A state GOP lawmaker miffed over new gun control measures is threatening to remove Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s security detail, a threat the Democratic governor’s spokesperson dismissed as a “reactionary temper tantrum.”
After Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring announced Dec. 22 that Virginia would no longer recognize out-of-state concealed carry permits from 25 other states starting Feb. 1, 2016, Republican state Sen. Bill Carrico called the move “all political” and told the Bristol Herald Courier he would move to cut McAuliffe’s security detail in January.
“A lot of the governor’s power is deferred to the General Assembly at that point and I’ll be getting with my colleagues to circumvent everything this governor has done on this point,” Carrico said. “I have a budget amendment that I’m looking at to take away his executive protection unit. If he’s so afraid of guns, then I’m not going to surround him with armed state policemen.”
Brian Coy, a spokesman for the governor, told the paper that “reactionary temper tantrums may play well on right-wing blogs, but they don’t make anyone safer.”
McAuliffe vetoed several pro-gun bills backed by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2015, and signed an executive order to ban open carry of guns in some state-owned buildings in October.
