Virginia Sen David Marsden
Courtesy virginia.gov
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Virginia Senator David Marsden
Courtesy virginia.gov

By Jeff Hulbert

Virginia State Senator David Marsden wants you know he is filled with regret after his most recent “listening session” with Second Amendment activists.

Marsden was caught on an open microphone at a hearing this past week disparaging gun rights supporters as childish, and even mentally ill.

Sen. Marsden has now gone public to talk of his deep sorrow, and to offer a heartfelt apology.

He wants to tell you how sorry he is for not voicing his smears LOUDER and EARLIER, before his comments were picked up on a hot mic.

Wait, what?

Yes, Sen. Marsden says that rather than have gun rights supporters overhear what he calls “a private conversation” while chatting with now Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, Marsden says if he had to do it all over again he should have just told off folks right to their faces that day.

 

As witnessed by scores of listeners who were tuned in to a budget session livestream, here is that “private conversation” that was overheard this past Saturday:

Sen. David Marsden: Are you going to stick around for the 10 o’clock gun nuts?

Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn: These people are crazy.

Marsden: Yeah just like little kids.

Filler-Corn: Do you think they will stay calm?

Marsden: Yeah, as long as we don’t respond to them.

Filler-Corn: Yeah.

Marsden: We will get though this.

The backlash was substantial, to say the least.

Sen. Marsden’s comments— a liberal anti-gun Democrat representing a portion of the reflexively liberal Northern Virginia region that borders the nation’s capital—unleashed a blizzard of scathing phone calls, texts and emails to him coming from citizens from as far away as the Shenandoah foothills and the Tidewater regions that hug the Chesapeake Bay.

So, whether it would be regarded as gutsy or foolhardy, Marsden agreed to explain himself to Vince Coglianese and Mary Walter, the morning hosts on WMAL-FM in Washington DC—a station with a signal reaches well into central Virginia.

From that live program, here is Sen. Marsden, in his own words, recounting the horror that flowed from smearing gun rights folks as childish and/or mentally unstable.

“I got lit up with kind every vulgar, obscene, angry email and text. I’ve been getting calls day and night, obscene, vulgar, threatening phone calls. I mean we’re not talking a couple. We’re talking about well over a hundred”.

Marsden admits he was annoyed that some gun rights supporters at the budget hearings spoke out of turn when they heard the repeated, anguished pleas for more gun control—infringements that would turn the law-abiding into felons.

On the air, Marsden denied using the term “gun nuts” while chatting with House Speaker Filler-Corn, saying that his actual worlds were “this is nuts”—but adding this postscript for the radio listeners: “these folks are acting like children”.

Asked in a follow-up if the Senator regretted using disparaging language—not only earlier in the week—but again right there on the radio, Marsden doubled down.

“In retrospect”, Marsden told the WMAL audience, “what I should have done at some point was just to address the group about their poor, childish behavior at this event. I regret that you get picked up on a mic. I should have said it to them directly”.

Sen. Marsden also refused to back away from recent written comments to some constituents suggesting that he regards agitated Second Amendment supporters as being mentally unbalanced or mentally unstable.

Virginia Senator David Marsden
Courtesy Sen. David Marsden and Facebook

“What I was telling people was that the responses I was getting were from people who show signs of having, uh, mental health difficulties. The vulgarity—I mean people calling me up and saying things about my mother and my grandmother and these kinds of disturbing comments that had nothing to do with the issue….uh, this is very concerning”.

Stretching credulity to the breaking point, Sen. Marsden suggested that the 2A community talks repeatedly about mental illness issues and should share his alarm about the lack of stability of the “gun nuts” dropping agitated texts, emails and voicemails on him.

“There are a lot of people who have mental health issues that are, uh, engaged on the issue and that is a concern to all of us”.

The Senator has been feuding the Virginia gun rights supporters for years. He was an early acolyte of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun control propositions—as voiced though the funded appearances of Moms Demand Action, Everytown, USA and other groups.

