Tipsheet

Virginia's Second Amendment Rally Was Hyped Up to Be Racist and Violent— It Was Not

The Second Amendment rally in Richmond, Virginia was hyped up by liberals and the media to be a violent event that was going to be attended by an untold number of white supremacists. Instead, thousands of peaceful gun owners of all different races stood outside the state capitol to protest the proposed gun control bills.

The mainstream media said Richmond was "bracing" for a "tense" day and that it could turn into another Charlottesville, which I covered in 2017 and Monday's event was not even close to the violence that unfolded in Charlottesville.

NBC reporter Ben Collins spread misinformation on Sunday when he tried to tell reporters to not spread misinformation at the "white nationalist" rally. 

Since it is Virginia, I did see three Confederate flags among the thousands of people, but for every Confederate flag that I saw, there were dozens of American flags and hundreds of minorities in the crowd. 

"It's pure baloney. Two of our speakers are black," Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, told Townhall in regards to the racism charge. "So no, it's not [racist]."

Van Cleave said African-Americans should be strong supporters of gun rights since gun control in the past was used to keep African-Americans from owning guns, making them unable to protect themselves from the Klu Klux Klan and lynch mobs.

Princess Kuvor, an African-American woman who was carrying an AR-15, told Townhall that the people who are trying to portray the event as a "white supremacist" rally need "to get a life."

"Those people need to stop being racist because as you can see I [am a] black woman. I'm from Africa. I immigrated here when I was five years old and I love this country. Our Second Amendment rights are very important here," she added.

Lej Sasr, an African-American man, told Townhall the media pushing the "white supremacist" claim is akin to "propaganda."  

"They say this people who do not read United States history, they don't read the Constitution at all, nor do they do the research beyond what's in it," he said.

Notably, while there were many people who were armed, with everything from handguns to AR-15s, no one was shot or killed during the rally. While there were hardly any racists present, rally goers were sure to remind everyone there was one person in the area who has quite the racist history: Gov. Ralph Northam (D).