmental protest group). During that protest, three separate pipeline valve enclosures were broken into and valves on active pipelines tampered with in an apparent attempt to cause a disaster so those protesting the completion of the pipeline would have justification for their own destructive and environmentally damaging actions.
They are all Leftists, and their Modus operandi are cut from the same cloth. If there isn't the problem they say there is, they will create it in order to be justified in whatever their goals are. We have seen this time and again. For the most part, that revolves around doing one thing (like attacking police with molotov cocktails) and claiming victimhood in press releases (it was cold and they sprayed us with fire hoses). It will take a lot of video to deny the Left that.
It will only take one violent incident, and this will be trotted out as damning justification for whatever the Governor wants.
That means attendees ALL have to avoid such, and even then, that might not be enough. For all we know, there might be a group willing to have an incident among themselves, some posing as rallygoers who are not of the Left.
Is that reason to not attend?
No.
Just reason to be acutely aware of anything that might be able to be painted in a bad light, any provocation, and for everyone to dampen their aggravation and mind their 'parlor manners' to deny the enemy those optics. I hope there will be a lot of body cams present, people streaming video, hopefully to off site locations. Stay with the group, people you know, and may Almighty God send His Angels to watch over and guide all those on the side of Right.
