Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) signed legislation Thursday that prohibits law-abiding Virginians from being armed for self-defense in an array of hospitals.
WTKR reported that the weapons ban “applies to hospitals that provide mental health, developmental and emergency medical services.”
The language of the ban classifies “a weapon as firearms, knives longer than 3.5 inches, explosives, tasers, pepper spray, brass knuckles, and box cutters,” WAVY noted.
Dr. Jessica Burgess testified in favor of the ban, citing times she has been attacked in a hospital with chairs and with people punching walls. She did not say whether a ban on firearms and knives will prevent people from throwing chairs or punching walls.
State Sen. Angelia Williams Graves (D), the co-sponsor of the ban, said, “It’s sending a message that you support health care workers, but also sending a message to those would-be offenders to take that someplace else. Actually, don’t take it anywhere. Just go home, you know? But definitely not in a hospital.”
Graves did not reference the Gun-Free School Zones Act (1990), which turned schools into gun-free zones in much the same way her ban will do to hospitals. The Columbine High School attack occurred nine years after the Gun Free School Zones Act was adopted, and Columbine was followed by decades of school attack after school attack.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at [email protected].
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