Virginia Senator David Marsden
Courtesy Moms Demand Action and Facebook

Four years ago, Sen. Marsden warmed the hearts of Michael Bloomberg’s minions everywhere with a sign over his office door that read:

“Welcome gun lobby day members. I know you mean well. But if it isn’t too much trouble, stop trying to save our lives….

Too many people are getting killed in the effort.

—-Senator Dave Marsden”

Campaign contribution documents show Marsden and Bloomberg go way back, with Bloomberg stuffing a $25,000 check into Marsden’s campaign coffers in 2011.

Virginia Senator David Marsden
Courtesy Open Secrets

Before closing out his unusual “mea culpa” on WMAL-FM, the Senator wanted all to know how much he embraces the Second Amendment when it’s time for getting cash from a bank machine.

“I am favor of concealed carry. I don’t have any objections to that. I think that we are, uh, largely safer at ATM machines because there are a number of Virginians who do conceal carry”.

The ATM posse riding to the rescue! Who knew?

So as not to miss any hot buttons, Sen. Marsden then pivoted to red flag laws in his final minute of the interview. His WMAL hosts suggested, correctly, that red flag laws strip due process in favor of “guilty before proven innocent” provisions.

Once again, the Senator made news when he announced:

When you go before a court you have to have evidence, you can’t just go in and make a claim and have something happen. Uh…but if a judge gives someone an order and says I want you to go to the, uh, mental health service board, say in Fairfax County and that you have completed your treatment then they send in a letter. You don’t have to go back to court and get a lawyer or whatever. You’ve completed what the judge has asked you to do and you get your guns back.

As far as Senator Marsden is concerned, losing your guns (a civil right) is just like losing your driver’s license (a privilege) and getting it back by going to driving school.

Virginia Senator David Marsden
Courtesy Moms Demand Action

Someday, maybe the Senator can diagram the “Gun Owner’s Mental Illness Loop” that seemingly has no end.

Citizen obtains gun ===> becomes obsessed and agitated about losing it ===> thus becomes mentally unfit to possess it ===> is pacified by having the firearm removed ===> only to become mentally agitated again by regaining possession of said firearm.

Or something like that.

Marsden seems to have the solution to this conundrum, but he has yet to be overheard revealing it on a hot mic.

Fear not, though. The 2020 Virginia General Assembly is just now being called to order and that place is infested with microphones.

 

Jeff Hulbert is the founder of Patriot Picket.

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103 COMMENTS

  1. The epitomy of arrogance! You people really HAVE forgotten you work for “us”! Let’s see how smug he is after the dust settles.

    • They are arrogant because they are never held to account. They slander the constituents, get away with it, do it more and more, and keep getting away with it, all while enriching themselves at the public trough with shady backroom deals and payoffs.

      Time to hold jackasses like him accountable.

      • all this is why i keep saying that the only punishment fitting for treason is the death penalty along with being stripped of all financial gain while in office. At present because there is no consequences for this sort of behaviour from politicians it attracts the sort of snakes that have these sorts of attitudes. If we were to start doing as i said above we would very quickly stop attracting them to the position and rather encourage people more inclined to be statesmen and women

        • Agreed.

          Unfortunately, bullets in heads is where we are going.

          …WITH the Globalists blessings.

        • then we have a choice…. submit to what they want………. or die on our feet as free men and women taking as many of them with us as we can

        • Don’t you mean men, women, and ‘zee’, Toni?

          (Gotta cover the non-binary ones, as well… 😉 )

        • If we had consistently been tar and feathering politicians who overstepped, they would never had gotten this corrupt, arrogant, self-entitled and… well, basically evil in some ways.

          I’d like to see a few from VA and a healthy portion of the national House and Senate given this treatment.

          Might even get back to a term or two and out, like it was intended, rather than career sloths.

        • yes Exactly Eric. It is not just in the US that that is the case either but in most every country around the world… my own country (australia) included.

    • BFD. Is working with, or addressing your elected officials new to those of you who want to act like this is some unusual act?

      Get past it, these people will be in charge until some of us (hopefully the ones with brains and who understand how “politics”work) get off our butts and run for office with more than a single issue in mind. And that could be a problem around here…

      If the idiot VA senator thinks he should’ve said this in public, hand him another mic. There’s really nothing wrong with letting these idiots (or others) speak- the real issue is those who are offended/put off/disappointed/whatever don’t really band together and seek a decent replacement.

