There seems to be a shift in priorities in Richmond, and it could spell relief for lovers of the Second Amendment in Virginia — at least in the short term, according to one of my colleagues at sister site Bearing Arms. In a new piece published Wednesday, Cam Edwards discusses the fact that Democrats in the Old Dominion state ran hard on gun bans in the 2019 elections held there.

But, he explains, since they’ve recaptured the majority in the statehouse, Governor Northam and his allies in the legislature, like Democrat Delegate Mark Levine, seem to have stood down from trying to push through a proposed anti-gun bill in the next session, which starts in January, followed by an election to fill Northam’s governor’s seat (which he’s term-limited out of) and House of Delegates seats later in 2021.

Northam, Virginia Dems Back Away From Their Gun Ban Plans https://t.co/uRL7VvbVdp

— Bearing Arms (@BearingArmsCom) December 23, 2020

He wrote:

WRIC-TV in Richmond reports that Del. Mark Levine, who was the chief sponsor of Gov. Ralph Northam’s attempted ban on modern sporting rifles; “high capacity” ammunition magazines; and legally owned suppressors (which was defeated in the state Senate earlier this year after passing the House of Delegates) says he has no plans to re-introduce the measure in the session which is slated to begin in early January.

[…]

Back in April, as he signed a half-dozen new gun control bills into law, Northam vowed that his failed gun ban would return in 2021, telling gun control activists “I will not stop and that piece of legislation will be introduced again to ban assault weapons [from] our streets.”

Now the governor is singing a different tune.

Read the whole thing, for sure.

Now, in a new interview with “Cam & Company,” aired Wednesday, Republican Virginia state Del. Kirk Cox, who’s gunning for the GOP nomination in 2021 to fill Northam’s seat, revealed why he believes Virginia state Democrats “back[ed] off of their plans” to enact what Cam calls “the centerpiece” of Northam’s gun-control proposal.

In answering a question about Dems letting what they’d had called “desparately needed piece of legislation” lie fallow, Del. Cox said:

“I think it’s good news for those of us who believe in the Second Amendment.

Because let’s get to the truth: with those gun control measures last session, with the violence we saw in Richmond….they’ve taken a lot of flak, I think, from that from the police.

Mark Levine gave excuses….about other priorities, but to your point, if this was the priority, you would think this would be what you’d push.

Cox added another issue Northam and the Democrats might be facing:

….[H]eading into an election year, the good news is that they’re feeling some blowback.

Caution your listeners, however — they’re still real believers.

They believe in those gun control measures, unscientifically, curb violence.

So, I would say [it’s] good news, but be cautious.”

He continued, “If [Republicans] can capture the governorship and the House of Delegates, those are not issues we’ll have to go back and repeal. We’ve got enough to do.” And he agreed with Cam’s contention that Democrats were just “playing politics” with the issue, when it served their purposes.

By the way, Cam added in a later tweet that he asked Gov. Northam on his show, too, but — no surprise here — he got a response that becomes a coward:.

If you hear the faint sound of laughter coming from the Richmond area, it’s because I just formally asked @GovernorVA’s press office for an interview with Northam.

— Cam Edwards (@CamEdwards) December 23, 2020

But that’s something we knew… He never did reveal which one of these fellows he was in the school yearbook photos, did he?

Democrat(PARTY of the KKK) leaders are slow walking forcing RACIST Virginia Gov RALPH Northam to resign. That is tantamount to tacit approval for his behavior. Florida GOP Sec of State resigned quickly for doing blackface for Halloween years ago. Let's get moving Pelosi/Schumer. pic.twitter.com/XM4pi7UL0j

— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) February 3, 2019

Figures.

You can watch Cam’s full interview with Del. Cox below, via Bearing Arms:

H/T Bearing Arms