A brace if new gun control bills have come forward in the hottest hot zone of the second amendment at the moment. Virginia is throwing down more and more ridiculous rule submissions. Are the anti-gunners there really going for broke or are they stirring the pot hoping for aggressive comments from us and to see if they can pass some “reasonable commonsense” middle ground measures. It smells fishy.
House Bill 567. Indoor shooting ranges; prohibited in buildings not owned or leased by the Commonwealth or Federal Government.
An exception is made for stand alone buildings the employee less than 50 people on the premises. Which… probably qualifies most stand alone ranges. But anyone who leases space from a larger facility with other businesses is hosed, unless they only cater to law enforcement and can prove it.
This stinks of a nonsense bill. Something submitted hoping to get an angry reaction. I don’t know the number of ranges that lease such space but from a 10,000 ft elevation view the biggest slash here is into private commerce under the ostensible notion of protecting locations where lots of people work. The language is aggressively anti-2A and anti-business while providing an exception they can point to as being “very reasonable” to stand-alone privately owned locations with small staff.
HB 568 Carrying or storing firearms in motor vehicles and vessels
An aggressive lock-up secure storage provision for Virginia residents transporting firearms in their vehicle. Attached is a civil penalty up to $2,500. Exception provided for concealed licensees.
This stinks of punishing the victim in event of theft.
It also removes the provision that grants the vehicle owner the ability to carry a concealed weapon within their vehicle because it is their vehicle. An extension of protecting themselves on their property. Certain states respect a person’s vehicle as an extension of their home and Virginia is looking to close that extension to anyone not with a concealed carry license.
HB 569 Reciprocity
Virginia could be tossing its new list of reciprocal rules for an older version and tightening who would qualify. Interesting note on the 24 hour access rule for verifying out of state permits and notes based around revoked permits by the state of Virginia.
This bill feels like more noise, similar to 567. The language feels like government busy work, for the most part, that stacks redundancy onto already prohibited persons. It shifts reciprocal agreement responsibility to the Attorney General. The language in this bill feels like procedural shuffling.
It’s placement feels like it is trying to provide cover 568 and 599, along with the Assault Weapon Ban and Training Bans proposed in earlier submissions.
HB 599 Carrying on Commonwealth Facilities, Owned or Leased
Buildings owned or leased by Virginia would be firearm free zones. No firearms, ammo, silencers, frames, receivers, nothing. The language does say ‘building’ and not ‘property’ which would make state parks a problem too (although any state building at a park will now be). Penalty is misdemeanor conviction, fines, and imprisonment.
Buildings would be posted as prohibited at public entrances.
Noise
This feels like tack on counter posts to the fact that the majority of the counties just gave them the bird. Here are more rules for the to rail and be mad about, and yet these ones don’t have the deep teeth of the others so the anger looks far more unreasonable. Who would sanctuary from a safe storage requirement?
I wouldn’t be surprised to see these bundled into a legislative packet of some sort to try and sneak the more palatable in with the less. An eye still on Virginia folks.
PSA: If you’re going to any of the legislative rally sites, protests, etc… wear a suit… not a plate carrier.
