Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

Virginia went "shall issue" in 1988. Before that, it was "may issue", but some judges didn't like to issue permits. Which is why the legislature followed Florida's lead and modified the law to shall issue.

I would have to do a bunch of research to determine what the statutes were prior to that. But now that you've mentioned it, it is an interesting question.

Chasbo00 wrote:I suspect Virginia first outlawed concealed carry before the Civil War. I'm still looking for something definitive.

http://www.claytoncramer.com/books/concealed.pdf

Somewhere in there was a date of Feb. 2, 1838.

What you will find is that gun control laws had their origin in making sure black people could not be armed. The article linked above is just one of several that outline the racist roots of gun control.

TenchCoxe wrote:What you will find is that gun control laws had their origin in making sure black people could not be armed. The article linked above is just one of several that outline the racist roots of gun control.

That's not actually what the book says.
"...this book examines why Southern states took the lead in the adoption of laws regulating the sale and carrying of concealed weapons before the Mexican War. While many of the antebellum weapons laws were associated with the maintenance of slavery, the principle objective of these particular laws had nothing to do with race, but were an attempt to solve the severe problems of "honor violence" associated with the back country culture of the South."
So if you want to call the laws racist, fine, but they are racist about rednecks, not blacks.

Chasbo00 wrote:Open carry in Virginia was first outlawed in 1874 and remained in force until 1950.

While I can guess why they outlawed it, does the doc give any indication why it was decriminalized in 1950? My hazy recollection is that the Code was overhauled in 1950, maybe they just left it out and never added it back in. Just wild guessing on my part...

Diomed wrote:

Chasbo00 wrote:Open carry in Virginia was first outlawed in 1874 and remained in force until 1950.

While I can guess why they outlawed it, does the doc give any indication why it was decriminalized in 1950? My hazy recollection is that the Code was overhauled in 1950, maybe they just left it out and never added it back in. Just wild guessing on my part...

Not why, but laws not addressed by the 1950 overhaul were repealed.

http://www.virginia1774.org/History4.html For the OP if not found and read already.