Tenth Amendment Center.

Del. Bill Wiley (R) prefiled HB 1420 (HB1420) on Dec. 13. The legislation amends existing state law regarding prohibited concealed weapons to include the following:

For the sole purpose of carrying a concealed handgun, any person who carries a handgun anywhere he may lawfully carry a handgun openly within the Commonwealth and who is otherwise qualified under this article to obtain a concealed handgun permit. Such person shall not be required to meet the requirements of subsection B of § 18.2-308.02 or subsection B of § 18.2-308.06, as applicable, to carry a concealed handgun under this subdivision.

Currently, Virginia gun owners must apply to a city or county circuit court for a permit in order to conceal carry it in public under most circumstances.

Just like in my home state of North Carolina except it’s the CLEO who must approve.  Furthermore, purchasing a handgun requires a permit from the CLEO (of course, a CHP suffices for the five years it’s valid).  We’re an oddball state I must say.  I can’t recall the last time the voters handed the legislature to democrats, if ever since I’ve lived here.

But the legislature has to fight the governor’s mansion for just about everything.  I’m not sure of the makeup of the Virginia legislature, but I’d like to see them move forward while Youngkin is governor of the state.

If I have any readers in Virginia, please keep us posted on progress, and if possible, supply me with the email address of Mr. Wiley so I can stay in touch with him on this issue.

Prior: Virginia lawmakers could consider repeal of state gun laws

Recall that previous jerk in the Governor’s mansion in Virginia?  Yea, him.  Well, they may undo some of the bad he did in Virginia, and I expect Youngkin to sign such a bill if it can pass through the legislature.

House Bill 1428, pre-filed by Republican Del. Dave LaRock and state Sens. Amanda Chase and Frank M. Ruff, seeks to repeal an existing Virginia law that makes it unlawful for individuals to carry certain loaded semi-automatic center-fire rifles, pistols or shotguns on public streets, roads, alleys, sidewalks, public right-of-ways, public parks or “any other place of whatever nature that is open to the public” in certain parts of the state.

The existing law applies to the cities of Alexandria, Chesapeake, Fairfax, Falls Church, Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond and Virginia Beach and the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Henrico, Loudoun and Prince William. The provisions in the law do not apply to law enforcement officers and licensed security guards, people with a valid concealed handgun permit or those engaged in lawful hunting or recreational shooting at established ranges.

LaRock also pre-filed House Bill 1427 earlier this month, which would remove a locality’s authority to prohibit the possession or carrying firearms in public parks and community centers owned by the locality, as well as public streets, alleys and sidewalks.

I’m glad I found this out – occasionally I’m in Virginia and thought that open carry was legal.  But yea, I can’t imagine the people in Prince William being okay with open carry.  Maybe if Virginia repeals this stupidity, it will be easier on open carriers as well as folks who don’t want to run afoul of the law depending on where they can’t carry.

Source:

Hundreds of Virginians have had their guns confiscated from them through red-flag laws since those rules went into effect more than two years ago, according to data in the Virginia Firearms Transaction Center.

Red-flag laws allow police to seize firearms from a person if a judge deems him or her to be a threat to himself or others, even if that person has not been convicted of a crime, charged with a crime or even accused of a crime.

Virginia judges have issued at least 327 emergency substantial risk protection orders, which allow police to temporarily confiscate firearms to address an immediate risk. Judges have issued 257 permanent substantial risk protection orders, which confiscate the guns permanently, unless overturned through the court system. The data runs from July 1, 2020, when the law went into effect, through August 2022. The data does not state how many guns were confiscated from the individuals.

“Red Flag laws are an invention of the gun-control crowd and are unconstitutional due to their usurpation of Due Process,” Philip Van Cleave, the president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, told The Center Square.

Trump is part of the “gun-control crowd,” it would seem

Erich Pratt, senior vice president of Gun Owners of America, told The Center Square that these laws are contrary to due process protections.

“Red Flag gun confiscation orders turn our legal system on its head,” Pratt said. “For centuries, the standard has been ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ But Red Flag laws reverse that standard into ‘guilty until proven innocent,’ because they throw real Due Process out the window – revoking someone’s Second Amendment rights without a jury trial or right to counsel. Not surprisingly, at least a third of red flag orders are initiated against innocent people – and the guns which are erroneously confiscated can take up to nine months to return. These laws have even been used to disarm women – such as the case in California where a cheating husband used the state’s red flag law to disarm his wife, who was a concealed carrier.”

Well, they’re all innocent until proven guilty. Is Pratt talking in circles?

News from Virginia.

The aim wasn’t to reduce anything except liberty.

So I have two questions.  Where are all of those 2A sanctuary counties if they won’t stop this and defend the right of citizens to do person to person transfers without state approval?  And what the hell good are the sanctuary counties if they’re going to forget all about their commitments so quickly?

News from Virginia.

The General Assembly’s action would have been considered a rousing success if the goal was to increase, rather than decrease, the number of firearms in the commonwealth. But since there are now more than a half million more of these weapons in Virginia than there were before the Democrats’ highly-touted gun control bills passed, one can only conclude that the effort was a total flop.

Oh, I don’t think it was a total flop.  It had the affect of making it more difficult on FFLs, which was one of the goals.

Via David Codrea, news from Virginia.

The high number of denials is due in part to confusion among firearms dealers and their customers about how the monthly or 30-day restriction period is calculated. Many believed that the law would not apply to purchases they made during the month before the law went into effect on July 1.

She’s a liar, but she’s paid to be a liar.  That’s how she makes her living.  There’s nothing plain about the language.  I could interpret it multiple ways.

