Virginia Must Uphold the Lifesaving Gun Laws Passed in the State

With the state legislature back in session and bill hearings beginning tomorrow, Giffords calls on the Virginia legislature to build on Virginia’s strong gun laws, not dismantle them

January 25, 2022

WASHINGTON, DC – The Virginia state legislature is back in session, with hearings already being scheduled to debate crucial bills with wide-ranging impacts on Virginians. Among the bills that the state legislature will debate are several gun violence prevention bills that will be crucial in building on Virginia’s strong gun safety progress and save lives from this preventable epidemic. On the flip side, new Republican control in the House of Delegates is pushing repeal bills for all of the commonsense gun safety legislation that has passed over the past two years.

Molly Voigt, Senior State Legislative Manager

“Over the past two years, the Virginia state legislature has made incredible progress in passing crucial gun violence prevention legislation into law. We know for a fact that gun laws save lives and that Virginians support the life saving policies that are now the law of the land. It’s important that Virginia keeps its strong gun laws on the books, and passes new legislation that will ensure its most vulnerable people are protected from gun violence. We applaud the Virginia senate for working to hold the line of progress and not capitulate to the interests of the gun industry.”

After a decade of inaction, the Democratic controlled state legislature passed several important gun violence prevention laws in recent years. Now Republicans are working to repeal every common sense gun safety policy which will ultimately put lives in the Commonwealth at risk. A list of the policies Giffords will work with the VA Senate to uphold this session are below:

Protections for victims of domestic violence, including prohibiting people subject to domestic violence protective orders and people with a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction from possessing firearms
Strengthening background checks, including closing the private sale loophole and extending the time the State Police have to conduct a background check before a dealer can deliver a gun to a purchaser.
Creating an substantial risk protection order
Allowing localities to prohibit guns at rallies and protests, and in other public spaces
Limiting sales of handguns to one per month
Requiring the reporting of lost or stolen firearms to law enforcement
Strengthening Virginia’s child access prevention law
Protecting places of democracy, including prohibiting firearms at polling places and in the Capitol Square

Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary committee will begin hearing a number of Republican introduced repeal bills for the important policies above, as well as even more extreme policies such as permitless carry. On the flipside, Senate Democrats have introduced critical policies like ghost guns regulations and community violence intervention funding.

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