While Virginia generally prohibits any person from carrying a concealed firearm about the person, this prohibition does not apply to individuals licensed to carry a concealed handgun.¹ In addition, a law enacted in Virginia in 2010 exempts from the general prohibition against carrying concealed weapons any person who may lawfully possess a firearm and is carrying a handgun while in a personal, private motor vehicle or vessel if the handgun is secured in a container or compartment.²

Local governments are also prohibited from adopting a workplace rule that prevents their employees from storing lawfully possessed firearms in their locked vehicles while parking at work.³

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1. Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-308(A). The prohibition also does not apply to any person carrying such weapons between his place of abode and a place of purchase or repair, provided the weapons are unloaded and securely wrapped while being transported. Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-308(B)(5). [↩]
2. Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-308(B)(10). See also Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-287.4. (stating that “The exemptions set forth in § 18.2-308 shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to the provisions of this section.”).[↩]
3. Va. Code Ann. § 15.2-915[↩]