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Virginia Close on Gun Ban and Confiscation
Gun Watch ^ | 16 February, 2020 | Dean Weingarten

Posted on 02/21/2020 3:33:19 AM PST by marktwain


Virginia Second Amendment Sanctuaries in Green, 8 January, 2020


The Virginia bill to ban "assault weapons", HB 961, is highly controversial. It is one of the items credited with bringing over 22,000 Second Amendment supporters to the Virginia Capitol to lobby their legislators. 91 of 95 counties in Virginia have passed Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions, saying they will not comply with such legislation. 

The Virginia legislature, with a new Democrat party majority in the House of Representatives (55-45) and the Senate (21-19) and a Democrat Governor, has been energized to pass bills long considered to be outside acceptable limits.

The Democrats passed their revised "assault weapons" ban on 11 February, 2020, by a narrow majority, (51-48) in the House. Several Democrats joined all Republicans in voting against the bill.

The bill combines numerous evolving definitions of "assault weapons". It includes many of the most popular semi-automatic centerfire rifles, large numbers of semi-automatic centerfire pistols, and many shotguns. It bans "trigger activators" which appear to be bump stocks.  It appears to grandfather silencers legally owned prior to enactment of the bill. Here is the summary of the bill. From HB 961:
Prohibiting sale, transport, etc., of assault firearms, certain firearm magazines, silencers, and trigger activators; penalties. Expands the definition of "assault firearm" and prohibits any person from importing, selling, transferring, manufacturing, purchasing, or transporting an assault firearm. A violation is a Class 6 felony. The bill prohibits a dealer from selling, renting, trading, or transferring from his inventory an assault firearm to any person. The bill makes it a Class 6 felony to import, sell, transfer, manufacture, purchase, possess, or transport silencers, and trigger activators, all defined in the bill. The bill makes it a Class 6 felony to import, sell, transfer, manufacture, purchase, or transport a large-capacity firearm magazine, as defined in the bill, and a Class 1 misdemeanor to possess such large-capacity firearm magazine. Any person who legally owns a large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator on July 1, 2020, may retain possession until January 1, 2021. During that time, such person shall (i) render the large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator inoperable; (ii) remove the large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator from the Commonwealth; (iii) transfer the large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator to a person outside the Commonwealth who is not prohibited from possessing it; or (iv) surrender the large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator to a state or local law-enforcement agency.

Last minute wrangling likely grandfathered in silencers which are in legal possession when (and if) the bill becomes law. The summary says possession of silencers is banned. That was changed. Here are the relevant paragraphs from the engrossed bill as it passed the House:
§ 18.2-308.11. Import, sale, transfer, etc., of silencers; penalty.

A. For purposes of this section, "silencer" means any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a firearm, including any part or combination of parts designed or intended for use in assembling or fabricating such a device.

B. It is unlawful for any person to import, sell, transfer, manufacture, or purchase a silencer, provided that a person may transfer a silencer in accordance with the provisions of the National Firearms Act (26 U.S.C. § 5801 et seq.). A violation of this section is punishable as a Class 6 felony.
Notice possession is not banned, but any further acquisition is.

The bill, if passed unchanged, has numerous legal difficulties. It appears to be unconstitutional on its face, given the Supreme Court decisions in Heller, McDonald, and Caetano.

The Supreme Court has been reluctant to take any new Second Amendment cases for a decade. Some appellate courts have ruled the Second Amendment does not protect semi-automatic rifles or magazines over 10 rounds.  Others have ruled the Second Amendment has no effect outside the home.

The Supreme Court has two new justices in Gorsuch and Kavanagh. It is currently working on a case involving the Second Amendment.  It should publish a decision by the end of June. No one knows how the Supreme Court will rule on the issue.

HB 961 may be defeated in the Virginia Senate, which holds a slim majority of Democrats 21-19. Most politicians want to keep their seats. This bill is incredibly toxic in Virginia.



 ©2020 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch


TOPICS: Government; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: banglist; gunban; va; vcdl
I am posting this article for those who did not see the potential for Second Amendment supporters to defeat this gun ban in Virginia.
1 posted on 02/21/2020 3:33:19 AM PST by marktwain
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To: marktwain

A test case would be interesting, not only for the legal challenges, which would be swift and certain.

