Anti-gun lawmakers in Virginia, nonetheless celebrating a brand new Democrat governor, are losing no time pushing harmful anti-gun payments via the legislative course of.
Bolstered by the latest swearing in of Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat-led Senate Courts of Justice Committee on January 26 handed eight gun-control measures, most of which is able to now be thought-about by the Senate Finance Committee.
Maybe essentially the most egregious measure, Senate Invoice 749 bans sure semi-automatic firearms, together with many semi-automatic rifles, pistols and shotguns, and arbitrarily limits journal capacities.
“With the elimination of the grandfather clause for magazines, anybody in possession of magazines that exceed the arbitrary restrict will turn out to be a legal in a single day,” NRA’s Institute for Legislative Motion (NRA-ILA) wrote in a member alert. “This invoice is an try and redefine and ban firearms which might be in frequent use by law-abiding residents—plain and easy gun confiscation by definition.”
Among the many different anti-gun measures, SB 272 would restrict who can carry firearms at public establishments of upper studying, SB 348 would create necessary storage necessities, and SB 312 would prohibit carrying so-called “assault firearms” in public locations, together with streets, sidewalks and parks. As NRA-ILA identified, the imprecise definitions within the invoice principally criminalize carrying any centerfire semi-automatic firearm within the commonwealth.
Different anti-gun measures handed by the committee embrace SB 323, which might ban the centuries-old observe of Virginians constructing their very own firearms; SB 496, which locations additional restrictions on the power of residents to maintain a firearm of their automobile for self-defense; and SB 115, which might jeopardize hid handgun recognition and reciprocity agreements.
Philip Van Cleave, president of the gun rights group Virginia Residents Protection League (VCDL), was essential of the Democrat-passed measures at the moment on the transfer within the commonwealth, particularly the invoice banning so-called “assault weapons” and “high-capacity” magazines.
“Whereas Democrats have payments to weaken legal guidelines on violent criminals, they like and assist each invoice that in any approach infringes on the power of law-abiding residents to guard themselves,” Van Cleave stated in an e-mail to Virginiamercury.com. “For years Democrats stated, ‘Nobody desires to take your weapons, we simply need cheap gun management.’ They do need to take our weapons away, and the committee reported out payments that do exactly that with the preferred lengthy weapons in America. There is just one purpose {that a} authorities would need a disarmed inhabitants, and that’s to power their will upon that inhabitants.”
Sadly for Virginia gun homeowners, the lesson that “elections matter” is coming in a short time this time round. All the measures on the transfer within the Senate are ones that may opposed by former Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and Gov. Youngkin even vetoed a number of of the measures final yr.
Paradoxically, the one measure the committee killed was SB 78. That piece of laws—the one “commonsense” invoice into consideration—would have elevated necessary minimal sentences for repeat firearm offenses.
