Virginia Passes Last-Second Background Check, One-Handgun-a-Month Legislation

2nd Amendment – R2KBA Authors Current Events Jordan Michaels This Week
Virginia Passes Last-Second Background Check, One-Handgun-a-Month Legislation
Virginia’s Gov. Ralph Northam implemented much of his gun control agenda this year. (Photo: Ralph Northam Facebook)

Virginia’s legislative session came to a close on Saturday, but not before gun-control advocates approved at least three anti-gun bills just hours before the deadline.

The Virginia Senate gave their final approval to bills banning the private transfer of firearms without a background check, limiting handgun purchases to one every 30 days, and making daycares/preschools and licensed day home facilities gun-free zones.

All legislation now goes to Gov. Ralph Northam, who is expected to sign any gun control proposal that crosses his desk.

“Every year, we lose more than one thousand Virginians to gun violence,” Northam said in a statement. “Today, this year, Virginia has said enough is enough. The emergency of gun violence must end. This legislation will help get us there.”

“And thank you to the legislators who finally listened to the voices of Virginians and voted to pass commonsense gun safety legislation,” he continued. “These bills will save lives.”

SEE ALSO: ‘I said it’: Democratic Virginia Senator Admits to Retaliating Against Sheriffs Who Supported Sanctuary Movement

The universal background check bill (Senate Bill 70 and House Bill 2) exempts gifts made to immediate family members, but any seller who fails to conduct a background check will be guilty of a Class 6 felony and any seller who purchases a firearm without obtaining a background check will be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

The one-handgun-a-month bill (Senate Bill 69 and House Bill 812) revives a policy passed in 1993 and championed by Virginia’s Gov. L. Douglas Wilder until a Republican legislature repealed it in 2012.

Wilder sold the measure to the legislature as a way to combat gun trafficking from Virginia to New York, but an analysis of ATF data by the NRA-ILA revealed that the three years before and after the law’s repeal saw no change in the number of firearms traced from Virginia to New York. It also stands to reason that bad actors willing to sell firearms to gun-running criminals won’t hesitate to sell more than one handgun per month.

Virginia’s gun-rights advocates spurred a pro-gun movement in communities across the state that culminated in a rally in Richmond at which 30,000 people attended to protest anti-gun policies. In addition, 146 towns, cities, and counties declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries and dozens of sheriffs vowed not to enforce new anti-gun measures.

SEE ALSO: YouTube Quashed Live Streams of Virginia Gun Rights Rally

Now that the legislative season is over, it’s clear that the movement succeeded in some areas while failing in others. Led by several moderate Democrats no doubt fearful of losing their seats, the Virginia Senate blocked legislation banning the sale, manufacture, and transfer of so-called “assault weapons” and “high-capacity magazines.”

The pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defense League credited the advocacy of gun owners for the surprising victory that saw four Democratic senators join six Republicans to block the legislation in committee.

But despite several close votes in the Senate, the anti-gun lobby succeeded in passing bills banning the private transfer of firearms without a background check, limiting handgun purchases to one per month, allowing local governments to enact draconian anti-gun measures, and allowing the confiscation of firearms without due process with a so-called “red flag” law.

Virginians will have a chance to flip the legislature back to red at the next election in November 2021.

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  • ARTHUR GUIDI March 15, 2020, 8:53 am

    what in hell is wrong with you people noe phony laws that wont help a thing and youlet your citizens feel safe,
    juet ask some normal people wit a brain how much safer not that you have disarmed the law abiding citizens to continue your reelection by the criminal element

  • JERRY Lee ZOPP March 14, 2020, 1:46 pm

    “one gun a month!” That’s about eleven more per year than I usually buy. I guess I’d better go shopping, I’m way behind schedule.

  • Ej harbet March 14, 2020, 11:23 am

    We are all Virginians if we don’t do our duty to control our governments by voting out anti freedom scum.I’m sure Virginians whow love freedom will next time regain control their government.if not it will control THEM!