I want to see just how real we really are. Will we or will we not walk the walk when we’re finally pushed too far?

My expectation is pockets of active resistance in every state in which this totalitarianism is tried.

Our team is the law and order brigade; *but*, we started out as rebels and can’t be afraid to return to our roots, if forced.


2 posted on 02/21/2020 3:43:05 AM PST by jazminerose (Adorable Deplorable)
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To: jazminerose

Greater Idaho is looking better by the day.


3 posted on 02/21/2020 3:54:58 AM PST by HighSierra5
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To: HighSierra5

Now I’ll have the B52s stuck in my head all day.


4 posted on 02/21/2020 4:00:18 AM PST by jazminerose (Adorable Deplorable)
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To: jazminerose

What’s the connection with the B52s? I’m afraid to ask cause I know how it is getting things stuck in your mind.


5 posted on 02/21/2020 4:08:12 AM PST by HighSierra5
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To: HighSierra5

Why Idaho? I’ve never figured out why people want to do Idaho.


6 posted on 02/21/2020 4:32:50 AM PST by devane617 (Kyrie Eleison, where I'm going, will you follow?)
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To: HighSierra5

Private Idaho.


7 posted on 02/21/2020 4:34:38 AM PST by sauropod (David Horowitz: “Inside every progressive is a totalitarian screaming to get out.”)
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To: HighSierra5
Their song is called "Private Idaho"

And just great,

now I've got it stuck in my head too.

8 posted on 02/21/2020 4:49:27 AM PST by onona
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To: HighSierra5; jazminerose

Commonly called an “Earworm” tune or song.


9 posted on 02/21/2020 5:05:16 AM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: marktwain

From The VCDL:
The House Public Safety committee is going to hear the following bills TOMORROW morning, Friday, February 21, at 8 am in the House Committee Room:

SB 71, Firearms, possession on school property, adds public, private or religious preschools and child daycare centers to the definition of “school properties”. If you have a daycare in your church during worship services it would prohibit all but professional security services from carrying.

SB 173, Allows the holder of a valid concealed handgun permit to possess a stun weapon on school property while in a motor vehicle in a parking lot, traffic circle, or other means of vehicular ingress or egress to the school. The bill also allows a stun weapon to be stored in a closed container in a motor vehicle while such vehicle is on school property.

SB 70, Universal Background Check Bill. Background checks must be run through FFL Dealers. Dealers are limited to a maximum charge of $15 plus the VCHECK fee. Violation constitutes a Class 1 Misdemeanor for both buyer and seller. This bill would also extend the time that the State Police have to issue the disposition from one day to three.

SB 240, Red Flag Laws (gun confiscation)

SB 479, Adds to the “Prohibited Persons” list requiring that people subject to certain protective orders surrender their firearms.

SB 14, Bans Trigger Activators

SB 436, Establishes a voluntary “Do Not Sell Firearms” list, which takes a minimum of 21 days to be removed from, even if someone else maliciously puts you on the list.

To get to this meeting room, take an immediate left after passing through the metal detectors and go past the guard desk, through the glass doors and the room will be on your right.

We’ll be handing out our orange Guns SAVE Lives stickers before the meeting.


10 posted on 02/21/2020 5:09:31 AM PST by mistfree (Virginia Freeper)
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To: onona

Thanks a lot.


11 posted on 02/21/2020 5:46:38 AM PST by HighSierra5
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To: carriage_hill

and it’s the song that never ends.
it just goes on and on my friends.
someone started singing it, not knowing what it was.
and they’ll just go on singing it forever just because,
it is the song that never ends.
it just goes on and on my friends.


12 posted on 02/21/2020 6:42:01 AM PST by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world)
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To: devane617

The state has very different and separate areas. All conservative. I lived in North Idaho. Great lakes and mountains.


13 posted on 02/21/2020 6:48:03 AM PST by D Rider
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To: teeman8r

My latest ‘earworm’...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV29yglZMrI


14 posted on 02/21/2020 10:11:09 AM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: HighSierra5

*Living in your own private Idaho . . . *


15 posted on 02/22/2020 6:22:13 AM PST by jazminerose (Adorable Deplorable)
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