Board of Supervisors introduced to Pulaski County Home Guard

While House Bill 961 – which would have banned the sale of assault-type weapons and certain magazines – has been tabled for this year in the Virginia Legislature, Jody Pyles says residents in Southwest Virginia must still be vigilant against threats to our way of life.

Pyles made his comments Monday night to the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors while presenting the reasoning behind the formation of the Pulaski County Home Guard.

“Some people say that since HB961 has been tabled, that conservative people of Virginia have won. I would completely disagree,” Pyles said. “The people haven’t won until we have flipped the state red once again, and not only have our rights in Southwest Virginia been protected, but our voices have been heard and our way of life is preserved.”

Pyles said the tabling of the bill “only gives us more time to prepare for what may be coming next.”

Pyles told the supervisors the next step in people making their voices heard has been a movement that many counties have joined in creating county militias.

“I understand the Board of Supervisors nor any government agency has the need nor the right to grant permission for any militia to form or operate,” Pyles said, but he added, “I do think that as an act of professional courtesy for any group that wishes to organize to present itself to their officials and explain their intent so that all parties involved can work peaceably and toward the same goal of protection of the people and their rights.”

Pyles said the term militia has a negative connotation attached to it and it is for that reason that a group of Pulaski County citizens wishes to be recognized as the Pulaski County Home Guard.

The first muster of the Pulaski County Home Guard was held Feb. 16 at Pyles’ Connection Church on Wilderness Road in Dublin.

“We’re just asking for your recognition that we are here and the understanding of our purpose,” Pyles told the supervisors.

“I am a law-abiding citizen and former law enforcement officer and the last thing I want to do is to get on the wrong side of the agencies that I want to support,” Pyles said. “We don’t want a group that has a reputation that a lot of militias have. We’re looking for an organization that exists for the betterment of our community. We want a group of people who are willing to not only take up arms for each other but assist our local community in any form of disaster relief or community projects.”

Like Pyles, Gary Hughes has been a leading voice in the formation of the county’s Home Guard.

Hughes is credited with being the first citizen to bring the Second Amendment Sanctuary idea to the county’s attention in the beginning and has been the lead voice in that effort.

Speaking Monday to the supervisors also, Hughes said it is true that HB961 has been tabled for this year.

“But the governor and the delegate who sponsored the bill have vowed it will come back,” he said.

In his remarks Monday, Hughes said he wanted to “go a little deeper into the home guard and why everyone should be a member.”

Hughes said that as Second Amendment proponents have concentrated on protecting gun rights, members of the Democratic majority in Richmond have “slipped other bills past us – bills that tear and rip at the very fabric of our values and morals.”

Hughes said these are “bills that show lack of respect for human life, lack of respect for religious freedom and our way of life that we guard so dearly here in Pulaski County and Southwest Virginia.”

Hughes ticked off a list of House and Senate bills under consideration by the legislature and what those bills would do if approved.

One he said, would require churches and church schools to have transgender bathrooms.

Another, Hughes said, would require books to be placed in school classrooms that teach alternative lifestyles for our young children and all that goes with it.

Another would make it legal for a doctor not to be present when an abortion is performed.

Yet another would allow for an abortion to be performed right up to the time of birth.

Hughes said another bill would prohibit misbehaving and disruptive children from being punished in school.

Another bill, Hughes said, would allow school administrators to no longer be required to call police when a student engages in stalking, assault and battery affecting school personnel or the school itself.

One bill would make Virginia a sanctuary state for thousands of illegals who will be issued drivers licenses and be able to vote in our elections.

And yet another would let our tax money be used to subsidize tuition for illegal aliens.

“And the list goes on and on,” Hughes said.

“The most feckless and egregious thing happened this week with the retaliation attack by the majority who denied raises to the sheriffs of Virginia. Sen. (Richard) Saslaw said, ‘because the sheriff’s have refused to enforce our gun laws.’

“So, they are punishing the sheriffs for standing for the oath of office they have sworn to uphold in the constitution and not enforcing these unconstitutional gun laws,” Hughes charged.

Hughes added that, “when you think about home guard, its not just about protecting our Second Amendment rights, but it’s about guarding and protecting our way of life here in Pulaski County and Southwest Virginia.”

By MIKE WILLIAMS, The Patriot