Gun rights activists board buses to Virginia rally

Thousands of armed gun-rights activists from around the country poured into the streets around Virginia's capitol building on Monday to protest a package of gun-control legislation making its way through the newly Democratic-controlled state legislature.

At a baseball stadium in Richmond, hundreds of pro-gun advocates and militia members boarded buses bound for an area near the state capitol where the demonstration was being held.

Gun-rights advocate Jerry Johnson said the protest was meant to be peaceful, adding "we want to just show America that this is everybody's right.

Whether you like guns or you don't like guns, you can't take our rights away." The Richmond rally began with a festival atmosphere amid heavy security after Governor Ralph Northam banned carrying weapons onto the capitol grounds, anxious to avoid a replay of the violence at a 2017 demonstration by white nationalists in Charlottesville that killed a counter-protester.