• We are now running on a new, and hopefully much-improved, server. In addition we are also on new forum software. Any move entails a lot of technical details and I suspect we will encounter a few issues as the new server goes live. Please be patient with us. It will be worth it! :) Please help by posting all issues here.
  • The forum will be down for about an hour this weekend for maintenance. I apologize for the inconvenience.
  • If you are having trouble seeing the forum then you may need to clear your browser's DNS cache. Click here for instructions on how to do that
  • Please review the Forum Rules frequently as we are constantly trying to improve the forum for our members and visitors.

Reckless Gunfire Causing Injuries to be a Felony in Virginia

va_tazdad

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2009
Messages
1,162
Location
Richmond, Virginia, USA
Once again,

the idiots in our legislature seem to not know there are already laws against this crime.

Why do we continue to elect idiots that are this stupid? We deserve better, but we don't require it or hold these idiot accountable for their stupidities.

This is almost as bad as at the national level. Almost.
 

ChristCrusader

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2014
Messages
199
Location
Virginia, US
“We STRONGLY OPPOSE the Senate bill (SB 65),” said Philip VanCleave, the group’s president in an email to Guns.com.

“Virginia already has laws for manslaughter, reckless handing of a firearm, shooting across a road, shooting into an occupied dwelling or vehicle, etc.,” he continued, indicating the apparent redundancy of the measure.

“The bill was nothing but another piece of useless gun control that won’t save a single life put in by a political ambulance chaser after a poor little boy was hit and killed by a gun shot into the air on July 4, 2013,” added VanCleave, pointing out “So far they have not found the idiot that killed him.”

http://www.guns.com/2014/02/24/virg...gue-celebratory-gunfire-bill-strongly-oppose/

But once tempered and revised by the House to make more sense,
"VCDL Comments
Due to changes to this bill, VCDL is now neutral on it."


SB65 & HB810 have each been revised from their objectionable originals to now be identical, and to now have both been approved by the houses to amend § 18.2-56.1. Reckless handling of firearms; reckless handling while hunting:
  • SB65, A1. Any person who handles any firearm in a manner so gross, wanton, and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life and causes the serious bodily injury of another person resulting in permanent and significant physical impairment is guilty of a Class 6 felony
  • HB810, A1. Any person who handles any firearm in a manner so gross, wanton, and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life and causes the serious bodily injury of another person resulting in permanent and significant physical impairment is guilty of a Class 6 felony.

The wording of the amendment, to me, does appear to add another degree of severity that was previously missing, in recognition of reckless handling that results in permanent and significant physical impairment. It's unclear to me where else this was provided for without this addition.

I wonder if there might be a ripple effect of adding the felony category to reckless handling, subsequently opening up 2nd degree murder charges in the case of resultant death based on:
§ 18.2-33. Felony homicide defined; punishment.
The killing of one accidentally, contrary to the intention of the parties, while in the prosecution of some felonious act other than those specified in §§ 18.2-31 and 18.2-32, is murder of the second degree and is punishable by confinement in a state correctional facility for not less than five years nor more than forty years.

since the trigger of this section was an accidental killing during a felony, now that there's to be a felony-reckless (presuming that death could be considered to be serious bodily injury, and permanent and significant physical impairment).
 
Last edited:

Maverick9

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
1,404
Location
Mid-atlantic
Yeah, that will stop all the reckless people, for sure.

But what about people who shoot their family members while cleaning guns?
 

The Wolfhound

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2009
Messages
728
Location
Henrico, Virginia, USA
But of course it will work....

Making things illegal or in this case more illegaler always reduces crime. Why, if only it was illegal to commit murder we could stop of all these killings... oh, wait.......:banghead:
 

FallonJeeper

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2011
Messages
576
Location
Fallon, NV
Another example of feel good legislation, because, the current laws aren't stopping people from being stupid. They have to DO something, anything, as long as they appear to be doing something. Let's just repeat the same laws. Doubling up on existing laws should get the point across and stop stupid people. :banghead:
 

OC for ME

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2010
Messages
12,452
Location
White Oak Plantation
Sense cannot be made of nonsense.

The probability of a celebratory air-shot, a not aimed shot into the air, causing a fatal GSW is proportional to the ratio of the area of the target to the surface area of a semi-sphere of radius range. It's on the order of 1:10^7, which is to say vanishingly small. The media reports of such hits and fatalities are almost wilful lies by the media and the credulous.

The ballistic arcs through the semi-sphere map uniquely to their termination on the ground (certainly to a first approximation without integrating time).
  • The surface area of a sphere of radius 5280 feet is 3.5 x 10^8 square feet.
  • The surface area of the hemisphere above the ground is 1.75 x 10^8 square feet.
  • The surface area of the semi-sphere not behind the shooter's back is 8.75 x 10^7 square feet.
  • The projected surface area of a human is about 2 feet wide and 5 feet long or 1 x 10^1 square feet.
  • The ratio of the semi-sphere to the human projected surface area is 8.75 x 10^6.
  • Vastly most of the human projected surface area does not contain a vital area, so a ratio of 1:1 x 10^7 is reasonable.
  • It must take absolutely 10^7 air-shots, 10,000,000 (ten million) to cause one fatality and too many have been reported.
I'm sure the kid.....err, I mean his parents, are comforted to know that the odds of they being killed are so very very remote.

End appeal to emotion event.;)
 

marshaul

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
11,188
Location
Fairfax County, Virginia
Yeah, that will stop all the reckless people, for sure.

But what about people who shoot their family members while cleaning guns?

Well, I would say that cleaning your gun in such a way that it shoots your wife constitutes "reckless" handling/gunfire.

Unless, of course, the perpetrator is a cop. Then it's just trained professionalism.
 

sidestreet

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2007
Messages
673
Location
, ,
marshal, please just allow me to add…,

Well, I would say that cleaning your gun in such a way that it shoots your wife constitutes "reckless" handling/gunfire.

Unless, of course, the perpetrator is a cop. Then it's just HIGHLY trained professionalism.

I mean, isn't that what THEY claim? That they're such HIGHLY trained professionals?

sidestreet

Jeremiah 29 vs. 11-13

we are not equal, we will never be equal, but we must be relentless.
 

OC for ME

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2010
Messages
12,452
Location
White Oak Plantation
On a barely, just barely, related note to the above. HI cops want be allowed to engage in hanky panky with "women of the night".....uh, I mean be exempted from the law that makes such hanky panky unlawful. This exemption is required so that "undercover" cops can fight crime.
 

peter nap

Accomplished Advocate
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
13,551
Location
Valhalla
On a barely, just barely, related note to the above. HI cops want be allowed to engage in hanky panky with "women of the night".....uh, I mean be exempted from the law that makes such hanky panky unlawful. This exemption is required so that "undercover" cops can fight crime.

Hell, that's a good thing. Give em all AIDS and clean up the gene pool.:uhoh:
 

davidmcbeth

Banned
Joined
Jan 14, 2012
Messages
16,167
Location
earth's crust
I'm sure the kid.....err, I mean his parents, are comforted to know that the odds of they being killed are so very very remote.

End appeal to emotion event.;)

Well, if they have another kid(s), maybe.

Does this law mean that manslaughter is no longer on the table for these types of incidents?
 
Top