Am I missing something or is that a pretty broad power essentially saying that if you need emergency shelter in a disaster that, in the name of public safety, the gov't can disarm you?Empower the Governor, any political subdivision, or any other governmental authority to in any way limit the rights of the people to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by Article I, Section 13 of the Constitution of Virginia or the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, including the lawful possession, sale, or transfer of firearms except to the extent necessary to ensure public safety in any place or facility designated or used by the Governor, any political subdivision of the Commonwealth or any other governmental entity as an emergency shelter or for the purpose of sheltering persons;
Am I missing something or is that a pretty broad power essentially saying that if you need emergency shelter in a disaster that, in the name of public safety, the gov't can disarm you?Empower the Governor, any political subdivision, or any other governmental authority to in any way limit the rights of the people to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by Article I, Section 13 of the Constitution of Virginia or the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, including the lawful possession, sale, or transfer of firearms except to the extent necessary to ensure public safety in any place or facility designated or used by the Governor, any political subdivision of the Commonwealth or any other governmental entity as an emergency shelter or for the purpose of sheltering persons;
SNIP Other than that, the Virginia state government cannot just declare an emergency and disarm us in the name of public safety.
No offense taken. I posted a question as I didn't know if my reading was correct. Thank you for your answer.No offense, ODA and deepdiver, but I think you guysare missing a crucial part of what you're reading. To cut out all theextraneous fluff and to get to the root of the statute, stick with what's in bold font:
§ 44-146.15. Construction of chapter.
Nothing in this chapter is to be construed to:
(1) Limit, modify, or abridge the authority of the Governor to exercise any powers vested in him under other laws of this Commonwealth independent of, or in conjunction with, any provisions of this chapter;
(2) Interfere with dissemination of news or comment on public affairs; but any communications facility or organization, including, but not limited to, radio and television stations, wire services, and newspapers, may be required to transmit or print public service messages furnishing information or instructions in connection with actual or pending disaster;
(3) Empower the Governor, any political subdivision, or any other governmental authority to in any way limit the rights of the people to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by Article I, Section 13 of the Constitution of Virginia or the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, including the lawful possession, sale, or transfer of firearms except to the extent necessary to ensure public safety in any place or facility designated or used by the Governor, any political subdivision of the Commonwealth or any other governmental entity as an emergency shelter or for the purpose of sheltering persons;
In other words, they state government can prohibit you from bringing your firearms with you to a state-designated emergency shelter. If Richmond floods from Hurricane Klaus and the Richmond Civic Center is opened as an emergency shelter (the sameas NOLA did with the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina) you'll have to rely on the Richmond PD, Wackenhut, or the Crips to provide for your safety and welfare. Other than that, the Virginia state government cannot just declare an emergency and disarm us in the name of public safety.
Let's say during this state of emergency, the government issues a mandatory curfew and requires people to stay home, under the premise the home provides shelter from the emergency situation. As such, everyone's home becomes "any place...for the purpose of sheltering persons".(3) Empower the Governor, any political subdivision, or any other governmental authority to in any way limit the rights of the people to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by Article I, Section 13 of the Constitution of Virginia or the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, including the lawful possession, sale, or transfer of firearms except to the extent necessary to ensure public safety in any place or facility designated or used by the Governor, any political subdivision of the Commonwealth or any other governmental entity as an emergency shelter or for the purpose of sheltering persons;
Give a man a fish....
Teach him to fish...
Give a man fire and he will be warm for a day.Citizen wrote:Give a man a fish....
Teach him to fish...
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach him how to fish and he will sit
in a boat and drink beer all day.
There you go....open to interpretation....just means the govt can do whatever it wants until the courts say otherwise. And there's no liability because technically it "could" be interpreted under the most extreme sense.<snip>
That's it. No equivocating about "public safety". Nothing vague or subject to interpretation. And they were careful to include ammunition in the language as well. If only the VA legislature had stopped just before the word "except" and had included ammunition.
Give a man fire and he will be warm for a day.
Set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.