VA-ALERT: Legislative Update - BIG vote tomorrow!

[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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The Senate engrossed Senator Hanger's restaurant ban repeal (SB 334)
in the same form it left the Senate Courts of Justice committee last
week. That is good news as there was no mischief done to the bill.

So, TOMORROW, February 16th, the Senate will vote on whether to pass
the bill. This is the next major hurdle.

If you have not contacted your Senator to urge him or her to support
SB 334, NOW IS THE TIME!

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Today in the Senate Courts of Justice committee, the following bills
were voted on:

SB 79, Senator Reynolds, repeals the power for local governments to
fingerprint first time CHP applicants, was DEFEATED by a vote of 9 to 6.

The reason that I never donate to the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)
is that they get involved too often in opposing the rights of
citizens. In this case, for example, they opposed SB 79 using the
excuse that the bill would endanger law enforcement officers and let
criminals get CHPs.

Baloney.

Senator Reynolds, who did a very good job in fighting for the bill,
asked the FOP representative if he could show if someone who had
applied for a CHP had been denied based on their fingerprints and the
FOP representative could not provide any.

A VCDL member drove up from Tidewater to testify for the bill,
explaining that he had to wait FIVE hours to be fingerprinted!

SB 643, Senator Reynolds, gives the police the power to arbitrarily
arrest a person for a Class 1 or 2 misdemeanor (same bill that
Delegate Jackson Milller puts in every year. This one was requested
by the Attorney General's Office). A substitute bill was introduced
which didn't really solve any of the problems that VCDL has with SB
643. The FOP spoke in favor of this bill (surprise, surprise).

One bit of humor, the chairman, anti-self-defense Senator Marsh, was
certain that I was in favor of the bill and tried to deny my right to
speak on the bill as he had asked for only those opposed to speak.
Senator Reynolds, even though this was his bill and ever the
gentlemen, spoke up to explain that I was there to speak AGAINST his
bill. It took Marsh another 30 seconds for him to finally get it
through his head that I was opposing the bill (as VCDL has for the
last 4 years in the same committee).

The bill was DEFEATED by a 9 to 6 vote.

SB 501, Senator Lucas, provides that a DUI in another state counts as
a DUI in Virginia for purpose of disqualifying a CHP applicant for 3
years PASSED out of committee. I told the committee that VCDL was
concerned that the DUI standard must match Virginia's to be acceptable
and I was told that it would have to match. That being the case,
VCDL's position remains neutral on the bill.



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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/]

[tursiops]

Emails sent.