It’s often said that bad ideas start in California and make their way east. But these days, Virginia looks eager to take that crown.
The two U.S. senators from the Old Dominion aren’t just embracing gun control from Richmond — they’re trying to export it nationwide. Democrat Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner have rolled out the so-called “Virginia Plan,” a package that would take 13 of the most extreme gun restrictions in Virginia law and impose them on the entire country.
In pushing this agenda, Kaine points to the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre as justification. But the facts tell a different story. A comprehensive analysis of mass shootings for more than 75 years demonstrates that 93% of mass public shootings occur in so-called Gun-Free Zones. That suggests the problem is not too many guns, but too many places where only the attacker is armed and victims are left defenseless.
Nevertheless, Kaine and Warner want to expand those very zones — prohibiting firearms within 1,000 feet of most hospitals and mental health facilities. But does anyone seriously believe a sign will stop a criminal intent on murder? These attackers ignore such restrictions all the time. And given that most of them choose these disarmament zones, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that these policies don’t deter attacks — they invite them.
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Take a hospital in Darby, Penn. A deranged individual entered, intent on killing as many people as possible in 2014. By the logic of gun control advocates, that attack should never have happened. The shooter was prohibited from owning firearms — he couldn’t pass a background check. Yet he still obtained several guns illegally.
And the hospital was exactly what gun control proponents claim to want: a place where no one but law enforcement is allowed to carry. But, in practice, those restrictions did nothing to stop him. And as the saying goes, when seconds count, police are minutes away.
The gunman walked right past a “no guns allowed” sign and opened fire. What he didn’t expect was resistance. His intended target, Dr. Lee Silverman, was a lawful permit holder who carried despite the hospital’s policy. When the shooting began, Silverman took cover and returned fire, striking the attacker multiple times and stopping the rampage. Tragically, one life was lost — but authorities credited him with preventing a much larger massacre.
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That’s not theory — that’s reality. And yet Virginia’s leaders are moving in the opposite direction. Among the 13 provisions in the Virginia Plan, the most egregious may be its ban on commonly owned firearms — a restriction that Virginia itself is now preparing to enforce.
The term “assault weapon” is one of the most misleading labels in this debate. But any item used to kill could be labeled an “assault weapon.” FBI data from the past five years shows knives are used in about 1,500 homicides annually — over three times more than all rifles combined. AR-15s are only a small subset of long guns. So why is policy fixated on one category that represents a tiny fraction of violent crime?
These bans don’t just miss the mark — they come at a real cost. The firearms being targeted are among the most popular in the country for lawful purposes, including self-defense. Stripping law-abiding citizens of access to effective defensive tools doesn’t disarm criminals — it only tilts the balance against those who follow the law. If the goal is public safety, we should focus on violent offenders, not restrict responsible citizens.
That’s something President Donald Trump has done well. Our country is enjoying unprecedented safety — and it didn’t come from new gun restrictions. It came from a shift in priorities. In the first month of his second administration, Trump implemented measures aimed at deporting violent gang members, ending catch-and-release policies for illegal aliens and getting repeat offenders off the streets. That’s what real public safety looks like.
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The results speak for themselves. We saw the largest single-year drop in murders ever recorded — without a single new federal gun control law. While some politicians insist more gun restrictions are the answer, the data shows otherwise: enforce the law, incarcerate violent offenders and crime falls. That should be a wake-up call for anti-gun Democrats like Kaine and Warner. But they’ll likely ignore it.
In the end, this isn’t just a policy debate — it’s a real fight over whether this nation will respect the Constitution or bend the knee to tyranny. That’s why Gun Owners of America has been engaged in court battles across the country: challenging Illinois’ so-called assault weapons ban, pushing back against expanded Gun-Free Zones in New York, and preparing a challenge to Virginia’s new ban on commonly owned firearms.
At its core, the Virginia Plan is about exporting Virginia’s experiment to the nation. But if it becomes a national model, it will also meet a national response — in the courts, in the states and in defense of the Second Amendment.
