Delegate BaCote Targets Preemption

Yesterday, Delegate Mamie BaCote filed a bill that attempts to chip away at Virginia's preemption statute. Preemption is the policy where only the state law making body (in Virginia that would be the General Assembly) can pass firearms related legislation with rare exceptions (the only exceptions in this case are distances from buildings where a firearm can be discharged or where hunting is permitted within its boundries). BaCote's bill, HB1910, would allow localities to ban firearms from libraries owned or operated by the locality.

This is another one of those bills that die every year only to be reintroduced the next. I can't for the life of me remember the last time a law abiding gun owner committed a crime with a firearm in a public library (or any other local government facility for that matter).