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Just like last year, the Virginia General Assembly's 2021 session began with a show of force from gun-rights supporters in downtown Richmond.

And just like last year, Democrats still have full control. And they're still looking to fix up what they see as weak spots in the law after taking power from pro-gun Republicans in the 2019 elections.

Many top gun-control priorities - like expanded background checks, a red flag law and a one-handgun-a-month rule - were approved last year. That's meant the new round of gun legislation has been somewhat lower profile, but there are several significant bills working their way through the two chambers.

They include:

Background checks at shooting ranges

Last summer, a young man went to the Green Top Shooting Range in Hanover County, rented a gun, and used it to end his life. Five days later, another man did the same thing.

Their families are now working with Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, who has made mental health and suicide prevention a top priority after tragedy struck his own family, to pass a law requiring a background check before anyone would be handed a gun at a shooting range.

At a committee hearing, Deeds said both men had mental health issues. Research on suicides, he said, suggests it's often carefully planned, and a background check could be an obstacle that might have changed the outcome.

"Anything you do to interrupt that plan may end up saving that person's life," Deeds.

The idea has technical limitations. Federal law doesn't require shooting ranges to conduct background checks for gun rentals, so range operators wouldn't have access to the same federal database used for gun sales. But supporters of the bill say the Virginia State Police background check system can be used instead, though the agency would likely require some additional funding to handle the increased workload. The State Police estimate the bill would mean 200 additional background checks per day.

Opponents of the proposal argue it's unworkable, saying it would create an onerous new process for shooting ranges that could discourage gun buyers from seeking hands-on safety training.

D.J. Spiker, Virginia director for the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action, said range suicides are "exceptionally rare."

"'It's best left to ranges and Virginia State Police to come up with in-house policies to regulate this," Spiker said.

That approach wasn't enough for Bradley Carroll, the father of one of the men who died by suicide at the Hanover gun range.

"The opposition will tell you that they acknowledge the issue but offer no solutions," he said.

The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 10-4-1 and was referred to the Finance Committee for a closer look at its fiscal implications.

Gun ban at state Capitol grounds

The House has taken up a bill that would ban guns and stun weapons on the grounds of the Capitol and surrounding streets, a proposal that would codify statehouse rules and temporary gun bans that have been enacted in response to armed protesters.

The ban would apply inside the Capitol building, within Capitol Square and on directly adjacent streets and sidewalks legislators frequently use.

At the bill's initial hearing, Del. Mark Levine, D-Alexandria, its patron, said it would prevent future occurrences of armed extremist groups demonstrating near the Capitol. Those groups are free to challenge the General Assembly's decisions, Levine said, but they shouldn't be allowed to do it with weapons.

"What they don't have a right to do is to try to intimidate us into voting the way they want using guns," Levine said. "That is not a proper use of guns."

The pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defense League has held armed rallies at the Capitol for years, an annual event often attended by Republican politicians. But the two that have been held since Democrats took control have drawn a different crowd. More than 20,000 people attended the rally in early 2020, many of them with military-style gear and weaponry. This year's event was much smaller due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lack of permits, but it still attracted several gun-toting fringe groups.

Opponents contend the bill is overbroad and unnecessary.

"There hasn't been any violence in the area to justify this," said VCDL President Philip Van Cleave.

The bill also covers state buildings beyond the Capitol complex, a more permanent continuation of gun bans Gov. Ralph Northam and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe enacted through executive orders.

A similar bill has been filed in the Senate, but it would not extend the ban to the streets and sidewalks around the Capitol.

Gun bans at polling places

Firearms are already banned in schools and some other facilities used as polling places, but it depends on what type of building it is and what the gun policies of the building owner are.

A bill already approved by the House would ban guns within 40 feet of all polling places, with exceptions for police and armed security officers and anyone who lives next to a polling place and has a gun on their own property.

"We want people to be able to be free to vote without intimidation," said Levine, the bill's sponsor.

A Republican activist from Hopewell made headlines in 2018 for staging an armed protest outside the local registrar's office, where absentee voting was taking place. Amid the conspiratorial atmosphere following the 2020 presidential election, two Virginia men were arrested and charged with weapons offenses after driving to a Philadelphia vote-counting center.

