NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A group plans petition Norfolk City Council to prompt the body to discuss a Second Amendment sanctuary-related ordinance proposal.
The chairman of the local Republican party announced Tuesday during a council meeting that he will file a petition Wednesday to force council to discuss and vote on the issue.
The petition requests City Council to consider and adopt a “Second Amendment Preservation Ordinance.”
If petitioners get 1,250 signatures in 30 days, council will be required to hold public hearings on the ordinance.
“The purpose of this ordinance is to protect the rights of citizens to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 13 of the Virginia Constitution,” the petition reads.
The petition’s proposed ordinance language says Norfolk will not exercise any “authority granted to it” to regulate or prohibit the purchase, possession, transfer, ownership, carrying, storage or transporting of firearms, ammunition, or components, or any combination of those items.
The second section of the proposed ordinance also says the city would waive its sovereign immunity as it relates to any injury sustained by a person in a designated firearm-free zone.
The petition is a move the Republican party chair says he felt forced to do after he says Norfolk City Council has ignored the residents.
Norfolk’s council chamber had plenty of “Guns Save Lives” stickers in it Tuesday night. Well over 20 people spoke in support of Norfolk becoming a Second Amendment constitutional or sanctuary city.
“We are not going away. We are going to stand up for our rights and we are going to keep fighting,” local Republican party chair Robert Brown said.
The mayor made no formal comment about the petition.