NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Norfolk City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to pass a resolution to support a special session Gov. Ralph Northam is convening to address gun violence.
Northam announced last week he is calling lawmakers back to Richmond in early July to take up a new package on gun control legislation.
The governor is asking the General Assembly to pass laws that include bans on silencers and high-capacity magazines. His renewed calls for more gun control come after 12 people were killed in a mass shooting at a municipal building in Virginia Beach.
“We have failed to act on gun violence. It is wrong that we now view these mass shooting as normal. In fact, it is wrong that we view gun violence in general as the new normal,” Northam said in a news conference last week. “I will be asking for votes and laws not thoughts and prayers.”
VIDEO: Northam calls for vote on gun control
Norfolk’s resolution vote comes amid a string of recent violence in the city.
A 15-year-old boy was gunned down in Young Terrace last Sunday — just a couple of weeks after a 13-year-old was shot in the same community.
Police Chief Larry Boone said more than a dozen children have been shot in the city in 2019. Boone said he is cautiously optimistic about the governor’s new laws.
“This has been discussed many times. We have not been able to cross the goal line just yet. I hope this time we’ll get some progress,” Boone said. “If not, we’ll be doing this again whether it’s the shootings that happen across this nation or in Hampton Roads or a mass shooting. They are all equally the same and they have an impact on human life. It impacts us psychologically and we can do better than that.”
Northam has scheduled the special session for July 9.