The Culpeper County 2A Facebook group had five rules. Rule one was “Get Busy – Follow the Action Plan and take the necessary steps to protect our rights. Sharing memes isn’t enough. We need coordinated action.”

Rule two was “Do Not Give Up – We’re in the fight of our lives. Act accordingly. Never surrender.” At some point in late January the rules changed, and rule two became “No racism”. But the basic purpose remained: Culpeper County 2A (the 2A stands for Second Amendment) was founded with the aim of resisting gun control bills working their way through the Virginia state legislature.

Similar groups are springing up across the state. Dozens of towns and counties are passing resolutions declaring themselves “second amendment sanctuaries” – a term borrowed from the “sanctuary cities” immigration movement of several years ago. The resolutions vary from county to county, but they broadly declare support for the second amendment and label the proposed state gun control laws as invalid. Democrats won control of the Virginia House and Senate in November for the first time in 24 years, and they immediately proposed a raft of gun control measures from universal background checks to restrictions on high capacity magazines. The bills came as no surprise – the Democrats had campaigned heavily on gun control, backed by funding from activist groups which comprehensively outspent the National Rifle Association in its home state.(BBC)…[+]