    • What do you expect from a guy who has every other tooth a different color. What’s he doing with all his money? A real elitist there, looking down on the rest of us.

    • All enemies, foreign and domestic. If these dishonest shits took an oath to protect the Constitution, we should recall their asses.

  2. Wow what a pos…I wonder if this jaggoff had redneck ancestors who lynched poor black folks? THESE folks WILL fight back. Pretty sure insulting thousands of gun owner’s will bite you in your dumbazz…

  3. He should feel free to meet with one or more of us. So he can” tell me to my face”. It’ll be fun.
    We should encourage this. And live stream it.

  4. It isn’t just this man. But I am glad to see a website getting the names out.

    These people live in their own little world. Convinced of their own superiority as they have become completely out of touch with the reality of what the American citizen actually is. The call themselves representing us but they only represent a small number of people out there that blindly follow.

    • That’s how the U.S. government is supposed to work. The minority should be respected as much as the majority. That’s why human rights was acknowledged and protected by government. However, that has changed many decades ago. The people believe the government gives them rights and the government workers are their leaders.

      They say, “That’s just the way it is.”

      • That’s how the U.S. government is supposed to work. The minority should be respected as much as the majority. That’s why human rights was acknowledged and protected FROM government.
        FIFY

        • The law limits government workers and puts each branch against itself. These branches are to keep each other from violating human rights. When government workers break the law they were to be put in prison or killed.

          In the past the government was the people for the people. Now the government has been hijacked by a small group who attack the people anyway they please. No one is going to protect you from government workers because the government isn’t of the people by the people anymore. The government is controlled by corporations, bankers, etc. Those groups are not going to protect you. Hence the 2nd Amendment.

          The supreme power rests in the people. The people are the sovereigns until they are not. When you need protections from the government the people must take back their powers from the terrorists doing harm.

          A piece of paper does not protect you from government, it does not enforce those limitations. People have to do it.

        • Censor, agreed, the people need to withdraw consent to be governed and re-establish the ground rules, putting people in place who respect the rule of law and those separations of power. Voting wont fix this. It really is going to take watering the tree of liberty, and making the government fear the people, to remind them that politicians answer to the people, not the other way around.

        • “ That’s how the U.S. government is supposed to work.”

          I completely agree. But that isn’t what’s happening.

  5. I’d be fairly certain that he did receive a few vulgar or obscene responses to his comments. But I’d also be willing to bet that the vast majority of responses to his comments were extremely well mannered. To plutocrats, ANY negative response is obscene or threatening. Must be taking lessons from their millennial, easily-triggered, snowflake children.

    • Take his comments about guns/gun owners and substitute abortion and see what the responding comments would be.

    • Anyone can claim to have received threatening calls from opponents. Rule of thumb: if no police report was made, the claim deserves zero weight.

  6. Well, it’s almost like he thinks a bunch of his constituents are bitterly clinging deplorables.

    Wonder how he’s likely to treat them?

  7. The quotes sound pretty bad — representative, over-reach, there’s — but did he say he’d have more flexibility after the election?

    I am confused. Was that last election the last one that will ever be? They’re certainly acting that way.

    • “Was that last election the last one that will ever be? They’re certainly acting that way.”

      Progressives genuinely see themselves as the end product of all human evolution and development, the pinnacle of enlightenment. It never occurs to them that they will lose power, only continue to gain power. Who else but a smugly self-righteous proggie would talk about being “on the right side of history” without any trace of doubt? It’s part of the reason so many people still cannot accept the results of the 2016 election.

      • You do understand that socialists all the other countries and have now taken over America too? You do know that the victor writes the history books?

        There is no where to run to. You can’t just move to another state like you can’t just move to another country. Hence why the founders said there has to be a revolution every once in awhile because you can only keep a government under control for so long.

        Unfortunately, Americans believe powerful government is a necessary evil. You should never invite evil into your life. Once you let in it…

    • They may lose the next election. However, they are likely to win every election after that because the youth are socialists due to government/public/socialist schooling.