If I was going to make this abominable law, at least I would have thought about the difference between one per month, one per 30 days, and whether the Δt (differential time) had to be the total amount stipulated in the stupid new law or if the one handgun could be purchased within the time window regardless of location within that window.

But maybe that’s the point, huh?  To help confuse everyone because of less than plain language.

News from Virginia.

The bills signed by the governor on Friday are:

• Senate Bill 70 and House Bill 2, which establish universal background checks in Virginia
• Senate Bill 240 and House Bill 674, which establish an Extreme Risk Protective Order, allowing authorities to temporarily take guns away from people deemed to be dangerous to themselves or others
• Senate Bill 69 and House Bill 812, which reinstate Virginia’s one-handgun-a-month law
• House Bill 9, which requires gun owners to report their lost or stolen firearms to law enforcement within 48 hours or face a civil penalty.
• House Bill 1083, which toughens the penalty for leaving a loaded, unsecured firearm in a reckless manner that endangers a child

The AWB failing to pass is a small victory, as they could never have confiscated them.  The UBC and red flag law are extremely damaging to God-given rights.

Mark this one as a win for the controllers in spite of the gun rights rally in Richmond.  The VCDL did their best.  The NRA completely failed to engage because they are a gun control organization.

From Ammoland.

Every one of these bills is as affront to good men in Virginia, but this one stands out to me.

SB 64 – makes a group of two or more individuals brandishing with the intent and purpose of intimidating others a felony.

Of course, it’s up to the LEOs whether you’re intimidating others, or maybe it’s left up to the one making the call to the LEOs.  After all, calls to the police render and report a perfect state of mind, just like when a person makes a red flag call, there is never a mistake.  Because women.  Or children.  Or something.

So the Virginia legislature is telling Virginians that Richmond rally day was a once in a lifetime event for them.  The elitists won’t allow that any more.

And note the word “brandishing.”  This is problematic, because there is no distinction between open carry and brandishing.  They want it that way.  It’s legal to openly carry in Virginia, but if you do it along with someone else, it’s “brandishing.”  And you know they’ll prosecute it that way.

Deepclips.com.

Residents of Amherst County in Virginia lined up to volunteer at a militia muster call on Saturday, March 7. The crowd of “able-bodied residents of the Commonwealth” exercised their right to organize in case the full militia as defined under Virginia Code 44-1 is ever required to defend constitutional rights and liberties.

Floyd, Bedford and Campbell Counties have also recently held militia musters and the movement appears to be picking up steam.

It’s good to see this movement progressing.  It would be too easy to stand down in Virginia.  There’s a natural tendency to go back to the way things were.

The Washington Post editorial page.

It would be far more alarming if a local sheriff actually makes good on the threat — by refusing, for instance, to seize a weapon from a self-destructive son or daughter whose parents have convinced a judge that suicide may be imminent if law enforcement does not intervene. In that case, it would be not only irresponsible but also illegal, and quite likely would expose sheriffs personally, as well as the localities they represent, to liability in the event of an act of violence.

[ … ]

Gun-rights activists are free to denounce such laws; they are free to mount legal challenges to their constitutionality. But unless and until the laws are struck down by a court, no one is free to violate them.

Sheriffs and other law enforcement officers are sworn to uphold and enforce duly enacted laws. For a sheriff to refuse to enforce a protective order handed down by a court would be “an unspeakable betrayal” of his duties, Mark R. Herring, Virginia’s attorney general, told us.

Well now, if this is all so easy and clear, why are they so worried about it?

Perhaps because they know that it isn’t so easy and clear, and they can’t help but be controllers to the final breath.  “Can a leopard change its spots?”

The title of the opinion piece is “Virginia’s Second Amendment ‘Sanctuaries’ Can’t Ignore New Gun Control Laws.”  Well sure they can.  The question is what happens then?  This is what worries the WaPo, and it should.

The context for this is what we’ve discussed many times before.  Unlike the editors at The Washington Post, we know that rights come from the Almighty.  The constitution is a covenant between men, and  rights are only recognized by them, not created.  Thus, black robes who deny those rights are the same as legislators who deny them, i.e, it’s all tyranny, and it doesn’t make one iota of difference who enacts that tyranny.

Action to resist that tyranny is local in this case, and we’ve noted that there is a war brewing between state-level pols and local pols and Sheriffs.  We might remark that county Sheriffs should be locally funded anyway, and that sending tax monies to Richmond is the wrong way to do that.  In any case, let’s say that the legislature declares that the salaries for constitutional sheriffs is now zero ($0) per year.

What then?  Counties will have to fund county law enforcement if they want it at all.  The next step might involve armed agents of the state entering counties to apprehend and arrest county sheriffs and his deputies.  What then?

The next step might involve boys in Ghillie suits sitting in the hills and hollows of Virginia shooting tires out of vehicles, with boys in masks, black tactical gear and body armor surrounding those vehicles with the state agents inside.

The next step might involve blindfolding those agents, driving them to the county line, confiscating their phones, money, vehicles, firearms and comms gear, dropping them off, and letting them walk home after telling them that “We will allow you to get out of this unscathed this one time, and this one time only.”

Do you see how this game is played?  This is called 4GW, and it gets uglier from this point onward.  And lest you think this is some sort of exaggerated, extremist talk, remember that George Washington was an illegal, extremist militia founder.  This is all part of American history and this was all done about 200 years ago.

4GW is like tic-tac-toe.  The only winning move is not to play the game.  That’s the best bet for the controllers.  Pass the silly laws, ignore it when the laws are ignored, and try to get out of this with just a modicum of dignity left.  Or better yet, don’t pass the silly laws at all.

As always, this commentary is for the meant only for educational and instructional purposes only, all characters are fictional, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.