GUN BILLS HEARING!!!

[NovaHunter]

There will be alot of guns bills heard tomorrow, Thursday January 16th starting at 4PM. They include:

HB 357, Delegate Anderson, allows a concealed handgun permit applicant to get a copy of information in his own application file. This provides a method to verify that the information in the file is accurate and also as a way to verify that permits are being issued properly.

HB 705, Delegate Gilbert, changes the concealed handgun law to honor the concealed handgun permits from all other states if the permit holder is at least 21 years old. The out-of-state permit holder will have to also show government-issued photo-identification at the request of a law-enforcement officer. By honoring all other states, Virginia permits will be honored in more states, including Georgia, New Hampshire, and Colorado.

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 1118, Delegate Wilt, allows a person who presents a concealed handgun permit and a government-issued photo identification to purchase a firearm without having a state background check performed (Federal NICS check is still performed). This will speed up gun purchases and reduce paperwork for those citizens who have had a background check performed to get their concealed handgun permit.

HB 448, Delegate Bell, Robert B., deals with restoration of gun rights. The bill adds a provision that the petitioner shall obtain a set of fingerprints from a law-enforcement agency and provide the agency with a copy of the petition. The law-enforcement agency shall forward the background check information under seal to the Court, which will notify the Commonwealth Attorney of the petition.

HB 736, Delegate Lingamfelter, creates a lifetime concealed handgun permit. This bill is much more complicated than Delegate Campbell’s HB 644. It also has very high fees for non-residents, which will make it one of the most expensive permits in the country (albeit a lifetime permit, though). Besides lowering the non-resident fees, there are other changes that need to be made to the bill. For example, the state police should automatically issue a non-resident permit to a person moving out of state at the same time that the state police revoke that person’s resident permit. Also an applicant should simply be required to provide the state police a current passport photograph instead of allowing the state police the option of specifying some non-standard size for the photograph. Other states use passport photographs, which are easy and inexpensive to obtain, and so should the Commonwealth.

If your Delegate is on the e Militia, Police and Public Safety subcommittee #1, please contact them to support these bills tomorrow!!!

If you can show up to advocate for any of these, especially CLASS III owners with regard to HB 878, then please contact VCDL ASAP!

Thanks,
Ryan

[JustinCase]

I *like* 1118, will look at the rest when I have more time, just scanned for now... Thx for posting!

JC