The ban would also apply at electoral board meetings dealing with election results or recounts.

Republican lawmakers have pointed out that the bill makes no exception for concealed carry. Guns others can't see, argued Del. Les Adams, R-Rockbridge, aren't a tool of voter intimidation, which is already illegal.

"That justification is the only justification," Adams said.

Group violence prevention

Several Republican-sponsored gun bills, many of them exempting concealed carry permit holders from new restrictions, have already gone down in defeat. One that has not is GOP House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert's bill dealing with an all-too-common form of gun violence that rarely draws the same type of outrage as mass shootings.

Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, has filed legislation to bolster group violence intervention programs, or community-based efforts to deter shootings involving gangs or other groups most at risk of violence.

"Young men of color in urban areas are 11 times more likely to die by violence and firearms than young White men who don't live in these areas," Gilbert. "These young men are dying senselessly and needlessly. And they don't have to."

Gilbert's bill would create a Group Violence Intervention Board and a Division of Group Violence Intervention within the Department of Criminal Justice Services. The board would be tasked with applying for federal grants to fund Virginia programs similar to Boston's Operation Ceasefire, an initiative that dramatically reduced youth homicides in that city by providing resources to people trying to transition out of gang life and warning others that further acts of violence would be harshly punished.

David M. Kennedy, co-founder of the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and one of the creators of Operation Ceasefire, spoke in support of Gilbert's bill, saying it attempted to solve an "appalling problem."

"It's one of the most grievous demonstrations of racial inequity that we have in our democracy," Kennedy said. "The fact that decade in and decade out and year in and year out, we take it for granted that young men of color will die and die and die and die. And we do not do anything about it."

A similar bill failed in 2019, but several Democrats said they were largely supportive of Gilbert's measure this year as it passed a subcommittee by a 5-1 vote with two abstentions. They said they want to work to modify the bill to require more community involvement on the six-person board that, as proposed, is weighted toward law enforcement.

Del. Joshua Cole, D-Stafford, noted that President Joe Biden was ultimately criticized for his role in passing the 1994 crime bill even though, at the time, it was supported by "a lot of pastors and Black grandmothers" who wanted to see something done about crime in their neighborhoods.

"We have to be very, very clean and clear when we create this and we do this," Cole said. "We want it to protect communities. But we don't want it to turn into something different down the road that can hurt us."

Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, was the only Democrat who opposed the bill outright in the subcommittee. He said he'd like to see a more "holistic" approach that takes into account larger problems like poverty and underfunding of schools.

"This bill is built upon a premise that we as an authoritarian state with law enforcement first will be the beginning of this conversation," said Rasoul, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.

'Ghost' guns

With Virginia's laws on gun purchases getting tougher, some policymakers are concerned about the rise of homemade guns.

A bill advancing in the House would ban untraceable "ghost" guns, or home-assembled firearms, and plastic firearms made with 3D printers.

"There's really no reason not to serialize your gun unless you're trying to evade background checks," Del. Marcus Simon, D-Fairfax, the bill's patron, said during a subcommittee hearing.

Opponents said the bill unfairly criminalize hobbyists who enjoy do-it-yourself gun projects.

"You're treading in an area that's extremely technical," said Van Cleave.

Closing the 'Charleston loophole'

When the shooter who massacred nine people in 2015 at a Black church in Charleston, S.C., tried to buy a handgun, a drug offense should have prevented the sale from going through, according to the FBI.

But because gun sales can proceed if a background check hasn't been completed after three days, the purchase went through. Gun-control advocates have dubbed that the "Charleston loophole," saying background checks should be allowed to take longer if it means authorities will make more thorough decisions about whether the buyer is barred from having a gun.

Legislation pending in the House would increase the maximum window for State Police background checks from three business days to five business days, allowing more time for the check to go through instead of the buyer getting the gun by default.

Gun-rights groups contend the Charleston case was more about authorities botching Roof's paperwork and wasn't a simple question of how much time was spent on his case. Opponents have argued longer background checks would overburden the system and prevent people from being able to buy guns in a timely manner.