  • BobbyZ March 13, 2020, 12:47 pm

    Brothers in Arms, it is not only necessary but also our responsibility to stand up in protest, opposition, and sadly, if necessary Rebellion! If we permit the radical liberals to outlaw our firearms, to abolish the 2nd amendment, then we as a nation are truly finished. The 4th and 1st Amendment’s will immediately follow. The left is blinded by their wrongfully perceived beliefs. Having no moral compass to guide them, they are misguided and have surely lost their way. When we collectively decide to take an armed stand it’s important to remember our brave forefathers were committing treason against the English Crown in declaring our Independence! So too shall We The People once more be required to stand in unity against those who threaten our democracy, our Bill of Rights. Our way of life.
    Do not despair. Remember the radical anti-gun Democratic left will find themselves at a distinct disadvantage. We freedom loving Patriotic Americans have all the guns!
    #Stand&Fight

  • Kenneth R. Baugh March 13, 2020, 11:59 am

    Once again, those they crow the loudest want protected FIRST ! Anti-gun illiterates don’t wave the flag, they HIDE behind it ! The bottom line to Virginia’s incompetent legislation is that it’s o k for criminals to have guns, but not honest, hard working citizens to protect themselves or their families ! The joke, serious beyond any doubt, is that it totally lacks ANY common sense, what-so-ever, when it comes to the constitution, personnel rights, or self preservation of property. Sadly, the fault lies with the population – our vote, our misguided trust that elected officials have OUR best interest in mind – WRONG ! Their ONLY interest is solely about THEIR deposit slip ! Until we clean this Communist minded faction out of Washington, it will not change !

  • Fear and loathing in California March 13, 2020, 11:00 am
  • ~ Occams March 13, 2020, 10:42 am

    Man, am I ever glad the pro-2nd republicans are shouting and screaming about these abuses, lending their voice to all this unconstitutional law passing !!!

    Oh. Wait.

  • Rivahmitch March 13, 2020, 10:12 am

    Those who are unwilling to kill and die to preserve their rights, freedoms and property will inevitably and deservedly lose them. A slave to the government is …a slave. As Churchill said…..”it is better to die than to live as slaves”.

  • JORGE GARCIA March 13, 2020, 10:09 am

    HOORAY FOR VIRGINIA!!!!! daycares/preschools and licensed day home facilities are now open season for lunatics to pillage our young kids and elderly that can not take care of themselves, I am a God Fearing Man, and was forced to run from a country that was disarmed, and still is, guess what, it became communist in the 60s and still is to this very day, a slap in the face to democracy just 90 miles from our coast, and this is how it began, my only regret was to be a part of a herd of sheep that to this day still lives under the hammer of communism. Vote these people out! if you care about all you have worked for, because you will lose it. this is only the beginning, fortunately for me at my age I will not see it, but it will come if these money hungry, moron targeting thieves are not voted out for ever. PLEASE DON’T MAKE THE MISTAKE WE MADE IN CUBA!!! My parents were too busy running from this, while the dumb, poor, peasants believed that this was correct and their way out of poverty with a drink of cheap rum in their hand and the promise of prosperity and peace in their ears. GOD BLESS AND HELP AMERICA!

    • Johnson Beyer JR March 13, 2020, 11:09 am

      Well said, Jorge!

    • deanbob March 13, 2020, 1:09 pm

      My neighbor and his brother can from Cuba in the ’60’s. His brother has a horrific tale to tell about being jailed by Raul. The saddest part of my good friend’s life in the US is that his children were ardent Obama supporters and are now ardent Trump haters!

  • ~ Occams March 13, 2020, 10:09 am

    Anyone here YET realize that ‘voting’ and ‘protesting’ ain’t gonna ‘git er dun’?

