Senate Bill Targets Outdoor Shooting Ranges

On January 6th, State Senator John Bell prefiled SB353, a bill that would prohibit the operation of an outdoor shooting range, defined in the bill, within 500 yards of any property zoned for residential use, with one exception, the range must have used the "Range Design Criteria" developed by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Health, Safety and Security.  VSSA has a number of affiliated ranges and it is possible that some of these have used the above criteria when they were constructed, but this bill would also prevent individual land owners from constructing a range on their property for private use unless it complies with the above criteria.  An individual in violation of the law were it to pass would be subject to a civil penalty of not less than $1,000 nor more than $100,000 for the initial violation and $5,000 per day for each day of violation thereafter.

Gun owners need to be contacting their legislators as bills continue to be filed.  Emails are fine should be short (no long missives) but phone calls are better.  Be polite, and focused in your message.

The Democrats have renamed the Senate Courts of Justice Committee to Senate Judiciary.  The Committee members are:

Edwards  (Chair), Saslaw, Norment, Lucas, Obenshain, McDougle, Stuart, Stanley, Chafin, Deeds, Petersen, Surovell, McClellan, Boysko, Morrissey

The Democrats on the committee that are most likely to be receptive to gun owner interests are Senator Edwards (the Chair of the committee), as well as Senators Deeds and Petersen.