RICHMOND, VA (AP) — A Republican senator from Southside resigned his leadership role to protest a top Republican’s push to ban guns in government-controlled buildings.

Sen. Bill Stanley told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he’s resigned as majority whip of the GOP Senate caucus after Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment sponsored legislation to implement a broad ban on government buildings.

Norment’s legislation caught both Republicans and gun-control advocates off guard. His GOP colleagues immediately pushed back. They say it’s an infringement on the rights of law-abiding citizens to prevent them from carrying guns into government buildings.

Norment is married to a lobbyist for the city of Virginia Beach, where a municipal worker gunned down his co-workers in a mass shooting.

Norment on Tuesday publicly disavowed the gun-control measure he had offered the day before.