  • Dave Lemay March 13, 2020, 9:51 am

    All gun laws are about taking away your American rights guaranteed by the Constitution. While living in Canada for quite some years, I learned first hand what it’s like to reside in a Socialist country. My Canadian wife opted to take my bought and paid for car and I discovered that I had no right or manner to prevent it. Later she did the same with a van that I had purchased. After that she removed every single item from a house that we mutually purchased. I had no right to demand the return of anything, no matter which of us paid for it. When I tried to sleep in my empty dwelling and visitors may be coming in the middle of the night, I had no right to self defense. Should I have opted to get an illegal gun, then chances are that I would have gone to prison for trying to protect myself.
    Criminals are still getting guns in Canada but good guys can not. Trust me when I say, it’s no fun having no rights and it goes way beyond guns. We must find a means to fight this insanity. Currently, the Democratic Party is an illegal undertaking that needs to be disbanded, since it is perpetrating an attack on our rights and the very fabric of our society.
    A right to bear arms needs no license, no permission, and no government to make rules about how it should be done, etc. Let this go and all freedom will soon follow.

  • Joe Stubblefield March 13, 2020, 9:34 am

    Welcome to MD!….Virginia. Now you folks be nice, you know you are not allowed to badmouth elected and appointed gov types unless you are on the side that bans amendments 1 and 2. Gotta be card carrying to play. Err, no wait that’s Maryland at least on buying pistols. Wait a week, oops, that is probably coming too. Anyone want to buy property in Georgia? I can always use more good neighbors when I get back down there from MD.

    • Jay Bird March 13, 2020, 10:56 am

      want to trade for one in California?

  • Marshall B Johnston March 13, 2020, 9:15 am

    1000 deaths a month from gunshots is this fool smoking Kentucky Gold.

  • BILL MARTIN March 13, 2020, 8:53 am

    LET THIS BE A GREAT LESSON LEARNED, NEVER EVER UNDER NO CIRCUMENTS VOTE FOR A COMMUNIST DEMOCRAT, THEY LIE, CHEAT, STEAL AND DO ANYTHING FOR CONTROL AND TRY TO TAKE AWAY YOU GOD GIVEN RIGHTS, I KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE IN THE MIDDLE OF NIGHT HAVE A INTRUDER TRYING TO BREAK IN MY DOOR, WHEN HE HEARD THE SOUND OF A 12 GAUGE SHOTGUN SHELL BEING INJECTED INTO THE CHAMBER HE RAN AWAY AND HE WOULD BE MET WITH DEADLY FORCE, BY THE WAY HE NEVER RETURNED
    VOTE TRUMP ALL THE WAY, THE PEOPLE’S PRESIDENT

    • rgm March 14, 2020, 3:17 am

      Similar incident occurred at my home with my partially disabled mother after I was on the phone with a sheriff for about one minute, reporting a suspicious car and incessant knocking on the door. It seemed like a movie as I watched 3 guys (who I later found out were ex-cons) exiting a car and running up my driveway. Happened so fast that I had to tell the sheriff I was grabbing my shotgun and possibly meeting the intruders downstairs. Sure enough and just in time, I was able to position myself at the bottom stairwell. After seeing one of the guys with outstretched arms and thick-green gloved hands, I turned my head for about a second and POOF! It was as if he did a magic disappearing act. Within a minute the cowards were leaving down the road in a luxury car they had come in. No shots fired and my anti gun mother finally understood that when seconds count, LE was 14-15 minutes away…at least in our case. One of the greatest satisfactions was being able to see all four caught and arrested at a freeway entrance as LE paraded them in front of us for identification. They supposedly got long prison sentences.

  • Mikey Lee March 13, 2020, 8:49 am

    So now Virginians are giving up their 2A rights to reduce crime rates in New York. Folks demographics are against you, the population numbers in the Richmond and Alexandria corridor, who voted these contemptible
    fanatics in are not going to change. Vexit!

