Legislative Update 2/21/15 - current status of gun bills

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VA-ALERT: Legislative Update 2/21/15 - current status of gun bills

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Here is the status of the remaining gun bills in the General Assembly this week. The session will be over at end of February, so things should continue moving right along.


BILLS THAT HAVE PASSED BOTH BODIES AND ARE HEADED TO THE GOVERNOR'S DESK

HB 1666, Delegate Fowler, allows a non-resident who previously resided in Virginia to get his firearms rights restored in Virginia. The Senate made a minor change and the change was accepted by the House.

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SB 1137, Senator Garrett, allows a CHP holder to have a loaded long gun in his vehicle. The House made a minor technical amendment. The bill passed the House and the Senate accepted the technical amendment.

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SB 1191, Senator Norment, changes the felony charge for having a firearm on school property to apply only if the person has the gun knowingly. Blasted out of both the House and Senate.

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SB 948, Senator Stuart, prohibits the VSP from sharing CHP information with any state that does not have a reciprocal agreement with Virginia. This bill has passed both bodies.

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SB848, Senator Stanley, creates the "Governor's Twenty" marksmanship award. Has passed both bodies.

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BILLS THAT ARE DEAD

HB 2029, Delegate Wilt, allows a CHP holder to skip a background check when purchasing a firearm from a dealer. Again, the VSP claimed a fiscal impact due to a periodic audit by the BATFE. The amount of that impact was way, way higher than what any other state has experienced ($1.2 MILLION dollars!). It certainly gives the appearance of the VSP trying to overstate the cost to either get more money/power or it is an attempt to kill the bill in appropriations. In the end, appropriations killed the bill because of the exorbitant fiscal impact claimed by the VSP. I expect this bill to be back next year.

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SB 1130, Senator Garrett, would make blackjacks, switchblades and other weapons legal to own and posses. This bill had passed out of both the House and Senate. The House then brought the bill back up to be reconsidered and the bill died by a massive margin. There were several reasons that the bill was killed, ranging from petty politics to concern there wasn't an age limit in the bill.

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SB 1155, Senator Edwards, requires law enforcement to take reasonable steps to return a stolen firearms to its owner. There was a technical issue with the bill and it was sent back to committee, but is dead because there won't be time to get the bill back to the Floor.


BILLS THAT ARE STILL IN COMMITTEE OR ARE ON THE FLOOR

HB 1329, Delegate Ware, honors all CHPs from other states, and which will result in Georgia, New Hampshire, and Colorado honoring Virginia CHPs.

The Virginia State Police (VSP) claimed there would be a fiscal impact on Virginia because not as many people would want a non-resident Virginia CHP. While there will probably be a drop in applicants, it probably won't be anywhere near what the VSP is claiming. Needless to say, the bill was sent to Senate Finance because of that claim by the VSP.

Senate Finance reported the bill out, but with a caveat that an action must be taken in an upcoming general appropriation act to compensate for the anticipate loss of revenue or the bill would not become law. Such a delay is a really bad idea and the House rejected that amendment. Because the Senate and House couldn't agree on the appropriation amendmet, a conference committee has be created to come up with a compromise that would be acceptable to both the House and the Senate. That conference committee has not met, so we don't know what will happen to HB 1329 yet. We should know something soon.

The members of the conference committee are Senators Garret, Stuart, and Edwards and Delegates Ware, Gilbert, and Keam.

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HB 2009, Delegate LaRock, requires the chief law enforcement officer to sign off on a Form 4 to purchase a Class III weapon. This bill will be heard in the Senator Courts of Justice on Monday at 8 AM.

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HB 2286, Delegate Webert, makes it so that Virginia will honor the restoration of rights from other states. The bill passed out of the Senate Courts of Justice with a minor amendment. It now heads to the Senate Floor.

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HB 2015, Delegate Surovell, allows more than one firearm to be protected against bankruptcy proceedings as long as the total value of the firearms does not exceed $3,000. It has reported from the Senate Courts of Justice committee and is on the Senate Floor.




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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/]