Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

Employee at LGS told me that it's illegal to keep a loaded long gun in a vehicle in VA, at least during hunting season and possibly year-round. Is this true?

The fact that it's loaded is the problem. Unload it and it's fine.

The exact laws on this vary by city and county.

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting/re ... nances.pdf

OakRidgeStars wrote:The fact that it's loaded is the problem. Unload it and it's fine.

The exact laws on this vary by city and county.

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting/re ... nances.pdf

+1

It's a hunting ordinance as OakRidgeStars linked.

Thank you. Sure it makes sense from a hunting POV, but it limits the options available for SD on the road.

I sometimes carry my shotgun, but I use 15.2-915.2

ProShooter wrote:I sometimes carry my shotgun, but I use 15.2-915.2

So as a self-employed person who travels to do their work I could keep a loaded rifle in my vehicle and just tell an officer that I reasonably believe I need it for my protection?

This code doesn't say anything about the rifle being visible, so if it's say a folded Kel-Tec Sub2000 I could keep it under my seat?

ShotgunBlast wrote:

ProShooter wrote:I sometimes carry my shotgun, but I use 15.2-915.2

So as a self-employed person who travels to do their work I could keep a loaded rifle in my vehicle and just tell an officer that I reasonably believe I need it for my protection?

I can't tell you what you should do....I'm not an attorney. I can only tell you what I do.

ShotgunBlast wrote:This code doesn't say anything about the rifle being visible, so if it's say a folded Kel-Tec Sub2000 I could keep it under my seat?

I would imagine that under your seat would make it an illegally concealed firearm. 915.2 doesn't make 308 disappear.

The gun is only loaded if it doesn't take an action to add ammo to it. You could get something like a redi-mag (it's for an AR, but really any way to attach a loaded mag) so that it is a very quick process to load the gun. Would prevent the mag from becoming lost as well.

http://www.redi-mag.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=50

I just don't get how localities get by the preemption law by using hunting regulations. If it directly relates to firearms, it seem that the state law should take precedence. The state doesn't restrict long gun transportation, so how can the localities?

Sensai wrote:I just don't get how localities get by the preemption law by using hunting regulations. If it directly relates to firearms, it seem that the state law should take precedence. The state doesn't restrict long gun transportation, so how can the localities?

The state gives the localities permission to enact the local laws under 15.2-915.2

Thanks Proshooter. Does that mean that all the county regs had to be republished after the effective date of the 15.2-915 revision? 15.2-915 (B) states that all the locality regs prior to the effective date are invalid. Have the counties done so, as far as you know? I still think it's a way for the state to shirk it's responsiblities. Something as basic as this should be state wide. I'm not saying that carrying a loaded long gun in a vehicle should be legal, I'm just saying that it should be the same on either side of an imaginary line across the road.

Sensai wrote:Thanks Proshooter. Does that mean that all the county regs had to be republished after the effective date of the 15.2-915 revision? 15.2-915 (B) states that all the locality regs prior to the effective date are invalid. Have the counties done so, as far as you know?

That I do not know.