  • Joe Burge March 13, 2020, 8:35 am

    “it’s just common sense” or “what does it matter, doesn’t affect me”

    Here, let me slice you with a piece of paper. ouch, but it doesn’t really matter.
    Until you bleed to death from 10,000 slices.

    They passed registration, because it’s just common sense.
    Then the registration was used for confiscation, because it’s just common sense.
    And in the end, it is not about criminals, or stopping crime.
    Criminals…..don’t obey laws.
    It IS about disarming people.
    Because an armed voter is a threat.
    A disarmed taxpayer is not.

  • Brian Corbin March 13, 2020, 8:29 am

    Welp, here we go again. Demoncrats enforcing Socialism. ITS TIME for a Civil War AGAIN. The South needs to rise up and take back our rights before they strip them all. Its time to FIRE EVERYONE in Congress and the Senate WE AS AMERICANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO CLEAN HOUSE!!! WE the People pay their salaries. Lets remove them all!!!!!! Except Trump

  • joefoam March 13, 2020, 8:23 am

    Despite all the declarations of 2A sanctuaries and a huge pro gun demonstration the legislators and the governor continued forward with gun control. I guess the reps aren’t really representing the public, don’t care, or simply think they are smarter and their agenda is more important than the freedoms of the VA citizens. Time to vote them all out and never let the dems back into power.

  • Ronnie Pigg March 13, 2020, 7:40 am

    That’s It! Now is the time, for all good people, to come to the Sanity. Now is the time for those of us, that think this is anti American, to rise up, as a United Country to set a date to march on the White House. President Trump is not the issue. Nor will he be are president forever. But 1-3 million pro gun march on Capital Hill will show the gun grabbers our power within.
    Lets us all, set a date after these corona virus issue, to march.
    Just as Martin Luther King and the Women Rights Issue.

  • thomas jefferson March 13, 2020, 7:32 am

    Simply DO NOT COMPLY! What is this Black-Faced Clown Traitor going to do if a “few” of the useful badged idiots he has will violate GOD-GIVEN, UNALIENABLE, NATURAL & INHERENT RIGHTS, not to mention CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS, by arresting sovereign citizens? What will this TRAITOR Gov. do when 10’s of 1,000 are “arrested” for simply exercising their rights? Not enough jails, not enough prosecutors, not enough man power, not to mention not enough BODY BAGS for those useful idiots that attempt to enforce these unconstitutional “laws”. Time to utilize the 2nd Amendment for the specific purpose it was addressed, to throw off tyrants and their minions.

  • Jason M March 13, 2020, 6:53 am

    Wrong picture; need to use his blackface photo.

  • Larry dahl March 13, 2020, 6:40 am

    you put the dumb heads in Office^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

  • Bones March 13, 2020, 5:54 am

    More ..”lies”…Legislation is not ANTI-GUN…it’s pro- common sense….you paranoid losers ..so scared you are of legislation that actually helps …….grow a sack….And for you Religious weirdos….remember…you’re supposed to turn the other cheek anyway…or you’re living a life of fakeness and lies…go look in the mirror And figure it out…and most importantly…don’t let your fear hoard the ammo like it’s corona Virus toilet paper…I don’t trust any of you…whether you’re a weak ,fear mongering deplorable or not

    • Steven March 13, 2020, 7:07 am

      G.F.Y., loser troll!

      • Matt March 13, 2020, 8:51 am

        Hear, hear! Because one more law will stop all that crime!

    • rayr March 13, 2020, 7:13 am

      That was one of the most illiterate sounding posts I have seen in long time. Are you even a citizen?

    • thomas jefferson March 13, 2020, 7:36 am

      Mr. “Bones”,

      You are deluded. Possibly self-deluded, but one must assume you have drank the Libtard/Socialist/Communist Propaganda Kool-Aide. As my friend Samuel Adams once said, “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”

    • Fairfax March 13, 2020, 7:55 am

      The pro-abortion governor and legislators have spoken! Big Brother lives in Richmond.

