Repeater
Regular Member
When Yeardley Love was discovered dead, then George Huguely was arrested for murder, I expected some kind of over reaction. Sure enough, with Delegate Bell and Senator Barker and the Crime Commission all getting involved, the result was a radical change in Virginia's laws on Protective Orders. Now as I expected, the floodgates are open, and neighbors are getting P.O.'s for such reasons as barking dogs and contractors not being paid.
Well, if someone on the planet has sworn a P.O. against YOU, you cannot purchase a firearm or carry a handgun concealed.
It's only going to get worse:
Protective order requests explode with new Virginia law
Well, if someone on the planet has sworn a P.O. against YOU, you cannot purchase a firearm or carry a handgun concealed.
It's only going to get worse:
Protective order requests explode with new Virginia law
Virginia residents by the hundreds — some frightened, some angry — have flocked to their local courthouse in recent months to get a protective order under a new provision of state law.
The volume of applications for protective orders in Virginia has soared since the new law that makes them much easier to get — removing obstacles that formerly existed for non-family members — went into effect July 1.
A total of 2,015 full protective orders and 4,941 emergency protective orders were granted during the first six months of the new law, from July 1, 2011, to Dec. 31, 2011. By comparison, only 141 full protective orders and 272 emergency protective orders were granted during the same six-month period in 2010, state figures show.
The motivation for last year's change in state law was the nationally publicized death of University of Virginia student Yeardley Love, whose ex-boyfriend, George W. Huguely V, is on trial now in Charlottesville on a first-degree murder charge in her 2010 death. A number of high-profile cases of domestic violence in the Richmond area also fueled concern.
In expanding the law, Virginia legislators approved sweeping changes that focused not just on dating relationships, but on any violent, forceful or threatening behavior that results in injury or places one at reasonable risk of death, sexual assault or injury — regardless of the relationship. That has opened up the protective order process to just about anyone who alleges abuse or threats of violence.
In one Richmond case, a resident tried to get a protective order against a neighbor who had placed a dead fish on her front stoop. In another, a woman who was embroiled in a long-standing dispute with a neighbor sought a protective order against the man for blowing leaves into her yard.
In a Fairfax case, a man who hired a contractor to do some work filed a protective order against the contractor after refusing to pay him. The contractor wanted to be paid, "and the guy didn't want to pay him and wanted him to quit calling him," said Fairfax County General District Court Clerk Nancy Lake.
"There are a lot of cases where people seem somewhat threatened, but it has to be more than a scary situation," Lake explained. "What you get a lot … is just people displaying terribly bad behavior, but they are not making a direct threat."