Since November, nearly 50 gun control proposals have been made.
Philip Van Cleave is the president of the Virginia Citizen’s Defense League (VCDL). In a missive distributed to members, he described the chaos of having a flurry of every conceivable piece of legislation proposed for consideration.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in all the years I’ve been lobbying for VCDL,” he wrote.
On Friday, the Virginia House took another step to strip away precious constitutional rights. With a straight party-line vote, a ban on so-called “assault weapons” was passed.
The bill proposed by Del. Dan Helmer (D) of Fairfax County would prohibit the sale or transfer of semi-automatic weapons manufactured after July 1, 2024. It would further ban designated large capacity magazines.
The measure would also prohibit young adults under the age of 21 from owning, selling or transferring prohibited semi-automatic weapons of any manufacture date.
Specifically targeted firearms include those that utilize a detachable magazine and have threaded barrels. Without the threaded barrel, the measure reads the weapon would be prohibited if it features a vertical fore grip, a “sound suppressor,” a “muzzle break,” a “muzzle compensator,” or a “folding, telescoping or collapsible [rear] stock.”
It should be noted that sound suppressors do not eliminate the sound of the gunshot. They merely muffle the noise, which has great benefit for the sport shooter and hunter.
Del. Nick Freitas of Culpeper spoke as a former Special Forces weapon sergeant in the Iraq War. He told the assembly that the body’s focus should be on criminals, not weapons.
“If you take a weapon and you put it on a desk and you don’t touch it, no one gets assaulted,” he explained. People do assault other people, and that should be the sort of crime that we are actually going after. But again we’re going after inanimate objects.”
Freitas added that he does not agree with the bill’s proponents that this measure will save lives. He further expressed his worry that anti-Second Amendment extremists will not stop there.
The Virginia Senate will vote on its version of the bill. If the measure passes both chambers, it will move to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) desk for his signature or veto.
Youngkin recently described the state’s gun statutes as some of the nation’s toughest.
A spokesman for the governor appeared to indicate his priority on fighting crime by going after the criminals who commit the acts. They told the media that Youngkin wants elected officials “to hold accountable those criminals that commit crimes with guns by lengthening and making more severe the penalties in order to keep criminals off the streets.”
There are many other anti-gun bills up for consideration in Virginia, according to the VCDL.
One would prohibit anyone under 21 from purchasing any type of weapon, whether it is a shotgun, rifle or handgun. Another would mandate new and renewing CHP holders to be fingerprinted by the state. One would collect a 5% tax on guns and ammunition and funnel the money collected to a “gun violence intervention program.”
NRA and USCCA instructors would no longer be permitted to conduct gun safety courses. This move is purely vindictive and would clearly jeopardize public safety.
Another measure would prohibit unserialized firearms, even those produced before 1968. This would have extreme effects on those who collect antique weapons and preserve the nation’s proud shooting traditions.
