Senate Bills in House Subcommittee Thursday

Bills are going to move even more quickly with only two weeks left in the session.  Senate Bills that made it to the House will be in the House Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee Subcommittee #1 this afternoon at 4:00.  The bills on the docket are:

S.B. 936 - would give law enforcement (including police, sheriffs, Capitol Police, and Virginia State Police) the option of donating an unclaimed firearm to the Department of Forensics in lieu of destroying the firearm. 

S.B. 948 - would prohibit the Virginia State Police from providing concealed handgun permit (CHP) holder information to law enforcement in states that do not have a reciprocal licensing agreement with Virginia.  This would prevent states like Maryland and New Jersey from going on “fishing expeditions” to find an excuse to arrest or harass Virginia CHP holders if they are stopped for nothing more than a routine traffic violation.

S.B. 1137 - would exempt concealed handgun permit holders from any local ordinances that ban having loaded rifles or shotguns in a vehicle on any public street, road, or highway.  Currently law enforcement, military and any person who reasonably believes that a loaded rifle or shotgun is necessary for his personal safety in the course of his employment or business are exempted.

S.B. 1155 - would require law-enforcement agencies to return stolen firearms to the rightful owner unless the person is prohibited from possessing the firearm or it is needed in a criminal prosecution.

S.B. 1191- would amend the statute that makes it a crime to possess a firearm, stun weapon, knife, and certain  other weapons on school property to require that the person must have knowingly possessed the firearm or other weapon.

VSSA's lobbying team does not expect any problems getting these bills out of committee or through the House of Delegates.

State Senate Passes Two Pro-Rights Bills

Yesterday, the State Senate approved two bills of interest to gun owners.  First was SB848, the Governor's Twenty marksmanship award.  SB 848 establishes the "Governor's Twenty" marksmanship award to recognize the top 20 competitors in each of the rifle and pistol matches conducted at the annual Virginia State Championships conducted by the Virginia Shooting Sports Association.   The bill passed 40-0.

Also approved yesterday was SB 948, Senator Stuarts bill that prohibits the Virginia Criminal Information Network from sharing information about Virginia CHP holders with law enforcement in states that do not have reciprocity agreements with Virginia.  This bill will prevents states like Maryland and New Jersey from going on fishing expeditions if a Virginian is simply stopped for routine traffic violations and the law enforcement agency that stopped them learned they have concealed handgun permits.  SB 948 passed 24-19 with three Democrats, Senator John Edwards, Senator Charles "Chuck" Colgan and Senator Linwood Lewis, joining all 21 Republicans.  During committee hearing of the bill, anti-rights State Senator Dick Saslaw said the Governor would veto the bill if it reached his desk.  We'll see.

Both bills now move to the House of Delegates.

Please contact your state Senator and thank them for voting for SB 848, and if they voted for SB 948, please let them know you appreciate their vote for that too.

VA GOP Withdraws Request for CHP Holder Information

The Richmond Times Dispatch reports today that the Republican Party of Virginia has withdrawn its request for information for the Commonwealth's estimated 270,000 concealed handgun permit (CHP) holders.  According to the RTD, the GOP sited the estimated cost of $120,000 for the information, based on the initial estimated costs they had received from some of the circuit court clerk offices.  This who had responded to the GOP request estimated that pulling the information requested would cost $1000. 

In his letter today, Reedy said many of the clerks provided cost estimates for retrieving and delivering the requested data, and “unfortunately, the average costs for producing these documents based on the information we’ve received so far would be more than $1,000 per office.”

“At an estimated cost of more than $120,000 for mailing addresses along, this method of communication is simply no longer cost effective,” he wrote. “Instead, we will work with other pro-Second Amendment groups to find ways to reach voters with critical information.”

It was likely as much a face-saving decision as a financial one however.  A number of people have expressed opposition to the request and believe it to be hypocritical given it was a GOP Senator, Mark Obenshain, who was responsible for making sure the information would become private and no longer accessible in individual clerks offices beginning July 1.

