Summary
Gun control has been a highly debated and partisan issue across the United States since the Columbine High School massacre of 1999. In 2007, Virginia experienced its own mass shooting, one of the deadliest in American history, when 33 were shot and killed on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg on April 16, 2007. The debate on gun control continued to grow in Virginia this year following the mass shooting at a Virginia Beach municipal building on May 31st, 2019, which killed thirteen.
Candidates for the 2019 general assembly were quick to make their positions clear on gun control following the shooting, with many democratic candidates promising to enact gun control legislation should they be elected, while republican candidates vowed to protect the second amendment rights of Virginians. Since the democratic take over following the elections on November 5th, majority conservative counties have begun to declare themselves as gun sanctuaries in defiance of the gun control promises of the newly elected democratic general assembly. As the new year and the beginning of a new general assembly session grows closer, gun control will surely continue to be a strongly contested matter between the will of the people and their newly elected representatives.
General Assembly
2020 Gun Legislation
February 28, 2020
Parts of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s sweeping gun control legislation have won final passage in the General Assembly.
Lawmakers in the House and Senate gave final passage to several pieces of gun control legislation Friday.
That includes a red flag bill to allow authorities to temporarily take guns away from people deemed to be dangerous to themselves or others, and legislation giving local governments more authority to ban guns in public places.
HB 674: Authorizes removing firearms from persons posing substantial risk
Status: Passed House and Senate, awaits signature by Northam
Sponsors: Representatives Rip Sullivan, Betsy Carr, Eileen Filler-Corn, Dan Helmer, Chris Hurst, Mark Levine, Alfonso Lopez, and Kathleen Murphy
SB 35: Authorizes Localities to Prohibit Guns at Public Events
Status: Passed Senate
Sponsors: Representatives Scott Surovell, Jennifer Boysko, Creigh Deeds, Adam Ebbin, John Edwards, Barbara Favola, Jenn McClellan, Joe Morrissey
SB 69: Prohibits Purchasing more than One Handgun per Month
Status: Passed Senate
Sponsors: Representatives Mamie Locke, Jennifer Boysko, Adam Ebbin, Kaye Kory, Jenn McClellan, Joe Morrissey, Dick Saslaw
SB 70: Requires a Background Check for the Transfer of Firearms
Status: Passed Senate
Sponsors: Representatives Louise Lucas, Jennifer Boysko, Lynwood Lewis, Jenn McClellan, Dick Saslaw, Joe Morrissey
Other Considerations
Sanctuary counties: Inside Virginia’s gun rights resistance
Source: BBC World News
By Joel Gunter
February 13, 2020
Democrats won control of the Virginia House and Senate in November for the first time in 24 years, and they immediately proposed a raft of gun control measures from universal background checks to restrictions on high capacity magazines. The bills came as no surprise – the Democrats had campaigned heavily on gun control, backed by funding from activist groups which comprehensively outspent the National Rifle Association in its home state. Democratic candidates were responding to a growing clamour for gun control that began with the mass shooting of 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007 and was amplified last year when a municipal worker slaughtered 12 people in Virginia Beach.
