Governor McDonnell Stands with Freedom When Questioned on Navy Yard Shooting

Governor McDonnell has been a true friend to supporters of the Second Amendment during his time as Governor and in the aftermath of the Navy Yard murders, he continues to stand firm. This from the Tampa Tribune:

"I've yet to see any conclusive data that suggests that a waiting period would work. We have an instant background check in Virginia. We are one of the first states to have that some 20 years or so ago," the pro-gun Republican governor said on Tuesday morning's program.

The Tribune article noted that even though the Navy Yard killer had numerous mental health issues, he passed a background check. What the Tribune did not mention was he had never been adjudicated as mentally disturbed.

Thanks Governor McDonnell for standing with law abiding gun owners.

Obama Working Group Likely to be Heavily Focused on Gun Control

Hoping to act before Americans move on to other concerns, President Obama announced that the working group he created today to address the Newtown shooting would offer recommendations by the end of January.  The Hill notes that the fact Vice President Joe Biden has been put in charge of the working group means it will focus mostly on gun control.  Obama said that public opinion polls showed support for a so-called "assault weapons" ban, limits on the size of ammunition magazines, and waiting periods for firearms purchases as if that is a good reason to rush and impose new laws.

If only the politicians in Washington had the testicular fortitude of Virginia's governor.  The Washington Post Virginia Politics blog notes that Governor Bob McDonnell said on Monday it is "way too early" to know whether new gun control laws are needed in the wake of the Newtown school shooting.
It is interesting that the things that Obama and others have cited like waiting periods, closing the so-called "gun show loophole" had nothing to do with what happened at Newtown.  Additionally, a new ban on modern sporting rifles would not prevent this type of incident from occurring the future since they would only ban the sale of additional rifles of this type.  So, it sounds an awful lot like the gun ban crowd is using this incident to try and get everything that has been on their laundry list for the last ten years.

McDonnell Discussion on Arming School Officials Draws Opposition

Not completely unexpected, Governor Bob McDonnell's comment yesterday that maybe it is time for a discussion about arming some school officials is drawing fire from the predictable quarters:

Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, Democratic caucus chairman, said, “The governor should know better than to suggest that arming citizens will solve anything.

“Maybe the governor should focus on solutions that could actually have an impact, like banning the high-capacity magazines used to inflict horrific violence upon countless American cities.”

The Virginia Education Association had a more measured response:

Meg Gruber, president of the Virginia Education Association, the state’s teachers union, said Tuesday that “In the aftermath of last week’s tragic events, we need to give careful consideration to measures to keep students safe.”

The Governor for his part made sense when he asked this rhetorical question:

“If a person like that was armed and trained could they have stopped the carnage in the classroom? Perhaps.”

VSSA Strongly Supports Governor's Amendments to Air Rifle Bill, Family Firearm Bill

Earlier this month, Governor McDonnell signed four bills supported by VSSA.  Today, amendments recommended by Governor McDonnell were posted on the LIS and he has recommended amendments to HB1422, a bill that adds one family firearm, not to exceed $3,000 in value, to the list of items that every householder shall be entitled to hold exempt from creditor process in bankruptcy. The Governor also recommended an amendment to SB 757, the "Air Rifle" bill that prohibits a locality from adopting an ordinance that prohibits the shooting of pneumatic guns on private property, with permission of the owner of the property, if reasonable care is taken to prevent a projectile from crossing the bounds of the property.

The Governor's amendent to HB1422 is a minor clarifying amendment and VSSA supports the change.  The amendment to SB757 is a great improvement to the language related to the invalidation of  previous ordinances, and VSSA strongly approves of the Governor's recommendation.  Please contact your delegate and senator and urge them to support the Governor's recommendations to both bills when the Assembly reconvenes on April 6.

The bills signed into law by Governor McDonnell:

House Bill 1552 :Amends the language relating to the issuance of de facto concealed handgun permits. Current law states that if a court does not issue a permit or find that the applicant is disqualified, within 45 days of receipt of the application, the clerk is to certify the application and send it to the applicant. The certified application then serves as a de facto permit until the actual permit is issued or the applicant is found to be disqualified. The bill states that the clerk must mail or e-mail the certified application to the applicant within five business days of the expiration of the 45-day period.  Also, a friendly amendment added to HB 1552 will now provide delivery of the certified temporary application by electronic mail.

