Anti-gun lawmakers in Virginia’s General Assembly recently earned well-deserved scorn by trying to create a special carveout for themselves in one of their numerous gun control bills. The legislation concerns new requirements for handgun storage in private vehicles and seeks to punish law-abiding gun owners for the actions of criminals.
HB110 would require gun owners to store a handgun left in an unattended vehicle “out of plain view in a locked hard-sided container, including a locked container that is affixed to the vehicle's interior by steel cable, bolt, or welding.” Locking the vehicle itself is not enough to meet the proposed burden.
The term “unattended” is defined to include a vehicle that a user is “unable to observe” and is “(a) on a public highway or other public property or (b) any parking area, lot, or structure intended for commercial or retail use, including such parking areas, lots, or structures exclusively reserved and used by commercial or retail employees.”
A violation of the proposed statute is a Class 4 misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $250. This would treat well-meaning gun owners who fail to secure a handgun to the satisfaction of the legislature on par with those convicted of public intoxication or drinking while operating a motor vehicle.
A violation is most likely to come to the attention of authorities if a gun owner’s firearm is stolen from their vehicle. The proposed law punishes the victim of a theft, rather than putting the blame where it belongs – on the actual criminal.
The legislation also implicates the right to bear arms. Those entering locations or establishments that prohibit firearms typically store their concealed carry handgun in their vehicle. This is often the case with workers who may not be permitted to carry at their job but want to provide for their own defense to and from the workplace. Now concealed carriers would be tasked with complying with HB110’s storage requirements, which may include having to purchase expensive equipment, to exercise their rights.
Others going to and from a shooting range, hunting, a gun store, or otherwise traversing the Commonwealth with a handgun in their vehicle would also be implicated, and Virginians would be unable to even use a gas station restroom during their travels without being burdened by the law.
The degree to which it is a burden, in fact, is demonstrated by the lengths to which lawmakers went to try to exempt themselves from the measure.
During conference committee (where the two chambers of a legislature hash out differences in each chamber’s version of a bill), a version of HB110 was put forward that exempted lawmakers from the storage requirements at the Capitol.
At present, Virginia law (§ 18.2-283.2(B)) generally prohibits firearms at the state Capitol and the immediate surrounding area. The proposed version of HB110 created a carveout to this general prohibition for “any member of the General Assembly who leaves a handgun in an unattended motor vehicle” when parking in the Capitol parking lot designated for lawmakers.
Moreover, the legislation exempted “any motor vehicle parked in the parking structure on the west of the Capitol as referenced in subsection A of § 2.2-1172” from the new handgun storage restrictions. That reference is to the lawmakers’ own parking lot!
This offensive carveout, which understandably became national news for its audacity, was removed in a later version of the legislation.
So, Virginia lawmakers don’t want to be subject to the same onerous firearm restrictions as normal residents of the Commonwealth. Rather than burdening law-abiding residents, lawmakers, or both, how about encumbering the criminals that steal firearms?
Sadly, if recent news out of the Northern Virginia is any indication, Virginia’s ruling officials and lawmakers have little interest in incapacitating even known violent criminals and are more concerned with attacking their perceived political and class enemies (law-abiding gun owners).
More Like This From Around The NRA
