DAVE ROSS

Ross: Virginia rally shows we all agree on gun control

Jan 22, 2020, 8:40 AM | Updated: 11:38 am

rally...

Thousands of gun rights advocates attend a rally organized by The Virginia Citizens Defense League on Capitol Square near the state capital building January 20, 2020 in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Considering the predictions that Monday’s gun rights rally in Richmond, Virginia would turn violent, I think we should take a minute to acknowledge that it didn’t.

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Thousands of people gathered at the state capitol — about 6,000 chose to disarm and enter the gun-free zone closer to the building — but thousands more remained armed. They also remained peaceful.

After the rally, some of the armed demonstrators even hung around to gather up the trash.

I wasn’t there, so I can’t say whether it remained peaceful in spite of the guns or because of the guns. But maybe it had nothing to do with the guns. Maybe it had to do with the type of people who were carrying them.

These were apparently non-violent people. When you have a crowd of non-violent people, you can give them hand guns, you can give them semi-automatic sport rifles, you can give them fully-automatic machine guns, you can give them the nuclear codes, and there would be no trouble.

As one of the protest signs said, “Making good people helpless won’t make bad people harmless.”

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Exactly. It’s not about the guns, it’s about who has them.

So, why is this issue even controversial? Why wouldn’t non-violent people be doing everything they can to make sure violent people don’t get guns? Then there’s no need to demonstrate and nothing to clean up afterwards.

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Ross: Virginia rally shows we all agree on gun control