House Bill 1856: Allows a concealed handgun permit holder to obtain a replacement permit in the event that the original permit is lost or destroyed. The permit holder would be required to submit a notarized statement to the clerk of the court that the permit was lost or destroyed and pay a fee not to exceed $5, and the clerk would be required to issue a replacement permit within 10 business days. The replacement permit will have the same expiration date as the original permit.

House Bill 1857: Clarifies that a member of the military may provide permanent orders assigning him to the Pentagon for purposes of providing documentation of residency when purchasing a firearm from a licensed dealer.  It corrects a problem caused by the federal government where some military personnel who are attempting to purchase a firearm in the Commonwealth are being turned away because their permanent duty orders have assigned them to the Pentagon, which lists its official address in Washington, D.C., despite being located in Virginia. HB 1857 will clarify existing law and include the permanent orders to the Pentagon as criteria for required documentation of residence.

Senate Bill 1213/House Bill 1501: Provides that the State Board of Elections, in cooperation with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, will make mail voter registration application forms available where hunting and fishing licenses are sold.

Please email the Governor and thank him for signing the above bills.

Attend a Governor McDonnell Townhall on Government Reform

Last week, NRA-ILA sent an email alert encouraging gun owners to attend one of the town halls that Governor Bob McDonnell is holding around the Commonwealth on the subject of Government Reform. One suggesting for reforming Virginia government and saving taxpayers money would be to scrap the current Virginia Instant Check System for gun purchases and use the National Instant Check System (NICS). In April, I posted about the problem of background checks taking longer and the impact is has had on gun shows. The Richmond Times Dispatch reported at that time the reason according to the State Police:

Officials say it is tied to increased demand for firearms at the same time that budget and funding constraints have reduced the number of staffers available to handle the transactions.

Spokeswoman Corinne Geller said that since May 2009, the agency has lost 11 people from its 28-person staff at the Virginia Firearms Transaction Center, including two federally funded full-time workers who used to attend gun shows and conduct the computerized checks on-site.

NRA believes that the best way to alleviate the problem is not allocate more money to the State Police, but to scrap the state system and have Virginia use the NICS. Such a suggestion is likely the type of government reforms ideas that Governor McDonnell may find appealing.

There are a number of town halls coming up in the next week and gun owners are encouraged to attend and suggest to Governor McDonnell that one efficient reform idea is for Virginia to stop doing its own checks and instead have them go through NICS. If you live near one of the town hall locations, please attend, then let VSSA know the Governor's response by posting a comment on this blog post.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 24
7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
412 Lee Hall at University of Mary Washington
1301 College Avenue in FREDERICKSBURG

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25
7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
CIT Auditorium
2214 Rock Hill Road, Suite 300 in HERNDON


THURSDAY, AUGUST 26
7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Montpelier Room of East Campus Dining Hall
James Madison University in HARRISONBURG

MONDAY, AUGUST 30
7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Great Hall of Institute for Advanced Learning and Research
150 Slayton Avenue in DANVILLE

TUESDAY, AUGUST 31
7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
J. Henry Kegley Meeting Room in Bristol Public Library
701 Goode Street in BRISTOL

VSSA had the opportunity to discuss this with NRANews.com last week.

New Gun Laws Effective Today

July 1st is the day that new laws take effect and no other new law has been more anticipated than repeal of the ban on carrying concealed in restaurants like Applebees and Olive Garden, which serve alcohol in edition to food. VSSA has been working hard to repeal the ban for 16 years and the election of Governor Bob McDonnell finally helped make our hard work pay off. Remember if you do carry in a restaurant, you are not allowed to consume alcohol while carrying concealed.

Also taking effect today is the renewal of Concealed Handgun Permits (CHPs) by mail, repeal of a little used law that allowed localities to impose a license tax on persons engaged in the business of selling pistols and revolvers as well as the record keeping requirement for such persons, a law allowing local schools to offer firearm safety education modeled on the Eddie Eagle Gun Safe program, and a law that allows non-CHP holders to store their firearm in a private motor vehicle or boat if the handgun is secured in a container or compartment.

