THESE EIGHT STATES COULD FORM THE INTERSTATE COMPACT ON SECOND AMENDMENT SANCTUARIES~VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS SEEK TO BAN FIREARM MANUFACTURING & REPAIR

THESE EIGHT STATES COULD FORM 

THE INTERSTATE COMPACT ON 

SECOND AMENDMENT SANCTUARIES 

VA Dems Seek to Ban the Manufacturing or Repair of Certain Semi-Automatic Rifles

BY JOHN CRUMP

SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2020/02/va-dems-seek-to-ban-the-manufacturing-or-repair-of-certain-semi-automatic-rifles/#axzz6DelqnCmG; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:

Richmond, VA –-(Ammoland.com)- The “Assault Firearms” bill (HB 961) in Virginia passed the Public Safety Committee on Friday.

On Monday, the legislature read the bill for the first time in the full House of Delegates. The full House of Delegates will vote on the bill before the annual crossover day. Crossover day is where the Senate sends all passed measures to the House and vice versa.

The bill will ban magazines that hold more than 12-rounds, Shotguns that hold more than seven shells, semi-automatic rifles with certain cosmetic features, suppressors, and trigger actuators. There are other things in the bill that gun owners are overlooking.

The bill reads:

“Assault firearm” includes any part or combination of parts designed or intended to convert, modify, or otherwise alter a firearm into an assault firearm, or any combination of parts that may be readily assembled into an assault firearm. “Assault firearm” does not include (i) a firearm that has been rendered permanently inoperable, (ii) an antique firearm as defined in § 18.2-308.2:2, or (iii) a curio or relic as defined in § 18.2-308.2:2.

This passage could potentially ban parts used to repair broken rifles. Banning the transfer of these rifles to anyone other than the government would mean once the rifle breaks, it is useless. If the owner repairs their gun or sells it, they are committing a felony.

Gun rights groups from around the country expressed concern about the passage of HB 961 out of the committee. One of these groups is Gun Owners of America that has been fighting hard alongside VCDL in the Commonwealth to defeat the attack on gun rights. Senior Vice President, Erich Pratt, is dismayed the bill has gotten as far as it has.

“The radical Democrats in Richmond are poking the proverbial bear. Gun owners have a long memory,” Pratt told AmmoLand. “And they are motivated more so than ever before to get involved politically. Over 98% of gun owners polled say they would NOT reelect a Delegate or Senator who votes for a ban on commonly owned firearms, such as what passed out of a House committee today. Gun owners will definitely “remember in November.”

Democrats hid another passage in the bill. It reads:

B. It is unlawful for any person to import, sell, transfer, manufacture, or purchase an assault firearm, provided that a person may transfer an assault firearm to another person if:

1. The transfer is a bona fide gift made by or to a member of a transferor's immediate family as defined in § 6.2-1300;

2. The transfer occurs by operation of law;

3. The person receiving the assault firearm is an executor or administrator of an estate or is a trustee of a trust created by a will, and the assault firearm to be transferred is property of such estate or trust;

4. The transferor is an executor or administrator of an estate or is a trustee of a trust created by a will, and the assault firearm to be transferred is the property of such estate or trust;

5. The transfer is temporary and is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm;

6. The transfer is temporary and occurs within the continuous presence of the owner of the firearm;

7. The sale or transfer of an assault firearm is to an authorized representative of the Commonwealth or any subdivision thereof as part of an authorized voluntary gun buy-back or give-back program;

8. The transfer is of an antique firearm as defined in § 18.2-308.2:2; or

9. The transfer occurs at a shooting range, shooting gallery, or other area designated for the purpose of target shooting, for use during target practice, a firearms safety or training course or class, a shooting competition, or any similar lawful activity.

C. A violation of this section is punishable as a Class 6 felony.

D. The provisions of this section shall not apply to (i) any government officer, agent, or employee, or member of the Armed Forces of the United States, to the extent that such person is otherwise authorized to acquire an assault firearm and does so while acting within the scope of his duties; (ii) the manufacture of an assault firearm by a firearms manufacturer for the purpose of sale to any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States or to a law-enforcement agency in the Commonwealth for use by that agency or its employees, provided that the manufacturer is properly licensed under federal, state, and local laws; (iii) the sale or transfer of an assault firearm by a licensed dealer to any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States or to a law-enforcement agency in the Commonwealth for use by that agency or its employees; (iv) the purchase by any person of his service handgun pursuant to § 59.1-148.3.

This hidden provision would make it illegal for the manufacturing of “assault firearms” in Virginia unless the intent is to sell it to the military or the police. Several manufacturers in Virginia would be put out of business or forced to move out of Virginia. The people employed by these companies would lose their jobs and cause economic hardships on the very people Democrats claim they care about the most, the working class.

In fact, they showed how much they cared about the public by only giving them six minutes to express their opposition to HB 961. After the committee voted the public was kicked out of the room by Capitol police under threat of arrest on orders from the Democrats. Talking to long time observers none could recall that happening before.

The bill is far from passing. HB 961 will have to pass out of the House of Delegates before being sent to the Senate. There is already one Democrat on record stating he will not vote for the bill. If another Democrat Senator breaks with their party line over the bill, then the law will fail.

AmmoLand encourages all gun owners across the Commonwealth to contact their representatives and encourage them to vote no on HB 961.  Bloomberg will not stop at Virginia, but we have a shot of handing him a defeat in his war against guns.

Readers can email their representatives directly at https://gunowners.org/va02062020/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=va-alert2-2020-02-06

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About John Crump

John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%'ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist de-platforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.