      • We’re *way* past due for a lethal flu outbreak of some sort. (Think 1918 on steroids).

        So there’s hope yet. Housing will sure be affordable, and traffic a lot less… 🙂

  8. Apparently this Senator isn’t too far off his rocker. His electorate keep returning him to office. Maybe Virginia is tired of gun owners. After all we don’t hear from them till something might be taken away. Then they can’t even muster a enmass protest. Just a few nuts show up at hearings. I don’t think there is a silent majority. If there is they aren’t showing up when it counts. The old come and take it crowd seems to be dwindling. The left has overtaken the right. Let the games continue. The consequences of lack of action has cost the gun community dearly. I just keep wondering what kind of gun nut is going to show up to confiscate these weapons of mass destruction. I guess it will be the Antigun nut and that will make them the biggest Hypocrits ever. GOD help us!

    • Have you been reading the stories here and elsewhere coming out of Virginia? We are speaking out en masse. Just wait until January 20.

      • Hahahaha….those gun-grabbers will still get elected in the larger cities and may back down for a bit, but it won’t last…..they keep getting elected by the masses who expect government to “take care of them”…then they will go “Kalifornia” on you when they get a stable majority. Way past the soapbox and ballot box.

        • Okay, Michael and all you naysayers below. What would you have us do? Surrender? Move to Texa– er, Wyoming? We are not blind, but we’re also not going to throw up our hands like you seem to advise.

          I’ve said it before — our two great weaknesses are our reluctance to “play well with others” (i.e.; organize) and our pessimism. I am so tired of both.

      • I hear fear and servitude in the voices of those that dare speak to the government in opposition of tyranny when it’s in a official government setting. Although they speak out of their impending doom, they dare not speak ill of law enforcement or talk of revolution out of fear of retaliation. It’s quite sad to see a woman crying because she knows it’s over as she essentially begs “her” government not to lawfully turn her into a felon and enforce those rules on her with violence.

        Americans are too afraid to open their eyes because the monster is staring them in the face.

        • A country of law and order says the Republicans. Law abiding gun owners comply because they are not criminals. Law enforcement are their heroes as they force Americans to comply with all the rules or die.

          Where does that leave you?

        • It leaves me saying PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS. Stop telling the rest of us how many ways we’re not up to the task and start getting shit done. If you can see all of this so clearly, you must have a plan, right? So start leading.

  9. Lets see this brave man walk up to a persons door and say . “Give me your guns”. Id say he would get a 12 guage shoved up where the sun dont shine.

  10. Dear anti-people…

    I know you mean well. But, if it isn’t too much trouble, please stop trying to save our lives. Too many people are getting killed in the effort.

    P. S.
    A few dozen Texas church folk are available to explain it to you, as ~500 Chicagoans are not (last year’s butcher’s bill).

    • Now, if you were anti-fa or a left wing radical, you’d print his home address and that of all his relatives. That’s what they do.

      • Instead, we see a massive wimp-out of even conservative websites, as they universally redact the Senator’s cell phone number *in the very Facebook message where he affirms publically that he is always happy to give anyone his cell number.*

        Gun owners are going to polite ourselves into historical irrelevance.

  11. Dear Senator Mannerless,

    Thank you for the lovely examples. After disparaging groups of people, in your snide side-remarks, and your posted snark dissing people — your constituents — at an invited event (one presumes at govt, meaning those constituents’, expense), you’re a bit bent that some people responded in kind. Then you, nose out of joint, diss them some more in public media.

    Charming, respectful, n graceful all around: really encourages people to trust you with their interests (Like your donors’ list. At least you are consistent.)

    Obviously, nobody civilized should stoop to your level, in discourse, in engaging with others, and of course in policy deliberation, governance, or ethics of high office. We can do better. By “we” I mean, really anybody interested in understanding their world, respecting other people, or governing responsibly,

    Since there’s little chance you are “convincable” about anything, we’ll be talking to your donors about what they are supporting. When the money dries up, maybe that get their attention. When the money dries up, maybe that will get your attention.

