This is the first I’ve heard about HB1627. It’s difficult to keep all of these straight. HB1627 doesn’t even appear on VCDL’s bill tracker. (If the tracker is exclusively 2A-focused, that might be a good reason for VCDL to exclude it. On the other hand, odds of an enacted HB1627 being used against law-abiding 2A supporters seem fairly high.)
In Virginia, threats and harassment are already crimes under existing law, of course. Existing law (§ 18.2-60.1.) treats threats against “the Governor or his immediate family” differently and more seriously. But my understanding is that under existing law, those criminal charges would be brought, and a jury seated, in the jurisdiction where the alleged supposed was made.
If HB1627 were to become law, supposed threats against “the Governor, Governor-elect, Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant Governor-elect, Attorney General, or Attorney General-elect, a member or employee of the General Assembly, a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, or a judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia” could also be prosecuted in “the City of Richmond.”
I am unaware of any significant number of credible threats made against those state employees. And Monday’s rally was peaceful. So there does not seem to be a problem that needs to be solved.
So why has a Democrat proposed this new law? It is to prosecute Internet comments and other speech viewed as lawful (where made) in a city with Democrat-dominated juries. It is intended to put those noisome right-wingers in their place. They are second-class citizens. They do not deserve the right to a jury of their peers. They deserve only a jury of Democrats.
Filed 16 January 2020 and currently in committee.
Anything written, said, or even hinted at that’s even slightly dissenting from their agenda will be taken by the typical Democrats as a threat.
This is nothing short of operational Totalitarianism.
If anyone at the rally knew about HB1627, they didn’t say anything at all.
This is the first I’ve heard about HB1627. It’s difficult to keep all of these straight. HB1627 doesn’t even appear on VCDL’s bill tracker. (If the tracker is exclusively 2A-focused, that might be a good reason for VCDL to exclude it. On the other hand, odds of an enacted HB1627 being used against law-abiding 2A supporters seem fairly high.)
In Virginia, threats and harassment are already crimes under existing law, of course. Existing law (§ 18.2-60.1.) treats threats against “the Governor or his immediate family” differently and more seriously. But my understanding is that under existing law, those criminal charges would be brought, and a jury seated, in the jurisdiction where the alleged supposed was made.
If HB1627 were to become law, supposed threats against “the Governor, Governor-elect, Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant Governor-elect, Attorney General, or Attorney General-elect, a member or employee of the General Assembly, a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, or a judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia” could also be prosecuted in “the City of Richmond.”
I am unaware of any significant number of credible threats made against those state employees. And Monday’s rally was peaceful. So there does not seem to be a problem that needs to be solved.
So why has a Democrat proposed this new law? It is to prosecute Internet comments and other speech viewed as lawful (where made) in a city with Democrat-dominated juries. It is intended to put those noisome right-wingers in their place. They are second-class citizens. They do not deserve the right to a jury of their peers. They deserve only a jury of Democrats.
Here’s the Democrat politician who is the author of the bill: https://virginiageneralassembly.gov/house/members/members.php?district_address=&district_phone=&district_fax&id=H0288
Here’s what he thinks of the Second Amendment (hint: doesn’t like it very much, wants a “ban on assault weapons,” etc.): https://twitter.com/JeffMBourne/status/1146529411832909824