NBC12.com - Richmond, VA News

The Virginia GOP repeated that it was only trying to build information for out reach to voters. They will now have to rely on pro-rights groups to reach out to their members the get the information out. It is suggested that the candidates have a presense at every gun show between now and election day to insure gun owners know that all three of the Democrat candidates have made comments supportive of increased gun control.

Delegate Morrissey Compares Apples to Oranges In Opposition to CHP Privacy

As he did on the floor of the General Assembly when SB1335 was being considered, Delegate Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond) writes in today's Richmond Times Dispatch that like permits to assemble or building permits, concealed handgun permit (CHP) information should be open to the public.  SB1335 protects the personal information of concealed handgun permit holders and beginning July 1, will no longer be available upon request from the local office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court.

For more than 220 years, the circuit courts in our commonwealth have adhered to one unbending, inflexible tenet: All public records are presumed to be opened to the public for scrutiny. Indeed, the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, set forth in Section 2.2-3700 of the Virginia Code, states as much and guarantees that citizens of the commonwealth as well as representatives of the media shall have full access to all public records held by public bodies, public officials and public employees — including circuit court clerks’ offices.

Now, for the first time in the history of the commonwealth, an otherwise public document — a concealed gun permit — shall be sealed and unavailable to the citizenry and representatives of the media. This development should cause all advocates of open government to cringe.

Morrissey laments that the proponents of the bill claimed that unlike building permits, CHPs involve a "fundamental right."  He still compares apples to oranges when he says that the fundamental right to free sometimes involve permits to assemble on public property and those are open to the public.

The difference Mr. Morrissey, those permits likely do not contain the personally identifying information (PII) of individuals who have protectives orders against ex-spouses or boyfriends, or the PII of individuals who have escaped their abusers and don't want to be found by them.

Governor McDonnell Signs Concealed Carry Permit Holder Privacy Bill

Earlier today, Governor McDonnell signed Senator Mark Obenshain's Concealed Carry Confidentiality bill (SB 1335) into law. Now that SB 1335 has been signed, law-abiding Virginians will no longer risk having their private information disclosed simply because they choose to exercise a constitutional right.

It is well known what happened when a New York newspaper published an interactive map of concealed carry permit-holders on their website: criminals used it to their advantage and law-abiding gun owners were harassed. But what’s even more disturbing is that these lists sometimes disclose the new addresses of victims of domestic violence and others who have a very good reason not to want their contact information in public view.

The problem wasn’t limited to New York. Prior to the enactment of Senate Bill 1335, a list of the names and addresses of concealed handgun permit holders has been, and will be until July 1, available for the asking from any clerks’ office. 

In 2007, the Roanoke Times published a database containing the names and addresses of all concealed carry permit holders in Virginia, later pulled when they realized that they had inadvertently disclosed the new addresses of victims of domestic violence who owned firearms for their own protection. The Fredericksburg Free Lance Star continues to publish the name of individuals issued a CHP in the paper's circulation area.

With the enactment of this legislation, Virginia will join the majority of states in providing for the confidentiality of concealed handgun permit holders. The list will still be available to clerks’ offices, members of law enforcement, and other government officials entitled to access, but the list will no longer be subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

This isn’t a gun bill; it’s a public safety bill. The patron worked with the Virginia Court Clerks’ Association, and with clerks across the Commonwealth, on this important bill.

That New York newspaper treated law-abiding gun owners like criminals and, what’s worse, it put people in danger. That shouldn’t be allowed to happen here in Virginia – and with the enactment of SB1335, it can’t anymore.


When Tim Kaine was Governor, he signed a bill sealing these records with the State Police, but that legislation did not address clerks’ offices, which also have copies of these records. Senate Bill 1335 closes that loophole, and VSSA thanks Governor McDonnell for signing this bill into law. His action is good news for all Virginians, but especially Virginia concealed handgun permit holders, some of which are victims of domestic violence who should not have to worry if their abusers have access to their address and other personal information.

Vote Tally on CHP Privacy

There were some surprise yes votes on accepting the House Substitute to SB1335 that expanded protecting the privacy of concealed handgun permit (CHP)  holders with active protective orders to all CHP holders.  Please thank those senators voting to protect the personal information of Virginia CHP holders.

You can see the vote tally at the link below.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+vot+SV0527SB1335+SB1335