  12. Well, the scheming-D’s have failed to learn the most basic lesson from the last presidential election:

    This is what happens when the largest demographic in the country, for decades dissed as the source of all ills, realizes it is a constituency and votes its own interest.

    • Waiting for a revote is foolish. Virginia has a reall provision, they hould be exercising it now… against this totalitarian in particular, among others.

  13. I dont recall seeing the author on TTAG until recently. I have to say, this is some of the very best reporting that I have seen anywhere. Very well done sir! Very well done indeed.

  14. We are acting like children who are watching their parents and family taken away. We do not want to be forced to try to survive in a world where everything is stacked against us. We need to be able to protect ourselves or have people nearby who will.

  15. We cannot take a fundamental principle of the Constitution and turn it against a citizen!” – Captain Jean Luc Picard

  16. A lot of outsiders are threatening death to Virginians. They have said they will go to Virginia to fight if they don’t get what they want. They are planning armed conflict.

    The right wing “patriots” are trying to cause paranoia by stating the U.N. is being setup to disarm Virginia, the power and internet is going to be shut off, the National Guard is going to be called in to enforce martial law, Antifa is going to commit a false flag terror attack while wearing “patriot clothing” and there are road blocks planned to stop outsider from entering Virginia.

    This has given the statists the opportunity to legitimately say the 2A crowd are delusional and extremely dangerous. The disinformation spread online has put a spin on who is the bad guys. It’s pushing the general public to side with the government against their own human rights for the sake of safety and security from crazy people with AR-15s.

    Most of the people who are fear mongering are spreading the “deep state” talking points. It’s as if they work for the side of disarmament.

    Virginia has been majority blue for some time. The recent election has shown this to be true. There wasn’t enough Republicans candidates to oppose the Democrats and the voter turn out was very low with Republicans. They literally handed over the state without fielding a team. There was no fight. Now they are calling for a civil war against the majority because Republicans and the NRA couldn’t care enough to show up in the first place. Now they want to kill their own people.

    Unfortunately, the so called conservatives have made their bed… The supreme court has ruled it’s okay for the government to do what it is doing. Those seeking to disarm the people are using that “conservative” opinion to their advantage as it was intended.

    You guys need to get your shit together because you’re giving them victory after victory. If you don’t, you will be holding a big L like Trump was after Iran punked him the same way the Democrats punked him on the border wall.

      • That’s all you got?

        Are you from California? If you are not don’t worry because your state will be just like Cali soon enough. Trust me on that. You don’t know how to win just like you don’t know how to respond to what I wrote.

        Okay, boomer.

        • Hey Chief you cannot talk to uneducated Hillbillies they are their own worst enemies. They proved it before the election and now are proving it after the election with so many alarming threats, as you said, the majority of people who are non gun owners are hoping the National Guard does shoot a few of them so they know who is boss in the State.

          As Mao Zedong once said “Power come from the barrel of a gun” and right now the Dems are in control of the big guns both legislative and militarily.

        • Chief, is that all you’ve got? With all your bluster, I would expect more oomph from you, but I suppose everyone has their limitations.

      • This VA Senator should move to Britain, Russia, Cuba, Venezuala, or any other country that wants to control their populace by eliminating the 2A Right to possess and use firearms to protect themselves from arrogant government officials.

        He clearly isn’t acting like an American so he needs to leave!

  17. Remember this.

    – When the gun controllers say they want to keep guns away from the mentally ill, they mean they want to disarm YOU because they think all gun owners are mentally ill.

    – When the gun controllers say they want red flag laws to take guns from dangerous people, they mean they want to disarm YOU because they think all gun owners are dangerous people.

    – When the gun controllers say they want to keep guns away from terrorists, they mean they want to disarm YOU because they think all gun owners are terrorists.

    No more compromise.

  18. Dave Marsden’s comments shows how futile the gun crowds protests are and what a waste of time they are as well. As I said before the Stalinist’s are not backing down and would not think of losing votes to the gunless majority that voted for them.

    Yes 2A is deader than the extinct Dodo Bird in the conquered world of Stalinist Soviet Virginia.