A veteran Virginia politics reporter, Graham grew up in Hillsville and Lynchburg, graduating from James Madison University and earning a master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. Before joining the Mercury, he spent six years at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, most of that time covering the governor's office, the General Assembly and state politics. He also covered city hall and politics at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville. Contact him at [email protected]

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Va. Democrats' new gun proposals include background checks at shooting ranges, ban on 'ghost' guns - Virginia Mercury

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Just like last year, the Virginia General Assembly's 2021 session began with a show of force from gun-rights supporters in downtown Richmond. And just like last year, Democrats still have full control. And they're still looking to fix up what they see as weak spots in the law after taking power from pro-gun Republicans in the 2019 elections.

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U.S.A. -( AmmoLand.com)- Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's ignorance is showing again. Her latest gaffe is proclaiming "guns are not allowed in the District of Columbia..." in a CNN interview with Chris Cuomo, brother, of course, to Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, also no stranger to gun control causes.

That might come as a shock to those gun owners living in the District of Columbia. It might also come as a shock to the only federal firearms licensee - DC Security Associates. For that matter, someone might want to explain that to the police department itself, which became the sole licensee for a brief period of time.

Lawmaker, Know the Laws

Still, that confusion doesn't make Rep. Ocasio-Cortez correct, not by a long shot. The District of Columbia's attempt to deny guns inside the District failed miserably. That resulted in the landmark Heller decision, which affirmed the Second Amendment is an individual right and local authorities cannot ban entire classes of commonly-owned firearms. Before the case, Washington, D.C. had banned the possession of handguns. In subsequent litigation, the federal courts have ordered that the District must issue licenses to carry firearms to qualified, law-abiding citizens.

That put an end to DC's ban on handguns. In fact, more than 4,000 people have obtained concealed carry permits from the D.C. police department, which requires hours of classroom instruction and range certification. Over half of those in the last fiscal year were for residents who live outside the District, according to a Washington Post report.

That might end the discussion on whether it's lawful to exercise fundamental rights in the federal enclave where the nation's elected representatives meet. It didn't put an end to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez's ignorance of the law, however.

Clutching Pearls

The congresswoman was making her wildly incorrect remark when she was explaining why she didn't attend President Joe Biden's inauguration. She said she didn't feel safe since fellow members of Congress were asserting their right to keep and bear arms. This is where she might have been confused.

Firearm possession within the Capitol Hill complex is forbidden for everyone except members of Congress and law enforcement. While Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is throwing up metal detectors and having U.S. Representatives get wanded down every time they go into the chamber to cast their votes, this notion that Members of Congress can't have guns is bunk.

The last time this came up was in 2015 when Congressman Ken Buck (R-Colo.) took all appropriate steps to hang an American-flag themed Modern Sporting Rifle (MSR) in his Capitol Hill office. It was unloaded, the bolt removed, and disabled with a trigger lock. Gun control politicians clutched their pearls and shrieked that such an abomination couldn't be tolerated. Except that it can.

"Members of Congress may maintain firearms within the confines of their office," explained Kimberly Schneider, a spokesperson for Capitol Hill police, "and they and any employee or agent of any member of Congress may transport within the Capitol Grounds firearms unloaded and securely wrapped."

The same rule also explains that no one "shall carry any firearm inside the chamber or on the floor of either House, in any lobby or cloakroom adjacent thereto, in the galleries of either House or in the Marble Room of the Senate or Rayburn Room of the House unless assigned or approved by the two Sergeants of Arms for maintenance of adequate security."

Just so we're keeping it easy to understand... guns are legal in Washington, D.C., and Members of Congress can have guns in their office. Rules adopted by the House of Representatives forbids them on the floor of the House chamber, in the respective lobbies and cloakroom or designated rooms.

Blinded by Bias

This isn't the first-time Rep. Ocasio-Cortez's ignorance of federal firearm laws has been on full display. She infamously accused fellow Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) of wanting to lend firearms to "people unsupervised who can't pass a background check." In the same tweet, she accused any friends of Rep. Crenshaw to "have likely abused their spouse or have a violent criminal record, & you may not know it."

If Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez took time to understand the Constitution she's sworn to defend, or the laws she purports to understand and advance, she would know that it's a felony to knowingly transfer a firearm to a prohibited individual. This includes domestic abusers.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez's comments in which she bungled gun laws and Constitutional rights started with her saying that she didn't feel safe and claimed many other Members of Congress agreed with her. She didn't offer any other names or even attempt at putting a number on it. She did willingly ignore that a concern for safety is exactly why more than 8.4 million people purchased a firearm for the first time last year, among the 21 million background checks for a gun sale.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has sponsored 29 bills and amendments. None of her bills passed the House of Representatives controlled by her fellow Democrats. Only two of her amendments passed, one by voice vote and one by recorded vote. A courtesy she might want to consider on behalf of the People she's elected to represent would be to understand the laws before she attempts to destroy them.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen's organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org

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Ocasio-Cortez's Stunning Ignorance of Federal Gun Laws on Display

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U.S.A. -( AmmoLand.com)- Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's ignorance is showing again. Her latest gaffe is proclaiming "guns are not allowed in the District of Columbia..." in a CNN interview with Chris Cuomo, brother, of course, to Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, also no stranger to gun control causes.

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NRA-ILA | Corporate Gun Control: The San Francisco Sneak

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San Francisco boomed during the Gold Rush and had been a symbol of American ingenuity and prosperity. Now it's home to would-be corporate overlords. These autocrats use their market dominance to threaten and shut down lawful businesses that engage in - or even with - industries that displease them.

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hunter

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Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

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ATF is a law enforcement agency in the United States' Department of Justice that protects our communities from violent criminals, criminal organizations, the illegal use and trafficking of firearms, the illegal use and storage of explosives, acts of arson and bombings, acts of terrorism, and the illegal diversion of alcohol and tobacco products.

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Just like gun owners, they must fulfill the same criteria regarding their history of prior convictions and mental state.   The license fee costs $200 (€170) for an initial three-year period and $90 for each subsequent three-year-long renewal.    Gunnar

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Just like gun owners, they must fulfill the same criteria regarding their history of prior convictions and mental state.   The license fee costs $200 (€170) for an initial three-year period and $90 for each subsequent three-year-long renewal.    Gunnar

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A significant share of Americans (44%) say they personally know someone who has been shot, either accidentally or intentionally, according to the spring 2017 survey. Gunnar 

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A significant share of Americans (44%) say they personally know someone who has been shot, either accidentally or intentionally, according to the spring 2017 survey. Gunnar 

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hunter

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They must have premises for conducting business and must alert a local law enforcement official at the time of submitting their applications to the federal bureau that regulates firearms.

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They must have premises for conducting business and must alert a local law enforcement official at the time of submitting their applications to the federal bureau that regulates firearms.

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Hunter

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But Americans are split over whether legal changes would lead to fewer mass shootings, according to a fall 2018 poll. Nearly half of adults (47%) say there would be fewer mass shootings if it was harder for people to obtain guns legally, while a similar share (46%) says there would be no difference. Very few (6%) say there would be more mass shootings if it was harder for people to obtain guns legally. 

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But Americans are split over whether legal changes would lead to fewer mass shootings, according to a fall 2018 poll. Nearly half of adults (47%) say there would be fewer mass shootings if it was harder for people to obtain guns legally, while a similar share (46%) says there would be no difference. Very few (6%) say there would be more mass shootings if it was harder for people to obtain guns legally. 

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hunter

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Today, 40% of gun sales do not go through a background check because they take place online, at gun shows, or through classified ads. Gun control is a polarizing topic, and there is debate whether strict gun control laws can prevent homicides or suicides.     Gunnar

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Today, 40% of gun sales do not go through a background check because they take place online, at gun shows, or through classified ads. Gun control is a polarizing topic, and there is debate whether strict gun control laws can prevent homicides or suicides.     Gunnar

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hunter

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The Greek philosopher Epictetus said that "only the educated are free," and Booker T. Washington trusted in "the power and influence" of facts. Just Facts has united both of these precepts in its research on education. Learn about the tangible outcomes and costs of preschool, K-12 education, higher education, and initiatives like Common Core, school choice, and digital learning.

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The Greek philosopher Epictetus said that "only the educated are free," and Booker T. Washington trusted in "the power and influence" of facts. Just Facts has united both of these precepts in its research on education. Learn about the tangible outcomes and costs of preschool, K-12 education, higher education, and initiatives like Common Core, school choice, and digital learning.