FAIRFAX, Va. — Virginia's GOP-controlled legislature called an abrupt end to the special session on gun legislation. Republicans led the vote to adjourn and it passed, on party-line votes, just 90 minutes after it started Tuesday.
Not one vote was taken.
Governor Ralph Northam called the special session after the mass shooting in Virginia Beach, which left 12 people dead. He said it was time to replace "thoughts and prayers" with votes and laws.
Tuesday, after Republicans led the vote to adjourn without discussing one measure, The House minority leader Eileen Filler Corn from Fairfax said "When it comes to keeping Virginians safe, the Republicans once again said NO. We have an obligation to the victims, survivors, their loved ones and our communities. This inaction speaks volumes."
The governor called it shameful that Republicans refused to do their jobs.
Gun control activists are pushing for what they call common sense gun laws, such as extreme risk protection orders. Gun rights advocates oppose that legislation. Both sides rallied at the state capital.
"We want our freedom to defend ourselves. We want to retain our gun rights. And we don't want them infringed upon. We want them to be our rights and be able to have and carry our firearms for self defense," said a gun rights advocate at Tuesday's rally.
"We are not looking to impede upon the rights of law-abiding gun owners. But what we want to do is to make sure we are keeping guns out of the hands of people who have a proclivity to violence," said a gun control advocate.
It's personal for Peter Read. He lost his daughter Mary in the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.
"I've been waiting 12 years since Virginia Tech, since my daughter and 31 others were shot to death," said Read. "Nothing can prevent every single gun death, but but we can do a lot of more than we're doing to reduce them and reduce them dramatically."
He believes universal backgrounds checks will save many lives.
"Having to pass a background check for every firearms transaction.... That protects the buyer, the seller, it makes sure the legal guns don't become illegal guns and get into the gun trafficking market or go outside the state illegally," Read said.
Tim Hannigan, chairman of the Fairfax County Republican Party is against all the gun control measures presented.
"Once you start down that road of violating due process, taking the rights that are really enshrined in our Constitution, away from Americans, then I think it's a slippery slope and who knows where its going to lead to," said Hannigan.
"Throwing your hands up and saying you can't do anything is a cop out," Read argued.
If nothing changes, Read predicts we will "continue to see every day incidents of gun violence."
He said he expects the violence to continue.
"We will continue to see murders and injuries by guns and suicides by gun," Read said. "And every day we don't act is a day we are allowing that risk to go on."
The way the GOP leadership ended the session without taking up any measures, left Democrats fuming.
“It is shameful and disappointing that Republicans in the General Assembly refuse to do their jobs, and take immediate action to save lives," Governor Northam said in a statement. "I expected better of them. Virginians expect better of them."
Some Republicans said the special session was a “political stunt" by Northam to improve his public image after the blackface scandal this year.
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All 140 members of the legislature are on the ballot in November. In both the House and Senate. Republicans have razor thin majorities.