Virginia Democrats Advance 7 Gun Control Bills, Including a Ban on 'Assault' Weapons

The Second Amendment states, and the Virginia Constitution repeats, that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Someone ought to tell the Virginia state Senate. This week, the Senate Courts of Justice Committee advanced seven bills that shall infringe on one of Americans’ most sacred and important rights. 

Senate Bill (S.B.) 749, introduced by state Sen. Saddam Salim (D–Merrifield), outlaws the importation, sale, and possession of “assault firearms,” which the Virginia Code defines as “any semi-automatic center-fire rifle or pistol…equipped at the time of the offense with a magazine which will hold more than 20 rounds of ammunition or designed by the manufacturer to accommodate a silencer or equipped with a folding stock.” Those who violate this prohibition will be barred from legally owning a firearm for three years and face a Class 1 misdemeanor, which carries a maximum fine of $2,500 and up to one year in jail. 

Salim’s bill also outlaws “large capacity ammunition feeding devices,” which are merely magazines with a capacity of over 10 rounds. Such magazines are very popular: Of the 963 million magazines produced for the commercial market from 1990 to 2021, 717 million held 11 or more rounds, according to a report published by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms trade association. As with possession of an assault firearm, the penalty for owning a magazine that holds 11 or more rounds instead of 10 would be a Class 1 misdemeanor, but without the three-year prohibition on firearm ownership. 

S.B. 272, introduced by state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (D–Charlottesville), would make it illegal to carry a firearm within “any building owned or leased by the Commonwealth,” as well as the Capitol, and Capitol Square. This is the same square where the Virginia Citizens Defense League gathered nearly 1,000 gun rights activists one week after the bill’s introduction. A violation would result in confiscation of the firearm and a Class 1 misdemeanor. S.B. 312, introduced by state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D–Alexandria), bans Virginians from carrying most firearms, loaded or unloaded, in “any other place of whatever nature that is open to the public,” violations of which are treated as a Class 1 misdemeanor. This is a major departure from the current law, which generally allows lawful gun owners to carry even loaded assault firearms in public, excluding select counties and cities. 

Carrying restrictions could also apply to motorists. 

S.B. 496, introduced by state Sen. David Marsden (D–Burke), makes it a crime to leave a handgun in your car’s trunk unless it is “in a locked hard-sided container…permanently affixed to the vehicle’s interior.” (Locked glove compartments and center consoles would qualify as such containers under the current text of the bill.) This means that if you’re a responsible gun owner who leaves your unloaded pistol in a locked, hard-sided carrying case in a locked trunk, and you step inside a gas station to get a bottle of water for the road, you would be guilty of a Class 4 misdemeanor (a $250 fine). Meanwhile, S.B. 115, introduced by state Sen. Stella Pekarsky (D–Centreville), would likely reduce Virginia’s reciprocity agreements, which allow people to carry with all out-of-state permits.

Even Virginians who have no interest in carrying their weapon in public are targeted by two bills advanced in the Senate.

S.B. 348, introduced by state Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D–Herndon), makes it a Class 4 misdemeanor for gun owners with children to store their firearms loaded unless they are “stored in a biometric storage device” inaccessible to the minor. S.B. 323, introduced by Ebbin, would outlaw the manufacture and possession of firearms made at home or with a 3D printer that are “not detectable…by the types of detection devices, including X-ray machines, commonly used at airports.” Violating this bill would constitute a Class 5 felony, which typically carries a one- to 10-year prison sentence. The bill would also outlaw the possession of “a firearm or any completed or unfinished frame or receiver that is not imprinted with a valid serial number,” a second infraction of which would be treated as a Class 4 felony: two to 10 years of prison and a fine of up to $100,000.

Virginia has a proud history of liberty, which is codified in its Declaration of Rights, penned by George Mason, and in its official motto, sic semper tyrannis: thus always to tyrants. In light of the restrictive gun bills advanced in the state Senate this week, it may be time for Virginia to update its motto to semper tyrannis: tyrants forever.

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