GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2020

PHOTOS: Gun rally brings heavily armed demonstrators to Richmond

By: Staff Report - January 20, 2020 8:58 am

Many gun rally attendees wore masks. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Thousands rallied in January on the Capitol lawn in opposition to new gun control laws. (Ryan M. Kelly / For the Virginia Mercury)

: Hundreds of police officers were on hand for a massive pro-gun rally that drew thousands to the Capitol and surrounding streets last year. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: A protestor at the gun rights rally in Richmond Jan. 20, 2020. (Sarah Vogelsong/Virginia Mercury)

: Police watch as rally attendees leave the Capitol. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Police and rally attendees generally had a friendly rapport throughout the day. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Many gun rally attendees wore masks. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Police moved in quickly to physically separate a small group of counterprotesters from pro-gun rally attendees. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Rallygoers enter through security onto the Capitol grounds. (Ryan M. Kelly/ For the Virginia Mercury)

: Attendees inside the secure area on Capitol Square prepare for the gun rally planned by the Virginia Citizens Defense League today. (Ryan M. Kelly/ For the Virginia Mercury)

: Heavily armed rally attendees began arriving outside the Capitol at daybreak. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: A crowd of pro-gun demonstrators begins to fill Bank Street outside the Virginia Capitol in Richmond. (Ryan M. Kelly / For the Virginia Mercury)

: Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones recorded a video in front of the Virginia Capitol the night before a major pro gun rally. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Police erected thousands of feet of fencing around Capitol Square in preparation for a large pro-gun rally Monday morning. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Police on Capitol Square at dawn stand alongside fencing set up to corral attendees of a large pro-gun rally in January. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Heavily armed rally attendees began arriving outside the Capitol at daybreak. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Police patrol inside the Capitol Monday morning. (Sarah Vogelsong/ Virginia Mercury)

: Brandon Lewis, who said he traveled from the Buffalo, N.Y., area, where he owns a gun range, carried a massive Barrett M82 rifle at a gun rally in Richmond in 2020. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Opponents of new gun control proposals rallied near the Capitol in January. (Ryan M. Kelly/ For the Virginia Mercury)

: Rally attendees packed the streets around the Capitol by mid morning. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Rally attendees packed the streets around the Capitol by mid morning Monday. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Rally attendees packed the streets around the Capitol by mid morning. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Members of the Proud Boys, which calls itself a “Western chauvinist” group and which the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies as a hate group, mixed among the thousands of attendees at Monday’s pro-gun rally. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury) This caption has been updated to clarify the characterization of the Proud Boys.

: Rally attendees packed the streets around the Capitol by mid morning. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: A man who declined to be identified held a sign calling for the removal of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at the massive gun-rights rally Monday in Richmond. (Ryan M. Kelly/ For the Virginia Mercury)

: Police were scattered around the crowded streets near the Capitol. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Rally attendees packed the streets around the Capitol by mid morning. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Rally attendees packed the streets around the Capitol by mid morning. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: Rally attendees packed the streets around the Capitol by mid morning. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

: A pro-gun demonstrator at a rally on the Capitol grounds in 2020, held in opposition to proposed new gun control laws, holds a makeshift Gadsen flag. (Ryan M. Kelly/ For the Virginia Mercury)

: A banner and pro-gun rally attendees line up near Grace and Ninth streets in Downtown Richmond near the Capitol. (Ryan M. Kelly/ For the Virginia Mercury)

: Ron Van Beek (left) and Stephan Franklyn fold a flag before leaving after the end of a pro-gun rally Monday on the Capitol grounds. (Ryan M. Kelly/ For the Virginia Mercury)

: Attendees at a rally in January protest new potential gun restrictions in Virginia. (Ryan M. Kelly/ For the Virginia Mercury)

: Phil Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, speaks to a rally in January 2020 of thousands of gun control opponents on the Capitol grounds. (Ryan M. Kelly/ For the Virginia Mercury)

: Stephen Willeford, a Texas man who used an AR-15 to disrupt the 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, told the crowd that Americans have three boxes they can use to protect their rights: the soap box, the ballot box and the cartridge box. (Ryan M. Kelly/ For the Virginia Mercury)

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