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Virginia GOP Lawmakers Reject Charlottesville Backed Bills

White Nationalist Rally in Charlottesville
creative commons
White Nationalist Rally in Charlottesville

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Republican-controlled Virginia General Assembly has defeated every bill the city of Charlottesville advocated for in the wake of a white nationalist rally last summer that shocked the nation.

The August rally organized in part to protest Charlottesville's decision to remove a Confederate monument descended into chaos, and the day ended with three people dead.

In the aftermath, two reviews recommended changes to state law to allow localities to enact limited gun restrictions. Bills that would have done so failed to make it to the floor of either chamber, as did bills intended to regulate independent militias like the ones that showed up in Charlottesville heavily armed.

Measures that would allow cities to remove Confederate monuments have also been defeated.

Don Rush is the News Director and Senior Producer of News and Public Affairs at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.