The Senate Judiciary Committee has defeated several House of Delegates bills that would repeal gun violence prevention laws that were passed in 2020 and 2021.
Virginia’s new laws to reduce gun violence remain intact thanks to the committee’s party-line votes.
House Republicans, with close to unanimous party support, passed bills that would repeal the requirement to report lost and stolen firearms (HB325); repeal localities’ authority to regulate firearms in public spaces and permitted events (HB827); reduce the time from five to three days that a seller must wait to receive the results of a background check before transferring a firearm (HB204); and repeal the Risk Order legislation that gives families and law enforcement a legal tool to remove firearms from a person at risk of harm to self or others (HB509).
“With rising gun violence across the Commonwealth, disproportionately affecting Black and Brown communities, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence applauds members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that voted to kill these repeal bills that would have rolled back the progress made in recent years to regulate firearms,” Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Virginia State Director Lori Haas said.
“Instead of repealing good laws, members of the House should be focused on ways to address the increase in gun violence across the Commonwealth like passing SB487, a bill that would establish the Center for Firearm Violence Intervention and Prevention. We will continue to work with legislators and our partners across Virginia to bring us one step closer to creating a safer, more secure Commonwealth,” Haas said.
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