VSSA had a very successful lobbying effort this year. While we were disappointed that the State Senate created a killing field special sub-committee in violation of Senate rules that killed repeal of handgun rationing as well as the full committee killing Castle Doctrine legislation, we had many successes. Now that the restaurant ban is repealed, VSSA will focus on passing Castle Doctrine and repealing one gun-a-month. You can help in this effort by sharing the news with your fellow gun owners about what VSSA does to protect and expand their gun rights and urging them to join VSSA.

Dan Casey Joins Chorus Against Eddie Eagle

On July 1, a number of new laws will take effect in the Commonwealth. One of those new laws, House Bill 1217, was introduced by Del. Lynwood Lewis, (D-Accomack County) which allows local school boards to offer firearm safety education programs in the elementary grades. The State Board of Education must establish a standardized program of firearm safety education for students in the elementary school grades and the bill requires that the program objectives incorporate, among other principles of firearm safety, accident prevention and the rules of the National Rifle Association's Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program.

For some reason, this seems to cause some editorial writers heartburn. Not long after the bill passed with Governor McDonnell's amendments, Michael Shannon with the Prince William News and Messenger wrote:

In this latest outrage, the General Assembly has directed the state's Board of Education to produce a curriculum for teaching gun safety to elementary school children that incorporates the advice of the National Rifle Association.

I guess it should not surprise me that the Roanoke Times' Dan Casey has joined in. Since his favorite target for the last year, online training qualifying for the training required for a concealed handgun permit, has not lead to mass shootings, another target was needed to fill his OP/ED space. Casey infers that it's payback for the NRA election activity on McDonnell's behalf last year.

The new law prescribes a gun-education curriculum for Virginia elementary schools, based upon materials provided by the National Rifle Association's "Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program."

Late in the game, Gov. Bob McDonnell made a seemingly innocuous change that effectively limited curriculum input to the NRA.

That came after the NRA's political action committee spent $622,000 last fall on radio, television and online ads promoting McDonnell for governor.

The change to which Casey refers is the correction of an error made by the Legislative Services staff who drafted a Senate amendment to the bill at the request of Senator Richard Saslaw. Casey makes a passing reference to the fact that the amendment was drafted incorrectly and named an organization (National Crime Prevention Center) that did not exist. It is likely that Saslaw told the LS staff National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) but NCPC made it known that they did not have an up-to-date firearm safety curriculum so Governor McDonnell amended the bill back to the form in which it passed the House. The Senate overwhelmingly concurred.

Casey also did not miss the chance to slip in Josh Sugarmann's (Violence Policy Center) comparison of Eddie Eagle to Joe Camel as if the Eddie Eagle program would encourage children to be interested in guns. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both of my elementary school aged children know the message delivered by the program and have the DVD provided by the NRA. I have yet to find either of them standing in front of my gun safe trying to figure out how to open it to gain access to one of the many firearms stored inside.

Casey tries to come off as not being anti-gun all the while being very snarky when he writes on the topic. One sure gets the feeling reading his articles that he fits in very nicely with the anti-gun editors of the Roanoke Times.

McDonnell Amendments Approved

Governor McDonnell's amendments to HB885 and HB1217 were approved by the General Assembly tonight. After five hours of debating budget amendments, The House began to focus on other legislation. The outcome was never in doubt in the House but the Senate was going to be the real test, especially with Lt. Governor Bill Bolling stranded in Italy where he had been on an economic develement trip.

HB885 is Delegate Clay Athey's bill that would allow individuals that do not possess a concealed carry permit to store their loaded firearm in a locked container in a vehicle or boat. Governor McDonnell amended to bill, removing the locked container requirement to simply be a "secured" container. The Amendment was overwhelmingly approved in the House and squeaked by in the Senate 20-19. The following senators supported gun owners:

Blevins, Deeds, Edwards, Hanger, Houck, Hurt, Martin, McDougle, McWaters, Norment, Obenshain, Puckett, Reynolds, Ruff, Smith, Stosch, Stuart, Vogel, Wagner, Wampler

These senators voted against gun owners:

Barker, Colgan, Herring, Howell, Locke, Lucas, Marsden, Marsh, McEachin, Miller, J.C., Miller, Y.B., Northam, Petersen, Puller, Quayle, Saslaw, Ticer, Watkins, Whipple

HB1217 is the bill sponsored by Delegate Lynwood Lewis (D-100), that would allow local school boards to offer firearm safety education programs in the elementary grades. To assist local school boards opting to provide such instruction, the Board of Education must establish a standardized program of firearm safety education for students in the elementary school grades to promote the protection and safety of children. The bill requires that the program objectives incorporate, among other principles of firearm safety, accident prevention and the rules of the NRA’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe® program. Local school boards offering the program must comply with Board curriculum guidelines and integrate the instruction in appropriate subject areas, if feasible, to ensure that every elementary school student receives instruction in firearm safety education.