  19. The Second Amendment community is doing the legislative session wrong. If you don’t have the vote, you are going to lose. We have to look ahead and prepare the electoral battlespace for 2020 and 2021. There are two proposals that will put the Democrats on the spot. First offer an amendment to the gub control bill revoking sanctuary from illegal aliens who commit offences that would make a citizen a prohibited person. Second, offer amendment to the red flag bill that would allow you to confiscate weapons from people with gang affiliations. This will force the Democrats to reveal their support for gangs. When inevitably MS-13 commits an attrocity in Northern Virginia and/or gangbangers in Richmond or Norfolk kill some kid you will have a ready to go campaign add.

    Gun Control: Making Virginia safe for criminals.

    • They will say you are a racist for proposing laws on brown people that you don’t want on your people. They will say how much of a white supremacist you are for even thinking in such a manner. And they will close with saying, “See! Even Republicans support gun control.”

      • False. They can say none of that because rejecting those amendments is explicitly exempting illegals and criminals from gun control laws.

        And it says “I”m ok with sanctuary for the productive and law abiding.” (Even if I am not.)

        • TD, they flat *refused* to issue immidiate ‘red flag orders’ on verified gang members.

          What does that tell you? 🙂

  20. All one has to do is ask them to give up armed security, and the excuses for why they need it and you dont flow forth until the end of time

  21. May we assume that he has foresworn all personal protection and armed bodyguards?

    Asking for a friend.

    Because we know he hasn’t. The left loves their fully-armed secret police and bodyguards. They’d never be half as smug and condescending nor even leave their gated communities without them.

  22. I am quite sure HIS guns will never be confiscated.

    But we, the “little people,” should not be allowed to have them!

  23. This is nothing but an act of treason by a partisan party & Governor. Our house and Senate in Virginia is corrupt!!! This treason will not stand. You will be held accountable and tried for high crimes against the constitution and treason. Take that to the bank. Go ahead and resign now to avoid prosecution you dirt bags!

  24. If he gets re-elected we will know the quality of his constituents and his and their opinions of the Constitution.

  25. He should provide proof of these so called “threatening” phone calls. If there were any, wouldn’t they be investigated by the fbi?
    Sounds like he’s trying to play the victim card..

  26. If you do some research on Dave Marsden you realize that his attitude toward ANY gun owner is not new but just out in the open for a wider audience’s consumption. His basic attitude is troublesome in itself but when combined with the legislation that he is supporting and sponsoring he is becoming a public menace. Many of the bills are unconstitutional on both the State and Federal level, assumes guilt with the burden of innocence placed upon the accused at a great monetary cost and does much to discourage the ownership of guns while doing nothing to prevent gun violence! Write Senator Marsden and encourage him to focus on addressing the mental health issues and leave guns out of the equation.

  27. This guy is obviously not an American, but a treasonous fake. Pull his citizenship and ship him to…. oh… Russia!

  28. We did very little to stop these radical Socialist / Communist Democraric gun hating, 2nd Amendment hating lawmakers to get into Government positions. Todays Democratic Party is not the Democrat party of old. The today Democratic Party is the biggest threat to our freedom and rights we have ever faced. Socialism/ Communism kills and the Demacrats are all in for bringing both to America. Democrats with help from the Mainstream Socialist , bias, unamerican Fake News Media . They are pushing the Socialist / Communist agenda for we the people. Illegal gun confiscation and gun control must take place in order for this takeover. After this an unarmed American citizen is no more than ( Cannon Fodder). The right to keep and bare arms Shall Not Be Infringed. ” Dont even think about it”.

  29. You revealed your true thoughts and your personality. Too late. The damage has been done. You want forgiveness and understanding after you uttered those thoughts to a colleague. That is the Democratic motto, “Do as I say, not as I do”. Can you give the same honest understanding to LAW ABIDING gun owners?

  30. “that a law repugnant to the constitution is void, and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.”
    Marbury v Madison

  31. ‘We’re willing to go to war against you…..to protect you.’

    A clear sign our Government of the People has lost its way.

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