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Armed militias across the country called to demonstrate this Monday, January 20 in local parliament against a bill to restrict the purchase of firearms in Virginia. The governor of this conservative state, fearing an eruption of violence comparable to the murderous of Charlottesville in 2017, has declared a state of emergency.
With our correspondent in San Francisco, Eric de Salve
In the hope of avoiding the violence, checkpoints with metal detectors will be installed all around the Capitol in Richmond, where the calls to demonstrate in arms have been launched on social networks.
The police have been preparing for weeks. By declaring a state of emergency until Tuesday evening, the governor of Virginia prohibits the 10,000 demonstrators expected to parade armed, be it firearm, baseball bat, knife, scissors or even laser or torch.
" We will not allow disorder here, warns Ralph Northam . Nobody wants to relive a new Charlottesville . Allusion of course to the riots of 2017 in which an activist had been killed, deliberately overthrown by the car of a white supremacist .
It must be said that the ingredients that led Charlottesville to this disaster seem to have come together again in Richmond. Thousands of armed militias and far-right groups called for a demonstration in the second city of Virginia, where the local parliament sits, to defend the second constitutional amendment, which guarantees the right to carry a weapon.
In November, the Democrats took control of this historically conservative state, the cradle of slavery and the capital of the Confederates during the Civil War.
The pro-gun activist anger bill only plans to ban the sale of magazines of more than 10 cartridges and the purchase of more than one firearm per month. It also plans to prevent individuals deemed to be dangerous from purchasing a firearm.