    • johnnyraygun March 13, 2020, 9:28 am

      How do we know this is not some Russian backed Troll? They play both sides.
      I love AZ,,,,,,,, liberals stay out.. The #1 gun friendly state in the United States of America. The #1 Knife friendly state in the United States of America.

      • ~ Occams March 13, 2020, 11:18 am

        lol…Yea. ‘Russian’. Who lives in Tel Aviv and is paid by the Israeli government.

        ‘To learn who rules over you…..’

    • Kimberpross March 13, 2020, 9:29 am

      I always get a kick out of anyone who uses “Common Sense” like you. Any time a politician uses that it is laughable because it is really an oxymoron. I know you have heard this before but is worth repeating….How does enacting more laws around gun ownership, purchases , magazine capacities, bullet micro stamping, banning certain types of firearms, any of that make you more safe? A sick human who wants to harm others will do so. That in itself is against a law, so why would they be concerned of violating other laws to do their deed? However, if that sick human comes to your door, having any/all of the aforementioned would be welcomed. But being a law abiding citizen, they are now vulnerable. The VIrginia “Jack Boots” start violating the Bill of rights and there is no push back because they are the only ones with the firearms. I am not a Virginian, but if I were, I would be concerned about that seeing what they have as political leadership in that state.

    • Michael Keim March 13, 2020, 11:23 am

      Dumb shit.

  • Freedom March 13, 2020, 2:55 am

    This is against the law, they have no legal right to amend the second amendment. None of this will help save people, tell me how these laws have protected New York, Michigan, and Chicago where it is illegal to own guns. These are the most dangerous places to live what a joke, America has lost to socialism. I’m encasing my flag to preserve what is left of the Republic to remind my children what they have lost. One day, God willing, there will be another revolution and we will be free once again.

    • David Welsh March 13, 2020, 9:44 am

      True. It is unconstitutional and therefore illegal. The dem “lawnakers” belong in prison.

  • Mark N. March 11, 2020, 1:39 am

    California has had a one handgun a month law for years. Effect on the crime rate? Zero. Now they passed a law that says one FIREARM a month. Since criminals typically do not use long guns to commit crimes, I anticipate that the effect on the crime rate will be…wait for it…ZERO. Criminals don’t buy guns at gun stores. California has a universal background check law that requires all transactions to be processed through an FFL (which really sucks when the buyer flunks the background check sine the seller has to pay for a background check just to get his gun back). Effect on crime? Zero. (I wonder how private sellers in Va are supposed to get a background check done on a buyer.)

    What will the effect of making day care centers and pre-schools gun free zones? Well, when was the last time you heard of a shoot out at such a place? Like never? Yeah, pretty much. So the effect onthe “gun violence”: rate will again be…ZERO.

    With all these zeros, I think it gives us a pretty good idea of the IQ of the Legislators who pass these bills.,.

  • Ricky B. March 10, 2020, 2:55 pm

    Not a fan of “gun free zones”… But it is encouraging to see them focus more on preventing the sale of any guns at all to people who shouldn’t own guns rather than try to restrict the kind of guns that law abiding citizens are allowed to own!

    One pistol a month is kind of silly, but I’ve never purchased more than a dozen handguns in a 12 month period so it wouldn’t impact me too much… I have purchased a couple pistols at the same time in the past, so this restriction would have prevented me from doing that. Slightly inconvenient, but nothing I couldn’t live with.

    • SeppW March 10, 2020, 7:52 pm

      There is whole slew of gun control bills. The liberals are going to wreck liberty and abridge the rights of Virginians before it’s over. The efn GOP and state Republican party let VA go for some reason. They didn’t even campaign in last general election. The liberals were out in force daily spreading misinformation, faux statistics, and half truths and won in a big way..

