Petersburg Postpones "Gun Buy-back"

NBC12 reported yesterday that the compensated confiscation scheme ("gun buy-back") planned for this weekend in Petersburg has been postponed.  It appears the gun ban group sponsoring the "buy-back" did not get the required ordinance passed in Petersburg before the event.  The response that NBC12 got from the Petersburg City Attorney was quite amusing:

NBC12 emailed Petersburg Police and the City Attorney to find out if organizers obtained that required ordinance. We received a statement addressed to Petersburg Police Chief John Dixon reading, "We must postpone Mothers Against Violent Crimes' 1st annual gun buyback due to circumstances beyond our control."

NBC12.com - Richmond, VA News

That ordinance is necessary thanks to a state law that VSSA helped pass in 2012.  That law, HB22, states that no locality can participate in any program in which individuals are given a thing of value in exchange for surrendering a firearm to the locality unless the governing body of the locality has enacted an ordinance authorizing the participation of the locality. 

Note that NBC12 said the event has been postponed, which gives the impression this may be brought before the city council.  But given the additional restrictions on the events, specifically that the law requires ordinances include a provision that firearms received through the exchange must be offered for sale by public auction or sealed bids to a person licensed as a dealer before otherwise disposing of the firearm.  That may be more than the city wants to deal with and this may be the end of the "annual" event before it ever got started.