Bands of white nationalists were met by counterprotesters in Charlottesville on Aug. 12. (The Washington Post)

Bands of white nationalists were met by counterprotesters in Charlottesville on Aug. 12. (The Washington Post)

Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer called on the Virginia state legislature on Friday to convene a special session to push for new laws that would give local governments power to decide the fates of their Confederate war memorials.

Signer, a Democrat, also asked that localities be able to suspend some gun laws after his city was besieged by violence during a white nationalist rally last weekend.

Signer issued a lengthy, six-page statement outlining what he views as the next steps for the progressive Southern college town reeling from the fallout of the violence, attention and outrage that has made Charlottesville the center of a national debate about Confederate history and white supremacy.

"Last weekend changed not only Charlottesville, but America," Signer wrote. "While we are getting back on our feet, we are still traumatized. . . . But we will overcome this hatred."

Charlottesville is in recovery mode after a week in which the city became the furious flash point of opposing values and interpretations of American history, spilling violently into the streets of a city in a state that was once part of the Confederacy.

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[Recounting a day of rage, hate, violence and death]

This turning point, as Signer called it, comes just as a new semester begins at the University of Virginia and the city readies itself to welcome thousands of families in luggage-loaded vehicles moving their young adults into the state's flagship college.

Downtown, businesses and residents have moved quickly to replace the images of hate seen around the country with love — literally, giant letters spelling L-O-V-E were installed by the state tourism board as public art on the pedestrian mall. Shops carried signs celebrating diversity, and faith leaders are calling for reconciliation and healing.

But some activists say healing can't begin without apologies and accountability.

U-Va. President Teresa A. Sullivan announced Friday that she had put together a working group to evaluate the institution's response to a torch rally staged by white nationalists in which some students were surrounded and threatened a week ago. She appointed a civil rights scholar and law professor to lead the group's examination of school policies.

"We must recover from violence, from bigotry, from vulnerability. We must heal," Risa Goluboff, dean of the university's School of Law, said in a statement. "We must also act."

To that end, the mayor is also moving forward by asking the General Assembly to give localities authority over their monuments and the power to ban open-carry or concealed weapons during public events that pose security threats.

"I think these people came like arsonists, they are intending to burn down the pillars of a constitutional democracy, compromise civility, deliberation, tolerance, reconciliation and it falls to all of us to overcome it," Signer said in an interview.

Michael Rodi, owner of downtown restaurant and nightclub Rapture, is organizing with other downtown Charlottesville business leaders for the same kinds of regulations Signer is calling for to protect residents and businesses if and when the groups return.

"This is not over," said Rodi. "They need to give us the tools to prevent another invasion. This was an act of war on the city."

Signer said he is also working with his colleagues to launch a "comprehensive review" of Charlottesville's permitting process to provide city officials with more tools to address potential public safety threats and "prevent mayhem before it happens."

One person was killed and 19 others were injured after police say James Alex Fields, 20, of Maumee, Ohio, plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters last Saturday with his Dodge Challenger. Fields has been charged with second-degree murder after 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed in the crash.

Heyer, who has been heralded as a hero, was memorialized during a public service this week in which her mother, Susan Bro, called on the country to channel anger into "righteous action."

['They tried to kill my child to shut her up,' Heather Heyer's mother mourns ]

It was in that spirit, Signer said, that he is proposing that the Charlottesville City Council consider creating a permanent memorial in Emancipation Park or elsewhere honoring Heyer's memory in