VA-ALERT: Another university "gun-free zone" shooting!

[OakRidgeStars]

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VCDL's meeting schedule: http://www.vcdl.org/meetings.html
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Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html
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1. Shooting a another university gun-free zone
2. Correction to the restaurant repeal bill number in the Senate and a breakdown of the House vote
3. New wording on HB 171, which prohibits employers from banning guns in locked vehicles


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1. Shooting a another university gun-free zone
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There has been a school shooting at another university - the
University of Alabama. The university has a "no guns" policy and now
has three people dead, one wounded, and a woman in custody.

I guess the shooter didn't read the university's policy.

Here is a link to the university's firearms policy (thanks to Carson
Evans for the link):

http://www.iss.uab.edu/Pol/FirearmsFtab.pdf

Here is Fox news coverage:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585682,00.html


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2. Correction to the restaurant repeal bill number in the Senate and
a breakdown of the House vote
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I had a type-o in the last alert for the restaurant ban repeal in the
Senate. It should have been SB 334, not SB 344. Sorry about that.

Here is the vote on HB 505, the House restaurant ban repeal. What
stuck out to me was that Delegate Jim Scott supported the bill while
self-proclaimed "pro-gun" Delegates Paula Miller and Roslyn Tyler
voted against it!

Voting pro-self-defense:

Abbitt, Albo, Alexander, Anderson, Armstrong, Athey, Bell, Richard P.,
Bell, Robert B., Bulova, Byron, Carrico, Cline, Cole, Comstock,
Cosgrove, Cox, M.K., Crockett-Stark, Edmunds, Garrett, Gear, Gilbert,
Greason, Griffith, Howell, A.T., Hugo, Iaquinto, Ingram, Janis,
Joannou, Johnson, Jones, Keam, Kilgore, Knight, Landes, Lewis,
Lingamfelter, Loupassi, Marshall, D.W., Marshall, R.G., Massie, May,
Merricks, Miller, J.H., Morefield, Morgan, Nixon, Nutter, O'Bannon,
Oder, Orrock, Peace, Pogge, Poindexter, Putney, Scott, E.T., Scott,
J.M., Sherwood, Shuler, Sickles, Stolle, Tata, Villanueva, Ware, O.,
Ware, R.L., Wright, Mr. Speaker

Voting anti-self-defense:

Abbott, BaCote, Barlow, Brink, Carr, Dance, Ebbin, Englin, Herring,
Hope, James, Kory, LeMunyon, McClellan, McQuinn, Miller, P.J.,
Morrissey, Plum, Purkey, Rust, Spruill, Surovell, Torian, Toscano,
Tyler, Ward, Watts


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3. New wording on HB 171, which prohibits employers from banning guns
in locked vehicles
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Here is the wording that passed out of committee this morning. The
new wording is in (D):

§ 18.2-308.1:01. Firearms in locked vehicles; immunity from liability.

A. No person, property owner, tenant, employer, or business entity
shall maintain, establish, or enforce any policy or rule that has the
effect of prohibiting a person who may lawfully possess a firearm from
storing a firearm locked in or locked to a firearms rack in a motor
vehicle in a parking lot, parking space, or other similar property set
aside for motor vehicles.

B. No person, property owner, tenant, employer, or business entity
shall be liable in any civil action for any occurrence that results
from or is connected to the use of a firearm that was lawfully stored
pursuant to subsection A, unless the person, property owner, tenant,
employer, or business entity commits a criminal act, willful
misconduct or gross negligence involving the use of the firearm.

C. Any person may enforce this section by filing a petition for
injunction in the court of record of the county or city in which the
person, property owner, tenant, employer, or business entity
prohibiting the firearm is located. The court shall award actual
damages, court costs, and reasonable attorney fees to a prevailing
party.

D. This section shall not apply to (i) property on which a person is
prohibited from possessing a firearm by § 18.2-308.1; (ii) vehicles on
property (a) to which access is restricted or limited through the use
of a gate, security station, or other means of restricting or limiting
general access onto the property; or (b) upon which a building
occupied by a single employer and its affiliated entities is located
and in which access to the building is restricted or limited by card
access, a security station, or other means of restricting or limiting
general public access into the building; (iii) vehicles owned or
leased by an employer or business entity and used by an employee in
the course of his employment; or (iv) personal vehicles while such
vehicles are being used for the transport of consumers of programs
licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental
Services; (v) vehicles on property controlled by an employer required
to develop and implement a security plan under federal law or
regulation.



I am not thrilled with that new wording in (D). Basically this law
covers you if the parking lot can be accessed by the public without
some kind of restriction by a gate or guard, and the parking lot is
either shared by more than one unrelated company or the company owning
the parking lot has no public restrictions on going into the building
(guard or card access).

This is a step forward, but not as big a step as I would like.


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VA-ALERT is a project of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.

VCDL web page: http://www.vcdl.org [http://www.vcdl.org/]