Virginia Legislative Update as of 2/10/12

[DaveH]

[Re-posted from a VA-ALERT with prior approval of VCDL]

[First person singular pronouns (I, my, mine, etc) and “PVC” reference Philip Van Cleave, President VCDL]

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A lot has happened legislatively this week - some good, some not so good.

On Wednesday in the Senate Courts of Justice, the House version of the repeal of One Handgun a Month (Delegate Lingamfelter, HB 940) passed out of committee by the same margin as the Senate version of that bill had - 8 to 7. HB 940 just finished the first reading on the Senate Floor and should be voted on this upcoming Tuesday.

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On Thursday in the House Militia, Police, and Public Safety subcommittee #1:

The following ANTI-GUN bills were KILLED:

HB 797, Delegate Morrissey's bill to add another penalty to a person who is open carried and under the influence

HB 1257, Delegate Sickles bill, which is similar to Delegate Morrissey's HB 797

HB 1226, Delegate Torian's bill to give higher educational institutions the power to ban guns

HB 1197, Delegate McClellan's bill to create a new crime if a person doesn't report a lost or stolen gun quickly enough


The following PRO-GUN bills were KILLED:

HB 1223, Delegate Hope's bill to allow open carry in the General Assembly Building (this bill had some problems, though)

The following PRO-GUN bills were carried over until next year:

HB 859, Delegate Gilbert's bill to exempt CHP holders from the state background check (but not federal) when buying a gun

HB 1135, Delegate Ware's bill to recognize the CHPs from all other states

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Today, Friday, the full Militia, Police, and Public Safety committee carried HB 1052, Delegate Anderson's airport terminal carry bill, over until next year.

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I will be discussing what exactly happened to the pro-gun bills HB 1135 and HB 1052 in a future alert (including some video). STAY TUNED.

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Constitutional Carry is dead (HB139, Delegate Cole) - it never got a hearing. This is called a "pocket veto" and was intentional done by Republican leadership, who did not want the bill to be voted on.

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Virtually all the anti-gun bills are dead. A few bills we opposed have been fixed and VCDL may move those bills to neutral status.

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Status of key PRO-GUN bills that are still ALIVE:

HB 20 (Delegate Wilt) and SB 245 (Senator Obenshain) protects our right to carry and transport firearms during an emergency

HB 22 (Delegate Cole) requires localities to try to sell firearms before destroying them

HB 25 (Delegate Cole) protects CHP information from being disseminated by Circuit Court Clerks

HB 26 (Delegate Cole) provides a civil fine of $25 for failure to produce a CHP when asked for it by law enforcement (instead of the worse class 1 misdemeanor that is currently the law)

HB 375 (Delegate Pogge) allows employees of local governments to leave guns in the private vehicles while at work

HB 754 (Delegate Cline) and SB 67 (Senator Stanley) removes fingerprinting first time CHP applicants as an option for localilties

HB 940 (Delegate Lingamfelter) and SB 323 (Senator Carrico) repeals One Handgun a Month

SB 563 (Senator Ruff) cleans up some issues in the concealed weapons code

SB 663 (Senator Smith) allows a CHP to be used as ID when voting

HB14 (Delegate Habeeb), HB 48 (Delegate Richard Bell), and SB 4 (Senator Stuart) Castle Doctrine. I expect SB 4 to die in the House for technical reasons

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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/]

[DefensiveCarry.com]