VA Senate to hold hearing on SB268, a bill to wreck VA’s preemption law
In tomorrow’s business the VA Senate Local Government Committee will hear debate on the matter of SB268, a bill that would destroy Virginia’s preemption laws with regard to firearms.
Preemption laws are those passed at a statewide level that preclude local governments – counties, cities, towns, and anything smaller – from passing laws restricting firearms ownership and carriage beyond those set by state law. In other words, what’s held legal at the statewide level is legal everywhere in the state. Such laws prevent a confusing morass of laws that catch citizens unaware. A Virginian exercising his 2nd Amendment rights legally carrying his firearm into a parking lot of the local county clerk’s office in Fairfax might do precisely the same thing in Loudoun and find himself charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor. Making a simple mistaken turn onto a local government-owned access road could put someone in violation of a law that they would only have known about if they read what is sure to be an eye chart of a sign at the county line.
The Virginia preemption law was put in place to prevent precisely such a situation. This is a bad law and the committee needs to hear that from all of us who are concerned about such things. Thanks to the NRA-ILA, I don’t have to go through and cull the data on which Senators are on that committee. They’ve done it for me.
State Senator Emmett W. Hanger, Jr. (R-24)
(804) 698-7524
district24@senate.virginia.gov
State Senator Mark R. Herring (D-33)
(804) 698-7533
district33@senate.virginia.gov
State Senator Mamie E. Locke (D-2)
(804) 698-7502
district02@senate.virginia.gov
State Senator L. Louise Lucas- (D-18) – Committee Chair
(804) 698-7518
district18@senate.virginia.gov
State Senator David W. Marsden (D-37)
(804) 698-7537
district37@senate.virginia.gov
State Senator Henry L. Marsh, III (D-16)
(804) 698-7516
district16@senate.virginia.gov
State Senator Stephen H. Martin (R-11)
(804) 698-7511
district11@senate.virginia.gov
State Senator Mark D. Obenshain (R-26)
(804) 698-7526
district26@senate.virginia.gov
State Senator Toddy Puller (D-36)
(804) 698-7536
district36@senate.virginia.gov
State Senator Frederick M. Quayle (R-13)
(804) 698-7513
district13@senate.virginia.gov
State Senator Wm. Roscoe Reynolds (D-20)
(804) 698-7520
district20@senate.virginia.gov
State Senator Frank M. Ruff, Jr. (R-15)
(804) 698-7515
district15@senate.virginia.gov
State Senator Ralph K. Smith (R-22)
(804) 698-7522
district22@senate.virginia.gov
State Senator Richard H. Stuart (R-28)
(804) 698-7528
district28@senate.virginia.gov
State Senator Patricia S. Ticer (D-30)
(804) 698-7530
district30@senate.virginia.gov
Or, click here for the whole list of them.
For those of us in the 33rd Senate District, please note that our Senator, Mark Herring, is on this committee. Please write to him, if not all of them, and make sure he understands your viewpoint. I fully expect him to ignore mine, of course, but I’m going to make sure his office gets it.
Comments
Pingback from HoodaThunk?: Good news: SB268 reported out of committee with a losing vote
Time January 26, 2010 at 23:46
[...] today I wrote about SB268 in the Virginia Senate and how it was going to a committee hearing this afternoon. After writing to the Senators myself, I [...]
Comment from Randy Minchew
Time January 26, 2010 at 13:25
Thank you, Ric, for this alert.
SB 268 is a classic “Dillon Rule” grant of authority bill that provides an example of why this often-challenged rule of applied Virginia constitutional law makes sense and provides protections of key rights in many instances. Undoubtedly, Senator Whipple will argue that her bill will simply allow for Arlington County to enact local option firearm restrictions that its citizens want while allowing a jurisdiction such as Pittsylvania County to opt against the restriction.
The problem with this concept is that liberties and protections allowed us all pursuant to the Bill of Rights (ie: Amendments I through X) should not be filtered through some kind of local option control. Moreover, a free enjoyment of those constitutional liberties should not require a Virginia citizen to check out local ordinances that may restrict those liberties when travelling around the Commonwealth.
“If we are to keep democracy, there must be a commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice”
-Judge Learned Hand (1872-1961)