Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin Vetoes Dozens Of Gun Control Bills, Emerges As ‘Brick Wall’ Against Democrats

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed 30 gun control bills on Tuesday afternoon, using his perch as a Republican governor to restrain Democrats from taking the state in a leftward direction despite the party having taken full control of the legislature in November.

“I swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of Virginia, and that absolutely includes protecting the right of law-abiding Virginians to keep and bear arms,” Youngkin said in a statement.

In the batch of 30 bills blocked on Tuesday, the governor explained his reasoning for each. He blocked a bill that would criminalize gun possession at public colleges, saying that the Democrats failed to consider “Virginia’s diverse geographic, cultural, and societal norms across different regions,” and that individual colleges can already prohibit guns if they want to.