There will be a couple of bills worth watching tonight in the house M&P Sub. I'll probably go for them.
HB 878, Delegate LaRock, requires the chief law-enforcement officer to certify a request for the transfer of a firearm that is covered under the National Firearms Act (NFA), unless the officer knows the person receiving the firearms is prohibited from doing so. This bill will make ownership of NFA firearms uniform across the state. Currently the chief law-enforcement officers in some jurisdictions refuse to do any such certification, while others do them as a matter of course.
HB 962, Delegate Cline, clarifies that a loaded handgun can be stored in a closed, but not necessarily locked, container or compartment in a vehicle or a vessel. This codifies a recent Attorney General’s opinion. The original bill for the current law used the word “secured” when introduced. It was later changed to “locked” in the Senate and passed both bodies that way. The Governor changed the word “locked” back to “secured” and that was the term used in final passage, clearly showing the General Assembly in the end had no intent for the container or compartment to be locked.
HB 535, Delegate Plum, requires all private sales at gun shows go through a background check. The Virginia State Crime Commission did not recommend this bill when asked six years ago. A gun show may not even be able to find a willing dealer to do such background checks due to the paperwork and the 20-year retention of that paperwork. The private sale background check requirement is just the first step in ultimately setting up a total private-sale registration-scheme and it will unnecessarily raise the price of privately sold guns. It will also make it much harder to hold a gun show in Virginia, which bring a lot of revenue to the Commonwealth. Finally, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Justice, few guns used in crimes are purchased at gun shows, so this bill will have no noticeable affect on crime.
HB 809, Delegate Lopez, prohibits possession, importation, purchase, or sale of a magazine that will hold more than 20 rounds. A person consenting to a background check to become a “registered” magazine owner and police (of course) are exempted. This bill will only make inadvertent criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens. Criminals will end up with 30-round magazines while normal citizens will be forced to carry smaller magazines, putting them at a disadvantage for no good reason. Next time the restriction will be 10 rounds.
HB 812, Delegate Lopez, requires the private sale of a firearm be done through a dealer (universal background check). This will make it conserably harder and more expensive for a person to sell one of their firearms, with no effect on crime. Under this bill, a private sale would require finding a dealer who will do the transer (none have to), tranfering the gun to the dealer, the dealer doing a background check (that can take up to 3 days to do), and then finally transferring the gun to the purchaser. The fee for such a transaction can be in the $45 to $60 range. A straw purchase can easily circumvent all of this and put the gun in the hands of a criminal anyway. The recent mass shootings around the country, besides being done in “gun-free zones,” have all involved guns where a background check was run.
HB 878, Delegate LaRock, requires the chief law-enforcement officer to certify a request for the transfer of a firearm that is covered under the National Firearms Act (NFA), unless the officer knows the person receiving the firearms is prohibited from doing so. This bill will make ownership of NFA firearms uniform across the state. Currently the chief law-enforcement officers in some jurisdictions refuse to do any such certification, while others do them as a matter of course.
HB 962, Delegate Cline, clarifies that a loaded handgun can be stored in a closed, but not necessarily locked, container or compartment in a vehicle or a vessel. This codifies a recent Attorney General’s opinion. The original bill for the current law used the word “secured” when introduced. It was later changed to “locked” in the Senate and passed both bodies that way. The Governor changed the word “locked” back to “secured” and that was the term used in final passage, clearly showing the General Assembly in the end had no intent for the container or compartment to be locked.
HB 535, Delegate Plum, requires all private sales at gun shows go through a background check. The Virginia State Crime Commission did not recommend this bill when asked six years ago. A gun show may not even be able to find a willing dealer to do such background checks due to the paperwork and the 20-year retention of that paperwork. The private sale background check requirement is just the first step in ultimately setting up a total private-sale registration-scheme and it will unnecessarily raise the price of privately sold guns. It will also make it much harder to hold a gun show in Virginia, which bring a lot of revenue to the Commonwealth. Finally, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Justice, few guns used in crimes are purchased at gun shows, so this bill will have no noticeable affect on crime.
HB 809, Delegate Lopez, prohibits possession, importation, purchase, or sale of a magazine that will hold more than 20 rounds. A person consenting to a background check to become a “registered” magazine owner and police (of course) are exempted. This bill will only make inadvertent criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens. Criminals will end up with 30-round magazines while normal citizens will be forced to carry smaller magazines, putting them at a disadvantage for no good reason. Next time the restriction will be 10 rounds.
HB 812, Delegate Lopez, requires the private sale of a firearm be done through a dealer (universal background check). This will make it conserably harder and more expensive for a person to sell one of their firearms, with no effect on crime. Under this bill, a private sale would require finding a dealer who will do the transer (none have to), tranfering the gun to the dealer, the dealer doing a background check (that can take up to 3 days to do), and then finally transferring the gun to the purchaser. The fee for such a transaction can be in the $45 to $60 range. A straw purchase can easily circumvent all of this and put the gun in the hands of a criminal anyway. The recent mass shootings around the country, besides being done in “gun-free zones,” have all involved guns where a background check was run.
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