BreakDown: The “Second Amendment Sanctuary” Showdown

I honestly never thought I’d be watching a Danville City Council related issue that was more bizarre & surreal that the idiotic Confederate Flag stuff. BUT WAIT… THERE”S MORE! Ugh. Let’s take a comprehensive look at what the heck is happening, has happened and will happen on this brouhaha (with that being a sad haha). We call that a BreakDown.

This is going to be a hybrid type of BreakDown article because it’s going to have analysis, opinion, facts and observations. I guess the best way to do it is on a Big Board in the RandomThoughts! format, so let’s bring one out.

• On this past Tuesday night, we had the third run of public speakers asking Danville City Council to adopt a “second amendment sanctuary” resolution. This resolution would have no force of law and could say anything that council wanted it to. Or it could say nothing and never pass.
• Let’s look at how the three nights of speakers went.
  
  In round #1, Joshua Jennings, the owner of the gun shop in Cascade went first. I was expecting a bunch of fireball talking points and I was completely wrong about that. Jennings hit the jackpot by being warm, cordial and to the point. The second speaker was Radio’s Chuck Vipperman. Chuck’s natural voice makes you believe everything he says, and he was also right on target. He mentioned the second amendment fight as somewhat like the civil rights fight. I knew what he meant and so did most people, but that phrase “civil rights” pissed some people off. The third speaker completely destroyed all of that momentum by moving into nutball talk and that just blew it. Mayor Alonzo Jones’ jaw dropped and that was a quick end to the 2nd amendment sanctuary talk for the night.
  
  Night #2 was the meeting right before Christmas with just a few items on the agenda and no work session. Everybody wanted to make this a quick meeting and get the hell out of there. The public comment session started and Joshua Jennings was first up again. He made a calm, rational speech yet again (yay!). Alonzo Jones played a wild card and asked for people who agreed with Jennings to stand up. They did. Alonzo said thanks and POOF that’s the end of the comment section. I didn’t expect it to be shut down that quickly and had to chuckle at the unexpected power play. So that happened.
  
  Before we get to this past Tuesday’s action, I want you to know that all of the speeches were met with the traditional council silence and “thank you for speaking” stuff. Nothing tangential happened at all.
  
  Let’s get to this past Tuesday. Wild Card Mayor Jones decided to give everybody who wanted to speak about the “second amendment sanctuary” this time three minutes! It’s on now! Radio’s Chuck Vipperman was back with another speech. This time there was nothing to outrage the people who wanted to be outraged. Joshua Jennings got the Triple Play award for his 3rd calm, rational speech. I think there was 4 other speakers after them. One guy stood out because he worked at Ruger in Madison. At the end of the public comments, Alonzo Jones recapped things and then here’s another Wild Card! Fred Shanks says he’ll be talking about this in the final around-the-horn segment. Ooooh boy.
  
  Fred proposed that council consider a clone of a resolution that Virginia Beach passed the night before. Then he broke protocol by asking the mayor if it could be put on the next agenda. Alonzo Jones was not pleased by that and it showed. Heh.
  
  OK, that’s the quick recap of the speakers.
  
• So everybody left as the meeting went on, and when it was work session time, it was just me, the R&B’s John Crane and Harold Garrison across the hall. The work session was supposed to be quick, but Wild Card Fred’s play started the debate on whether council would get a resolution on the next agenda.
  
  I think the best way to summarize what happened is to list all of the council members with more observations about what they said, did, implied and all that stuff. I can’t do a sub-list inside of a list, so this will look like crap. Oh well.
  
  Alonzo Jones: Supports/supported gun rights, wanted to stay clear of a “second amendment sanctuary resolution”, would support a “don’t pass unconstitutional laws resolution”. Still slightly pissed at Fred Shanks for the on-camera stunt, but Alonzo wisely forgives things like that.
  
  Sherman Saunders: Asked questions that 8th-grade civics students should answer about what the legislature could do, used the civil rights equivalency thing to want nothing to do with any of this stuff. Played the “potential racial divide” card first, but that went nowhere. Sherman ain’t gonna support any of this crap.
  
  Gary Miller: Ain’t gonna support any of this crap.
  
  Madison Whittle: Having a good time with this because he’s strongly in favor of Fred’s high-power resolution but letting Fred take the heat for it. He turned out to be in the “All Or Nothing” group. Hey, it’s an election year.
  
  Fred Shanks: I can tell he just wanted to do the right thing. I’ve always been impressed with Fred’s ability to do a lot of homework and come to every meeting fully prepared. Fred’s in the “All Or Nothing” group as well. Hey, it’s an election year.
  
  Larry Campbell: Just like Alonzo, he wanted to stay clear of a “second amendment sanctuary resolution” but would support a “don’t pass unconstitutional laws resolution” . Since Sherman beat everybody with the “potential racial divide” card, Larry was quiet. When Larry’s quiet, his mind is playing chess.
  
  Lee Vogler: Proposed the “don’t pass unconstitutional laws resolution”, and kept quoting it 713 times until everybody could sing it. Said he was in favor of the “second amendment sanctuary resolution” from the beginning but his proposal was a compromise for everybody to consider. Yeah. Sure you were. I heard Lee’s vocal support on that for the past four weeks OH SO LOUD AND CLEAR. Not. But hey, he knows how to play the game. Heh.
  
  Adam Tomer & James Buckner: Not at the work session nor meeting, so they don’t count. They sent emails, texts and stuff that was read out loud in the work session, but no way to verify that. And it’s “No butt in in the seat = No vote” so what difference does it make? (phrase used very intentionally)
  
  I’m not getting into their positions here because they didn’t get to vote.
  
• It tool four votes out of the seven present to get something to next meeting’s agenda. Fred’s Virginia Beach clone got three. Lee’s got three. Game over.
  
• Team “All or Nothing” – Fred Shanks & Madison Whittle. They wanted all, they got nothing. Hey, did you know it’s an election year?
  
  Team “Something” – Alonzo Jones, Larry Campbell, Lee Vogler. The wanted something and got nothing.
  
  Team “Nothing” – Sherman Saunders & Gary Miller. They wanted nothing, and they got nothing.
  
• As council was moving into economic development closed session, I asked for clarification on who voted what way on each proposal. I called Lee’s compromise resolution the “watered-down resolution” and Lee got a bit… perturbed at that. It was watered down. Suck it. I changed my phrasing to “compromise” and Lee’s blood pressure returned to almost normal. Heh.
  
• Does this all happen again at the Tuesday, January 21st meeting? I know the Usual Speakers will be back. There is not enough support to force anything onto the business meeting agenda on the spot. I’ll be there, so keep up with the SouthsideCentral feed.
  

So, there you go. A completely disjointed, poorly formatted recap and analysis of what has happened during this entire “Second Amendment Sanctuary” struggle. And you’ll only get that here at SouthsideCentral.

We call this a BreakDown.