2022 Legislative Session Starts January 12

Happy New Year!  We are a little over a week away from the start of the 2022 General Assembly.  Prefiling of bills has begun and there are a handful of firearm related bills already in the hopper - all pro-rights - and all in the House of Delegates.  Most of the bills so far have been introduced by newly elected Delegate Timothy Anderson.  You may recognize that name as he is an attorney in the tidewater area and he posted a number of videos about various gun ban bills throughout the 2020 session.  He is also a certified gun safety instructor. According to his website, he has "organized and sued entities over the infringement of Virginian’s Second Amendment right". His bills include:

HB 10 - Resident concealed handgun permits; fees (Eliminates the fees that may be charged for the processing of an application for or issuing of a resident concealed handgun permit,); 

HB 11 - Concealed handgun permits; penalties (Changes the penalty for carrying a concealed firearm without a permit from a felony to a civil fine for  the first offense and reduces the criminal charges fro subsequent violations from felony to misdemeanor) ; 

HB 14 - Handguns; limitation on purchases; and, (Repeals handgun rationing)

HB 26 - Firearms; control by localities of possession or carrying. (Repeals law passed in 2020 that allows localities to pass gun ban ordanances)

Delegate Wendall Walker has introduced:

HB 23 Dangerous weapons; carrying to place of religious worship (Repeals the prohibition on the carrying of dangerous weapons in a place of worship without good and sufficient reason while a meeting for religious purposes is being held).

The likelihood of additional gun control passing and becoming law in Virginia over the next four years pretty much ended with the November election of Glenn Younkin as Governor.  VSSA will be working to pass legislation to repeal the gun ban bills passed in 2020.  With Democrats still controlling the State Senate, full repeal may not be until after the 2023 legislative elections but it's clear the at least two members of the House of Delegates aren't waiting.