Pro-gun protests continue in Virginia

Text by: RFI Follow

A week does not go by without demonstrations. Since the new Democratic majority in the State Parliament, elected last November, attempts to limit free access to arms, those who defend the second amendment to the Constitution have been standing up.

Publicity

with our special correspondents in Richmond, Achim Lippold and Bertrand Haeckler

While the Democrats were fighting for the primaries in South Carolina , a little further north, in Virginia, defenders of the right to bear arms again mobilized. Head to Crockett Park in the north of the state for hundreds of activists. Their goal: to prevent the Virginia government at all costs from legislating on arms , according to DJ Jordan, a former candidate for the state parliament.

" If you try to limit someone's ability to defend themselves, you are undermining the very heart of American culture, " he explains. Limiting the rights associated with the second amendment would profoundly change the United States. It is thanks to this right that we are a free country, where freedom is paramount. "

Graham Wilson is a trainer in a shooting center. Plans to restrict access to firearms have exploded applications for registration, he said. More and more people want to learn how to use a weapon. " For us, it's an existential struggle to save the soul of our country, America "

" Protect my children "

This is also what Rebecca Eden thinks. In his view, carrying a weapon is his strictest right. " It is time to mobilize everyone and say loudly that it is okay to carry a gun openly. I am a mother and I want to protect my children. But if I am deprived of the right to bear arms, I will no longer be able to protect them if something happens to them. "

Like many of the rally participants, Rebecca also carries a weapon. " It's a semi-automatic rifle, the AR 15, " she explains. It is one of the easiest weapons to obtain. That is why it is very popular. "

The AR-15 is also the weapon that has been used in numerous mass shootings in recent years. As in Las Vegas in 2017 or Parkland in 2018.

► Read also: United States: pro-arms rally in Richmond, state of emergency declared

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