Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, citing “credible intelligence” that “armed militia groups plan to storm the Capitol” during the planned pro-gun rally.
The event is being organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League. The group says that the legislature, which has a Democratic majority for the first time in 25 years, “represents the greatest threat to gun rights Virginians have faced in modern times!” On Thursday, the Virginia State Senate passed a trio of gun control bills, which will now be taken up by the House of Delegates.
READ: Why this antifa group is siding with thousands of pro-gun conservatives In Virginia.
The defense league and Gun Owners of America’s requested an injunction on the ban, but were denied on Thursday by a Richmond judge. In their appeal to the state Supreme Court, the groups’ lawyers argue that “petitioners and thousands of other rally participants will be irreparably denied their right to bear arms” if the ban is allowed to proceed.
On Thursday, the FBI reportedly arrested three men allegedly linked to a white supremacist group who authorities say were planning on attending the Monday rally. On Wednesday, they had arrested three others also allegedly linked to white nationalist group The Base, according to Georgia newspaper Rome News-Tribune. One legislator who’s been targeted with death threats, socialist Virginia Del. Lee Carter, told GEN this week that he’s planning on spending the day in a safehouse.
More than 5,000 people have said on the Facebook page for Lobby Day that they plan to attend. Event organizers have told the state that as many as 100,000 people could be there.
