When the Democratic Party took control of the Virginia State Legislature in 2018, they promised the people they would enact sensible gun legislation. Instead, the Virginia State Senate voted to kill a bill on Monday that would have banned assault style weapons and possession of high-capacity magazines with the help of four Democratic State Senators: Sens. R. Creigh Deeds (Bath), John S. Edwards (Roanoke), Chap Petersen (Fairfax) and Scott A. Surovell (Fairfax).
The Senate Judiciary Committee will send the bill to the state’s Crime Commission for further study and may bring it back up for vote next year.
“The Democratic platform last fall was very clear. Limiting access to weapons of war used in mass murder was a key part of that platform. The House of Delegates delivered on our promise to take action to keep those weapons off our streets. To call today’s vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee a disappointment would be an understatement.”
House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax)
The bill was the most controversial part of Northam’s gun-control agenda, with gun rights activists warning that the state was planning to confiscate firearms. Since the election, more than 110 Virginia counties, cities and towns have passed some type of “Second Amendment sanctuary” resolution, many of them asserting that local officials will not enforce laws they consider unconstitutional. Gun rights activists staged an enormous rally on Capitol Square in January, drawing heavily armed militias from across the country.
Seven other Northam-backed gun control measures have already passed Virginia’s House of Delegates, including bills requiring universal background checks for private gun sales and mandating that the owner of a stolen or lost firearm report it within 24 hours.
Other measures passed by the House include one authorizing local governments to ban weapons from public buildings and certain events, restoring a limit on handgun purchases of one per month and creating a “red flag” law allowing authorities to temporarily seize the weapons of someone assessed to be a threat to themselves or others,