The Senate Education and Health Committee added an amendment that would permit school boards to also use principles provided by the National Crime Prevention Center.

Governor McDonnell has recommended that the bill be amended back to it's original form.

That amendment was adopted overwhelmingly in both houses.

Both bills become law on July 1.

General Assembly Reconvenes Wednesday to Consider Amendments

On April 13, Governor Bob McDonnell (R) added favorable amendments to two VSSA-supported bills, HB1217 and HB885.

HB1217 and HB885 will be taken up by the Virginia General Assembly during the reconvened session, which starts tomorrow, Wednesday April 21. The Governor's amendments can be agreed to or rejected. If the amendments are agreed to by both houses, the amended bill is reenrolled and becomes law. If the Governor's amendments are rejected, the original bill is sent back to the Governor where it may be signed as originally presented or vetoed.

House Bill 1217, sponsored by Delegate Lynwood Lewis (D-100), would allow local school boards to offer firearm safety education programs in the elementary grades. To assist local school boards opting to provide such instruction, the Board of Education must establish a standardized program of firearm safety education for students in the elementary school grades to promote the protection and safety of children. The bill requires that the program objectives incorporate, among other principles of firearm safety, accident prevention and the rules of the NRA's Eddie Eagle GunSafe® program. Local school boards offering the program must comply with Board curriculum guidelines and integrate the instruction in appropriate subject areas, if feasible, to ensure that every elementary school student receives instruction in firearm safety education. The Senate Education Committee added an amendment that would permit school boards to also use principles provided by the National Crime Prevention Center. Governor McDonnell amended the bill to the form in which it passed the House and deleting the reference to the National Crime Prevention Center.

The anti-rights Virginia Center for Public Safety sent out a desperate email last night accusing the Governor of mandating "NRA education for all children." We need gun owners to act now to make sure this outlandish charge does not defeat the amendment.

House Bill 885, sponsored by Delegate Clay Athey (R-18), would allow any person who may lawfully possess a firearm and is carrying a handgun while in a personal, private vehicle or vessel to keep the firearm locked in a container or compartment in the vehicle or vessel. Senate Bill 408 was not signed into law as the Governor seeks to amend it's companion bill, HB885. Governor McDonnell has recommended that the General Assembly strike the word "locked" and replace it with the word "secured".

Please contact both your Delegate and Senator and respectfully urge them to approve the Governor's amendments to HB1217 and HB885/SB408.

You can find your legislator's contact information here.

Governor McDonnell Signs Repeal of Restaurant Ban

Governor Bob McDonnell has signed into law VSSA-backed legislation allowing Concealed Handgun Permit (CHP) holders to carry a concealed firearm for self-defense in restaurants like Applebees and Olive Garden that serve alcohol as well as food, providing they do not consume alcohol. State Senator Emmett Hanger (R-24) and Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-15) were the patrons of Senate Bill 334 and House Bill 505 respectively.

This commonsense measure passed the State Senate in February by a bi-partisan vote of 22-18 and passed the House of Delegates in early March with a bipartisan vote of 72-27. This makes Virginia the 42nd state to extend self-defense rights to permit holders in restaurants.

There was absolutely no reason to prohibit CHP holders from carrying their self-defense firearm into a restaurant that serves alcohol. CHP holders are some of the most law abiding members of society. This is a 14 year battle that has finally been won with the hard work of Virginia's law-abiding gun owners.

VSSA would like to thank Governor Bob McDonnell and the lead bill sponsors, Senator Emmett Hanger and Delegate Todd Gilbert, as well as all the other legislators who supported this common-sense measure. The law will become effective on July 1, 2010.

Virginian gun owners can thank Governor Bob McDonnell for his Second Amendment support at (804) 786-2211 or click here to thank him via email.