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Virginia: Open Letter, Chairman Patrick A. Hope & Vice Chairman David L. Bulova

SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2020/02/virginia-open-letter-chairman-patrick-a-hope-vice-chairman-david-l-bulova/#axzz6DenEKlg3; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:

Special Session and Dueling Rallies at the Virginia Capitol

Virginia – -(AmmoLand.com)- Open Letter:

Chairman Delegate Hope and Vice-Chairman Delegate Bourne;

I attended last Friday’s House Public Safety Committee’s hearing on HB 961, Governor Northam’s scary gun, magazine, and accessories ban, and I was disgusted by your management of the hearing in your respective capacities as Chair and Vice-Chair.

In the audience on either side of me were people that traveled several hours to attend that hearing. One gentleman was a business owner from a rural county who knew all too well that reliance on law enforcement to protect him is preposterous. The other was a retired officer of the Inspector General who said that law enforcement recognizes that the best deterrence to crime isn’t more law enforcement, but an armed population. As a forensic psychiatrist, I know that psychiatrists are the medical specialists that are most likely to be victims of homicide. We each have unique reasons to be armed, and because of that, we are willing to apply our time, talents, and treasure to the preservation of our rights.

Even with its current amendments, this bill turns the three of us into felons, overnight, for the possession of standard-capacity magazines and heavily, federally regulated suppressors that we purchased as law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes. It shouldn’t surprise either of you that just proposing this bill is morally repugnant to us, especially when your party voted down both Project Ceasefire and bills calling for increased penalties for criminals who commit rape at gunpoint. Your party put its sights on us, insulted victims, and gave criminals a free pass.

Adding to our outrage were the incredible lies told during that hearing. One doesn’t need to be a lawyer to understand that the Heller decision protected our right to keep “weapons in common use.” The items this bill bans are all in common use. Vice-Chairman, as a former member of the Attorney General’s staff, were you unable to correct Delegate Levine, when he said that the Supreme Court of the United States upheld these bans? What stopped you from pointing out that the Federal Circuit Courts that have ignored Heller are lower courts, and that the Supreme Court has not yet ruled on these bans? You allowed Delegate Levine to continue the buffoonery he began when he pantomimed his laughably mistaken ideas for what constitutes an “assault weapon” by allowing him the additional opportunity to display his ignorance of our courts.

Furthermore, Vice Chairman, when you said that these weapons and magazines were made for the military and should only be present on battlefields, were you aware that the Capitol Police present at the hearing were carrying Sig Sauer P320 pistols with 16 round magazines plus one in the chamber? Are the Capitol Police intending to wage war, and are they planning on turning the Capitol grounds into a battlefield? Now that your party has made the Pocahontas Building a gun-free zone, even for those of us with concealed handgun permits, why do they continue to need military-grade firepower to keep the peace? If these magazines are so intrinsically dangerous why should the Capitol Police have them at all?

Chairman, given the historic significance of this bill, it is shocking that it wasn’t first heard in a sub-committee, and it was completely unacceptable that only six (6) minutes were allotted for public dissent.

It was plainly obvious to you that the dissenters outnumbered the supporters many times over. The just and decent thing to do, prior to turning those dissenters into felons, would be to have at least let them speak. We came to change hearts and minds, but we recognize that most of the committee members arrived with orders from the Governor, who in turn appears to be taking orders from an out-of-state billionaire. At the very least, we came to bear witness to our process of government and hoped to leave assured that it continues to function as our Founders intended. What you presided over was a deliberate affront to the four hundred years of history of our Assembly. You should have been prepared to listen all day and night if necessary to ensure that every voice was heard. How great is the urgency to eliminate our rights that you couldn’t be bothered to listen to us speak? Had the two of you allowed those in attendance to speak, I doubt anyone in the audience would have said anything “disruptive” at the hearing’s conclusion. It is regrettable that they spoke out at the end, because it is as plain as day that you baited them into doing that.

What makes their “disruption” most regrettable, however, is that this monstrous bill has the fight of its life ahead of it. You rushed HB 961 through because you didn’t have the support you needed previously to get this to the Senate, and you were running out of time before next week’s crossover. It is likely to be further modified by the House. Even if the Senate Committee that receives it lets it pass, it is unlikely to pass the Senate. It certainly won’t pass unscathed, and so it will have to survive the wranglings of a conference committee. At each juncture, the few sane liberals in your party will have the opportunity to listen to their constituents and kill this bill.

Although you wouldn’t pause to let us speak, we haven’t stopped exercising our rights. Background checks for gun purchases doubled in the Commonwealth last month, and ammunition sales in deep-blue Arlington are up 339% compared to one year ago.

Do you think those Arlingtonians are only filling ten-round magazines? This bill, and its progenitor, SB 16, in turn, gave birth to the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement in Virginia. These bills mobilized many thousands who could not stand politics to become involved, because, to their amazement, rather than focusing on criminals, you chose to focus on them and their rights.

I can assure you and every member of the Assembly that we will not back down and we have the support of gun owners throughout the United States. The Second Amendment, our Commonwealth’s Constitution, the facts of civilian gun usage, and the Heller decision are on our side, not yours. When Secretary Moran greeted Philip Van Cleave (president of Virginia Citizens Defense League) and me at the NRA’s January 13th lobby day, he said that he’d see us again on the floor of the Assembly. I replied that we’d see him in court. The high court of the nation appears ready to restore the rights that have been wrongfully infringed upon by those of you who target the law-abiding and give aid to criminals. There is no shortage of your constituents that would happily be the plaintiff in … v Commonwealth of Virginia to set this right.

Respectfully yours,

Dennis Petrocelli, MD
stoicmd@protonmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/doctorpetrocelli/

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