Virginian Pilot Editorial Page Urges General Assembly to Consider Gun Control

Tuesday's Virginian Pilot had this editorial calling on the General Assembly to consider additional restrictions on our firearm rights in the upcoming session.  The bulk of the editorial discussed the recommendations of the special legislative committee appointed in the General Assembly after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, last February.  House Speaker Kirk Cox set up the committee to consider recommendations that would actually make our schools safer, but specifically said the committee would not consider new gun control.  After praising the committee's 24 recommendations, the Pilot then went for gun control:

Efforts to make schools safe need to be balanced. It would be wrong to turn schools into armed fortresses, and arming teachers is a bad idea. But an approach that ignores the tough issue of gun control also is out of balance.

Consider one proposal that didn’t make the cut for the 24 submitted to the legislature. Del. David Toscano, a Democrat from Charlottesville, backed a recommendation that would allow judges to force family members to lock up guns in their homes if a student demonstrates serious mental-health problems. That sounds sensible, and it wouldn’t cost any money. But it has to do with making guns less readily available, so it won’t be presented.

The committee has produced a number of good proposals in a short time, working within the limits it was given.

The General Assembly should be under no such limitations, however. Legislators should consider these recommendations, but they should also consider all aspects of school safety — including the difficult matter of gun control.

There have been very few firearm related bills pre-filed for the 2019 Session but expect a full load of gun control bills to be considered. As always, VSSA will be there protecting the rights of Virginia's gun owners.