In VA
The House just passed some pretty onerous gun laws:
If this measure becomes a law, it would be a Class 6 felony starting July 1. However, anyone in possession of an assault firearm (sic), large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer or trigger activator has until January 1, 2021 to render them inoperable, surrender them to police, or just get them out of Virginia altogether.
The bill also states that ownership can be retained if you have a permit from the Department of State Police allowing you to possess an assault weapon(sic).
Things could get sporty there.
February 11th, 2020 at 9:25 pm
“Trigger activator” so index fingers = felon…
February 11th, 2020 at 10:48 pm
I predict a run on storage lockers near the VA borders with West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee.
February 11th, 2020 at 10:58 pm
The game is still afoot.
Idiots, not that I expected them to learn anything from the big ass march of angry armed people.
February 12th, 2020 at 9:52 am
An entire state legislature taking a dump on rather recent Supreme Court precedent in Heller – wonder what the votes on this case will be when it gets decided?
I look forward to reading the dissent by Kagan-Sotomayor-RBG’s clerk, for the laughs.
February 12th, 2020 at 1:39 pm
mikeee, the problem is until it gets slapped down by SCOTUS, it’s the Law of the land.
February 12th, 2020 at 3:12 pm
@rickn8or, I’d guess that there’d be some type of injunction instated by a conservative judge somewhere in the law suit that would hault the surrender till the courts had it out on this. So while it will be pass as law, there will be an stay on its enforcement while the proceedings play out.
February 12th, 2020 at 3:27 pm
Wht the heck are people still citing the pre0filed bill and not the bill that passed the House?
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB961EH1
“Assault firearms” didn’t get banned. Future sales do.
February 12th, 2020 at 5:40 pm
And in due fairness, as far as I can tell “It is unlawful for any person to import, sell, transfer, manufacture, or purchase a silencer, provided that a person may transfer a silencer in accordance with the provisions of the National Firearms Act (26 U.S.C. § 5801 et seq.).” is normal boilerplate for “suppressors are illegal under state law unless you have an NFA tax stamp”.
That’s just a way to throw on state-level charges for owning an unregistered suppressor, I think.
February 12th, 2020 at 8:24 pm
Carl, it looks like it’s a Class 1 misdemeanor for possession of a single “high capacity” magazine (more than 12 rounds). It changes to a Class 6 Felony if you sell, transfer, manufacture or TRANSPORT such a magazine. (18.2-308.10)
“assault firearms” (basically any AR-15 or AK ever made, plus lots of others) cannot be bought or sold, transferred outside of one’s immediate family, and cannot be carried other than to & from hunting or “sport shooting event”.
No they haven’t banned possession (yet), but it isn’t far off.
February 12th, 2020 at 10:58 pm
Sorry to see it. If constitutionalists can’t get out the vote, it’s time to just
Get.
Out.
February 13th, 2020 at 9:05 am
No doubt, in VIOLATION of “the rule of law” and “no one is above the law” government officials and agents are EXEMPTED and probably even private security companies. So that, when a person like Mike Bloomberg comes into Virginia, his private armed security are not subject to the UNLAWFUL State laws which they have enacted against their own citizens!!
February 14th, 2020 at 10:46 am
One of the bills had an exception for current and former law enforcement. That’s why one of the sheriffs was promising to temporarily deputize 1000s of people in his county.
February 15th, 2020 at 3:30 pm
@Ravenwood, Virginia’s own State Constitution, I think it is Article I, Section 13 if my memory is correct, states that the militia is composed of the body of the people. It also has within it, the language that was adopted into the 2nd Amendment when the Bill of Rights was added to the U.S. Constitution, that is, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”. But even excepting law enforcement would violate “the equal protection of the laws” in the 14th Amendment and the current mantra that “no one is above the law”, which I agree is precisely pursuant to the 14th Amendment clause. And EVERYTHING in these Virginia gun laws are an infringement on the right of the People!