VSSA Ready to Challenge Spanberger Gun Ban

Yesterday, Governor Spanberger signed several bills after the General Assembly approved her changes.  Those bills were HB1525 and two companion bills - HB1524 and SB727.  HB1525 prohibits individuals under the age of 21 from purchasing and possessing certain firearms, including those who already own those particular firearms.  Making matters worse, this bill includes an "emergency clause" that makes the law effective immediately instead of July 1 which is usually t he case.  This means that thousands of previously legal gun owners are now in violation of Virginia law with no notice.

The other two bills (SB727/HB1524) out law the carrying and transportation of many common firearms on public property.  This includes any semiautomatic centerfire rifle or handgun with a fixed magazine capacity over 15 rounds.  This law does not take effect until July 1, 2026.

The Assembly rejected Spanberger's changes to HB217 and SB749, the bills banning the purchase of certain semi-automatomatic handguns and rifles, as well as banning the purchase of magazines that hold more than 15 rounds of ammunition.  We are waiting on her signature on the original bills.  There is no reason to believe that she is going to veto those bills.

Other Bills that remain to be determined:

HB229 and SB143 - The other bills the Assembly “passed by” during the special session to consider the governor’s changes was HB229/SB143, which bans people from carrying guns at facilities that provide mental health treatment. Spanberger wanted to expand the restricion and remove an exception that allowed staff or security to carry firearms if administrators gave the ok.

By “passing by,” deciding not to offer a final vote on the changes rather than out right voting down the changes, the House and Senate effectively rejected her recommendation. The bill still has the exceptions for anyone who gets written permission from the hospital. It heads back to Spanberger’s desk, too.

The same questions about what the governor will do with HB217 and SB749 apply here. She made the same boilerplate statement about approving the bill’s “general purpose” in her recommendation statement. Will she veto it because the legislature didn’t add what she wanted?

She has 30 days to decide.

As soon as she signs the bills, VSSA is ready to challenge them in court.  We have been working with the NRA since the bills passed before the end of the Session to find plantiffs and to draft the documents to challenge them in court.  Be assured that VSSA and NRA will not let these infringments on your rights stand.

Additionally we are watching several cases that have been waiting at the U.S. Supreme Court related to gun and magazine bans.  The challenges to semiautomatic firearm bans (Viramontes and National Association for Gun Rights) and standard capacity magazine bans (Duncan and Gator’s Custom Guns) were discussed at conference on Friday, April 17. None of those have been listed on the Order’s List, so the Court may reschedule the cases for discussion at a future conference. We’ll keep an eye on their respective dockets.

Don't Let Up Now Because This is Just the Beginning

The Washington Post reports this morning that the Senate's gun control bill is whitering under fierce lobbying from "firearms advocates" even one proposal that most thought was destined to become law:

Gun-control measures that seemed destined to become law after the school shootings in Newtown, Conn., are in jeopardy amid a fierce lobbying campaign by firearms advocates.

Despite months of negotiations, key senators have been unable to find a workable plan for near-universal background checks on gun purchases — an idea that polls show nine in 10 Americans support.

I really would like to see the question that is being asked to come up with the "9 out of 10" statistic.  I'm betting they simply being asked if "all gun sales" should all be subject to a background check without explaining what the process is now, or what is considered a sale or "transfer" under the proposal currently part of the Senate gun control bill, that statistic would change dramatically.  Further, it is possible that some of these are "push polls" that give leading information, like the discredited "40% of gun purchases don't go through a background check" before asking the polling question.

The article also notes that the gun ban lobby is stepping up it's lobbying efforts, but some are finding that they aren't the first to discuss the issue with targeted legislators:

Gun-control advocates are trying to match the NRA’s lobbying firepower. Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a group that sprung up in the days after the Newtown shootings, has been tweeting to lawmakers and visiting their offices to press their case.

Jennifer Fiore, the group’s vice president, recalled that a recent meeting between a mother and an unnamed senior aide to a Senate Republican prompted a sharp, emotional exchange after the staff member repeatedly referred to the recordkeeping provisions in the background-check bill as akin to a national gun registry — a frequent NRA talking point.

“The mom in this office who listened to him talking about registries versus recordkeeping was so fed up with that kind of talk that she got pretty real with him, and at the end of that process I could tell he was listening to us,” Fiore recalled. “Our job is to pop the bubbles that they’re living in and remind them who their constituents are.”

But the exchange also illuminated for Fiore the extent of the NRA’s reach. “They made it into somebody’s office before I got there,” she said.

Let's make sure that the gun ban lobby finds that they have been beaten to the punch in every office, not by a member of NRA Federal Affairs, but by hundreds of thousands of gun owning constituients through our letters, emails, and phone calls.  Feel free to use this information as background for your phone calls and letters.  Besure to reference that the information came from President Obama's own research experts at the National Institute of Justice.

One other thing, now that we have a specific piece of legislation, ask your Senator to tell you specifically where they stand on S.649 and to please do you the courtesy of not replying with boilerplate language.

Finally, remember, this is only round one.  Even if we beat back this attempt, Joe Biden has already confirmed "this is just the beginning."  So we can't go back to our lives as if everything has gone back to normal.  They will be back, and next time, they may try an end around run to get what they want.

State Senator Marsden Wants to Hold Gun Onwers Liable for Crimes When Firearm is Stolen and Used in a Crime

State Senator Dave Marsden has prefiled bills that would make the victim of a crime of stolen firearms civilly liable if those firearms were used in a crime, and a bill that would fine the owner if they do not report the firearm(s) as stolen withing 48 hours of when "he knew or reasonably should have known that such firearm had been lost or stolen." SB 785 and SB 786 were prefiled within days of the Sandy Hook, CT, school shooting.

While only total of six firearm related bills have been prefiled to date (five restricting our rights and one that yet again creates an exemption from concealed handgun permit fees for a class of public employees), it is expected that a range of anti-rights bills will be introduced to include bans on private transfers which was first introduced last year by Richmond State Senator Donald Maceachin , as well as the annual so-called "gun show loophole" bill.  WTOP reports that Richmond Delegate Joe Morrissey is drafting legislation that would ban modern sporting rifles and standard capacity magazines.

The 2013 General Assembly convenes on January 9th and will be in session until February 23.  The Reconvened Session to consider the Governor's vetoes and amendments will be held April 3rd.  The last day to introduce legislation is January 18th and "Crossover" is February 5th.