The completely bonkers reason white supremacists are allowed to rally with guns in Charlottesville
No, the Second Amendment does not protect them.
IAN MILLHISER AUG 9, 2018, 12:31 PM
This weekend marks the one year anniversary of the “Unite the Right” rally, a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia that culminated in the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer.
In anticipation of the possibility that racist groups will commit similarly violent acts this weekend, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) and the city of Charlottesville itself have both declared states of emergency. Charlottesville officials in particular have “announced a security perimeter downtown that will include blocked streets, limited parking and pedestrian checkpoints,” beginning at 6 pm Friday. The city has also provided a long list of items that will be banned from this secure area, as they could potentially be used as weapons.
Interim City Manager Mike Murphy has prohibited the following items within the downtown security area: BB guns, pellet guns, air rifles or pistols, paintball guns, nunchucks, Tasers or other stun guns, heavy-gauge metal chains, lengths of lumber or wood, poles, bricks, rocks, metal beverage or food cans or containers, glass bottles, axes, axe handles, hatchets, ice picks, acidic or caustic materials, hazardous or flammable or combustible liquids, skateboards, swords, knives, daggers, razor blades or other sharp items, metal pipes, pepper or bear spray or Mace, aerosol sprays, catapults, wrist rockets, bats, sticks, clubs, drones, explosives, fireworks, open fire or open flames and any other item considered to be an “implement of riot.”
Yet, as Charlottesville’s Daily Progress reports, this list does not include one very notable weapon. Nunchucks, swords, paintball guns, and “lengths of lumber” may be banned, but real guns are not. “[Handguns] are not on that list,” Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney told the Daily Progress. “We have to honor your Second Amendment rights.”
Local police are, indeed, bound by the Second Amendment. But as it happens, there is no Second Amendment right permitting a violent white supremacist to bring a gun to the site of a deadly rally on that rally’s anniversary during a lawfully designated state of emergency. It is possible that Virginia state law restricts Charlottesville’s ability to keep guns away from the secured area, but that’s the fault of the state legislature — and it is also something the state legislature could have fixed. The Second Amendment does not say what Brackney claims that it says.
https://thinkprogress.org/the-completely-bonkers-reason-white-supremacists-are-allowed-to-rally-with-guns-in-charlottesville-70980f01ebe8/
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Seriously, just look at these idiots. 
