While they’re saving the most radical legislation for last, Virginia is on track to pass six more gun control measures soon.
After Democrats initially took full control over VA’s government this month they first passed three gun control bills, while the mostly controversial bill that would redefine and ban assault weapons was shot down (but a nearly identical bill still exists). Then the day after over 20,000 people showed up to Richmond to protest gun control, Virginia passed a “red flag” law.
And now six more or are on the way. As Bearings Arms’ Cam Edwards documented and reported on, here’s the list:
- House Bill 2 and House Bill 335 are both “universal background check” bills that criminalize private transfers of firearms, with only a few exceptions. Most common transfers between friends and neighbors are not exempted.
- House Bill 9 is a “lost or stolen” bill that turns gun owners into criminals if they don’t report a lost or stolen firearm within 24 hours of discovering them missing by fining them. Supposedly this is supposed to cut down on “straw purchases,” but lawmakers who support the measure haven’t been able to explain how, exactly, the bill would work in practice.
- House Bill 421 allows local governments to enact their own gun control ordinances, which would likely result in restrictive and unconstitutional policies being adopted in northern Virginia and other Democrat strongholds of the state.
- House Bill 72, House Bill 463, and House Bill 1083, according to NRA, “severely restrict parental decisions about firearms in the home while attaching excessive penalties for violations.” Under these bills, it would be a crime for a parent to allow their 16-year old to hunt on the family’s property without direct adult supervision, or for parents to allow their 17-year old daughter access to a firearm for self-defense while she was home along, no matter how much training the teens might have.
- House Bill 674 is [another piece of] “red flag” legislation allowing the seizure of an individual’s firearms based on a low standard of review and without any opportunity for the subject of the Extreme Risk Protection Order to be present at the hearing or to offer their own side of the story before the temporary order is issued.
- House Bill 812 and House Bill 1502 are gun rationing bills that limit an individual’s ability to purchase a handgun to one every 30 days.
For Virginia Democrats, passing gun control is the easy part. Enforcing it is a whole other story.
In less than six weeks after Virginia Democrats initially began discussing gun control, 90%+ of the state’s countries (containing 40% of the population but the majority of the gun owners) became “Second Amendment sanctuaries” that refused to enforce any new gun laws. Further complicating hopes for more extreme measures, cash purchases of the exact firearms Virginia Democrats want to eventually ban outright began to surge.
Virginia’s Democrats are claiming gun control victories – but they may just be symbolic.
