Virginia SB 1377 & 1378 NOT A Big Deal, But REAL Change Is Needed

Covington VA –-(Ammoland.com)- I was hoping not to have to get into this, but I’m getting too many people asking about SB 1377 and SB 1378 from another organization’s email blast.

VCDL is not thrilled with either bill, but we are not reading those bills the same way as the other organization. We are NEUTRAL on both bills.

The other organization’s blast alleges:

SB 1377 turns you into a criminal for defending yourself at a college or university. Under this bill, any law-abiding adult who defends herself on campus would almost certainly face a class 3 felony charge, EVEN in a clear-cut self-defense case.

VCDL’s analysis:
SB 1377 makes a new penalty for someone who is carrying a gun on school property with the INTENT of committing a VIOLENT FELONY, such as murder, rape, robbery, etc. Self-defense, ESPECIALLY a clear-cut case, would NOT constitute a violent felony and would not fall under this bill.

The other organization’s blast alleges:

SB 1378 increases the potential criminal penalties for buying and transferring guns; meaning that law-abiding Virginians could be slapped under a microscope, locked up for 10 years and fined up to $100,000, for virtually any non-government sanctioned firearms sale.

VCDL’s analysis:
SB 1378 increases the penalty for someone KNOWINGLY performing a straw purchase. This includes the criminal who is using the straw purchase to get a gun and the person with a clean background who is KNOWINGLY doing the purchase so the gun can be turned over to the criminal.

You can read the bills yourself. Here are links to them WITH YELLOW HIGHLIGHTING so you can easily see what is being changed by the bills to the current law. You can then make up your own mind:

• https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+SB1377+hil
• https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+SB1378+hil

 

It’s a real disappointment that the Governor’s Task Force on School Safety came up with these two bills to improve the safety of our school children.

Neither bill will do anything to make our schools safer. In fact, SB 1378 has nothing to do with schools at all. These two bills are really nothing more than political window dressing designed to make it *appear* that the government is doing something to make our schools safer when in reality it is doing nothing of the sort.

If the Governor was truly serious about making our schools safer, he’d have a bill introduced to get rid of the dangerous “gun free zone” around our schools that make them soft targets for criminals, the deranged, and terrorists.

Governor McDonnell, we want REAL safety for our children, not phony political theatrics! Repeal the school ban!

About:
Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right. Visit: www.vcdl.org