According to Firearm Chronicles
Gov. Ralph Northam held a ceremonial signing of several gun control bills that are already law on Thursday, just in case anyone had forgotten that the Democrat-controlled legislature approved a half-dozen bills earlier this year that took effect on July 1st. The centerpiece of Northam’s anti-gun agenda, however, failed to get out of the state Senate during the regular session. HB961 would have banned so-called “assault weapons,” ammunition magazines that could hold more than 13-rounds, as well as all lawfully owned suppressors. Four Democrats joined every Republican in voting against the measure, but there are growing concerns that the bill could be coming back in an anticipated special session later this summer.
Phillip Van Cleave, head of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, joins me on today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co. to talk about what gun owners should expect from the special session, which has yet to be formally announced by Northam. With tax revenues taking a hit from the coronavirus closures, however, lawmakers will almost certainly be called back into session to try to revise the state’s budget, and Democrats are already talking about broadening the scope of the session to include non-budgetary measures like police reform.
“We have seen and we have heard aggressive change is needed now, and we see this all over the commonwealth and the country,” House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax, said Thursday. “As the speaker and certainly as an elected official and leader, it’s our job to listen, but also I feel strongly it’s our job to act quickly.”
But precisely what reforms the House, Senate and Gov. Ralph Northam are prepared to advance remains to be seen.
Filler-Corn, who sets the agenda for the House and controls the flow of legislation, says she’s still working with lawmakers to develop a package of bills, which she said will be informed by listening sessions with constituents.
“We’re spending a lot of time looking at exactly the scope and what we can do,” she said. “So I’m not prepared to list that out. … The bottom line is we’re going to move quickly during the special session.”