Public Policy

With the GOP having a slight majority in the House and owning the Governorship and administration, along with it being an important election year, I expected a lot of smoke, but little fire from the 2023 General Assembly. Analysis if the GVP related bills, which finally dribbled in during the first week of the Assembly, indicated that the GOP would again concentrate on their quest to weaken or eliminate all the legislative gains of 2020 and 2021, while Democrats attempted to expand the envelope with much needed additions and improvements to those gains.

As predicted, all House Democratic bills to strengthen GVP laws were unceremoniously defeated and all the bad GOP that were assigned to committees were passed with slim party line votes on the House floor. It should be noted that for the second year in succession, the House Speaker decided to limit embarrassment by withholding a number of very bad bills and not allowing them the legally mandated hearing in committee. Conversely the Senate, controlled by the Dems, passed all the good Senate GVP bills and defeated all the bad GOP bills.

After crossover both houses did as expected and defeated almost every good bill that survived scrutiny in their house of origin. The result was that only 2 good bills survived of the 33 introduced, while 7 bad bills of the 32 introduced, survived. These covered only 5 subjects after duplicate House and Senate bills were conformed.

So, what good bills died?

After the horrific shooting of a Virginia teacher by a 6 year old “FIRST GRADER”, using a parent’s gun, I was hopeful that one of the 6 bills offering different ways of improving safe storage practices might just pass, even in a weakened form. However, that was not to be, as only a bill to offer tax breaks to purchasers of gun storage equipment survived to be sent to the Governor. Currently even that bill is being amended to add extra vendors to the FFL’s that were originally proposed. We will have to leave it to Virginia voters to decide if allowing children, disturbed adults or thieves easy access to unsecured and loaded firearms is a good idea.

As expected, all 8 bills that attempted to limit access to “dangerous weapons” (namely assault style weapons) were defeated. Even a simple bill to mirror the Federal ban on auto sears, which convert semi-automatic firearms to fully automatic was defeated.
All 3 bills related to ERPO’s and domestic violence were defeated.

Among the 16 bills that dealt with miscellaneous topics from prohibiting hard body armor to allowing colleges and universities to ban firearms from their campuses, only a single bill which limited the reasons why compensation to gun violence victims could be denied survived to be signed into law by the Governor – if he so chooses.

Finally, what bad bills passed?

As mentioned above, 7 bills that we originally opposed passed both houses. Of these, 2 bills were amended to reduce or eliminate our original opposition.

Bills to add the USCCA (United States Concealed Carry Association), a private for profit organization with both philosophical and financial interests in expanding concealed carry, to the list of training that can be used to demonstrate “competency” when applying for a concealed handgun permit. It is doubtful that such an organization is going to be impartial over decisions on who is suitably trained for a CHP!

Bills to extend funding for School Resource Officers to more schools was amended to prevent hose funds from being used to purchase firearms, tasers or restraint equipment. However, the fundament issue that gives rise to our opposition is that the use of armed officers in schools has been proven to offer absolutely NO INCREASE in student safety, but instead to increase suspensions and expulsions (mainly targeted at black and minority students) and raising levels of anxiety among the entire student population. Unless we address how and why anyone shows up at a school armed with the intention to kill or injure, school based gun violence will not be reduced. Waiting till such a person is on the premises and then trying to shoot them first is NOT the answer!

A bill to prevent Virginia State Police from sharing CHP information with other law enforcement agencies except in cases of “active investigations” is a solution in seek of a problem, but the gun lobby is convinced that CHP holders are being persecuted by a practice that probably does not exist.

Finally, a bill to allow Virginia residents, who have strong religious beliefs which prohibit them from being photographed for a driving license, passport or other identity document, to buy firearms at gun shows (despite the lack of the needed “photo ID”) was passed. However, since the use of a photo ID for a background check is a Federal requirement, even if this bill becomes law it is unlikely to be implemented.

The bill to remove switchblade knives from the list of weapons that cannot be carried concealed was amended on our advice to allow all switchblade knife designs THAT ARE NOT STILETTO KNIVES to be eliminated. Stiletto knives have long thin blades with a pointed tip, a honed edge on both side of the blade and an “escutcheon” on the handle. These knives are designed for thrusting point first into an object and the escutcheon is there to prevent the bearer’s hand from sliding forward onto the blade should the knife meet with any resistance of the handle becoming slippery due to the presence of “liquids”!

In summary, it was a frustrating year for GVP advocates and for the gun lobby, but the defeat of so many bad bills, many of which were simply aimed at giving GOP legislators the appearance of being “tough on gun crime” (without actually doing anything to reduce it), for election purposes, can’t be overlooked. I hope that Dem candidates use what they saw this year to regain control of the House and keep control of the Senate.