      • John March 13, 2020, 6:53 am

        That is very interesting and suspicious that the Republicans let VA go, and did not even campaign there in the last general election. I did not hear about that before. How or why could that be?
        That sounds like it was planned for some reason…

        • ~ Occams March 13, 2020, 10:34 am

          As everyone keeps shouting ‘LIBTARDS!’ and ‘LIBERALS!’ and ‘DEMS!’ – I keep reminding everyone (much to their great displeasure) that NOT ONE REPUBLICAN has spoken out on this. And I catch hell for pointing out their king, Trump, signed more illegal anti-2nd ‘executive orders’ in 2 years than Obama did in 8. Why does no one see this? It’s ‘okay’ because Trump did it?

          Which leads to the OBVIOUS CONCLUSION that the ‘Dems’ are taking the heat for something they ALL want; a disarmed populace.

          No corrupt government (oh, and they 100% are) wants an armed populace.

          ”To vote is to consent to the treason and usurpation’s of your Bill of Rights. Anyone still voting is complicit in the ongoing crime of this criminal, occupying force, period.”

          • Stuart March 14, 2020, 11:21 pm

            Less you care about nothing at all, not voting is idiotic! There’s no kinder, nor more accurate way of saying it.

          • Jay March 15, 2020, 6:12 am

            Correct! Although Trump was the logical choice seeing as we really had none as usual. We are in a war and it’s been waging for at least 70 years. it’s bit by bit, step by step Our Constitution is rejected and undermined by those who swore to protect and defend it. Money has ruined politics and anyone that thinks a rich elite like Trump has the common sense to understand the thinking and life of the common man is dead wrong. As an example look at his latest debacle on this corona virus, he puts the very people in charge of this whole operation that are responsible for the invention of of it in the first place, even hiring Google for millions of dollars who is silencing peoples voices. Then he says many times were only going to check those sowing symptoms when the idiot can not understand or is complicit in it all, that people can walk around spreading this disease for up to two weeks when showing no symptoms! What a genius! Don’t spew he’s listening to the adviser junk, it’s still his decision, period!

    • Roy March 13, 2020, 5:08 am

      I am concerned that you miss the point. It doesn’t matter if it impacts you, it matters that the laws are a lie in that they do exactly nothing to curb crime and it is just one step closer to confiscation. The Democrats are not passing these laws because they believe they will stop crime, they know the statistics better than we do. It is simply part of their elitist mindset. And if you really think these laws prevent the sale to criminals your are at best mistaken and at worse part of the problem. Not trying tho offend, but there are too many folks like yourself who say if it doesn’t impact me why should I care or “I can live with that”. This is clearly one more step in restricting our rights guaranteed by the 2nd amendment. And red flag laws clearly violate due process – period. There is no compromise to these type laws, they just keep chipping away one law at a time until guns are outlawed. If all gun owners, like yourself don’t fight these and all gun control laws, vice being concerning as to whether it impacts them, then we are lost.

    • S H March 13, 2020, 7:57 am

      The whole gist of your mindset is explained in this excerpt: “…so it wouldn’t impact me too much…”. It isn’t about “you”. It’s about Rights and Freedom.

  • Dr Motown March 10, 2020, 7:22 am

    Depends on what kind of candidates the Republicans run….if the Republicans step on the landmines the Dummycrats always plant in clear view (abortion and homosexuality), they will lose and VA will remain a leftofascist state. If Republicans run on a platform that presents the true facts about gun laws and civil rights, they might have a chance to take back the state.

    • SeppW March 10, 2020, 7:47 pm

      The dem/libs flipped the state because of gerrymandering.

      • allblues March 13, 2020, 8:14 am

        Don’t forget the extraordinary largesse heaped on the Party of Satan by Nanny Bloomberg, the Grand Poobah of gun confiscation.

    • Jay March 15, 2020, 6:16 am

      I can’t think of anyone in government/politics right now that has shown and or done what they swore to do, Protect and Defend the Constitution of these United States! They are all to busy undermining it and lining their pockets!

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