Virginia Dems Take Up More Gun Bills, Including Permit-to-Purchase Scheme

The Virginia Senate Courts of Justice Committee has already approved a half-dozen gun control measures, and the Democrat-controlled committee is likely to rubber stamp several more this afternoon. 

According to a legislative update from the Virginia Citizens Defense League, the committee will be meeting this afternoon with multiple gun bills on the agenda, including two bills that would create a new permit-to-purchase scheme that applies to every gun purchase in the Commonwealth. 

In order to get a permit, Virginians would have to submit their fingerprints to the Virginia State Police, along with proof of firearms training within the past two years. While the Department of Criminal Justice Services is tasked with coming up with the training curriculum, Democrats have already included a provision mandating a live fire test of at least 10 rounds. That alone is going to make it difficult for some folks to complete their training, given the lack of commercial ranges in rural parts of the Commonwealth. 

The bills also prohibit anyone under the age of 21 from applying for a permit, shutting young adults out of exercising their Second Amendment rights. The permit requirement also applies to those hoping to rent a gun at a commercial range, as well as individuals with dual residency and out-of-state residents who want to purchase a long gun. 

How much would the permit cost Well, that’s up to the Virginia State Police, and the agency can charge 
whatever fee they feel covers their cost in processing the permit application and can take as long as 45 days to issue the permit”, according to VCDL. The bills also add several new misdemeanor prohibitors from getting a permit., and removes the exemption from the state’s “one gun a month” law by CHP holders.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has already upheld Maryland’s Handgun Qualification Permit as well as the federal ban on handgun sales to adults under the age of 21, so a successful challenge to the measure in federal court could prove daunting, at least until the case reaches the Supreme Court. If President Trump is able to shift the makeup of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that could improve the odds, but any of the gun control measures adopted by Democrats this session can also be challenged in state courts, where groups like Gun Owners of America have successfully fought measures like the “universal background check” scheme imposed by Democrats the last time they had a governing trifecta. 

VCDL argues that the bill “will get innocent people killed, as it will take at least two months before a person can purchase their first firearm. 

If they are purchasing that firearm for urgent self-defense, that is simply too long. The price to get a permit, which will likely be in the hundreds of dollars, will be prohibitive for poor people and is the equivalent of a poll tax. And even with all the hoops to get a permit, even citizens with concealed handgun permits will be limited to one handgun a month. Local law-enforcement will be handed a registry of gun owners. And gun rentals at shooting ranges will not be possible for people who have not yet got their permit or are visiting from out of state or from another country.

The “one gun a month” provision is one area where gun owners might see success in a federal court challenge. Even the Ninth Circuit has rejected such gun rationing schemes as a barrier to our Second Amendment rights, and one that has no place in our national tradition of gun ownership. Requiring a “permit-to-purchase” for people who are merely renting, not purchasing, a firearm also seems like a provision that could easily be struck down by either state or federal courts, but there’s no doubt that this scheme will impose a huge burden on Virginians trying to exercise their right to keep and bear arms if and when it becomes law. 

Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment. 

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