(TNS) It’s bad enough that incoming majority Democrats in Virginia are set to propose a bevy of new gun control laws that are stirring so much Second Amendment passion in the state that the vast majority of jurisdictions have pre-determined they won’t help enforce them.
But in late December, one Democrat — Delegate Kaye Kory — filed filed HB318, which would make it a crime to knowingly possess ammunition on “the property of any public, private or religious elementary, middle or high school, including buildings and grounds.”
Already, the state bans guns on such grounds, but as the NRA notes, it’d be a mistake to label them “gun free zones” because when someone with bad intentions wants to harm as many people as possible, he or she simply ignores the law.
That said, the ammo ban looks and smells like a set-up, in addition to being totally unnecessary; after all, legally, if you can’t have a firearm in those locations, doesn’t it stand that there won’t be any ammunition in them, either?
Perhaps and perhaps not, the NRA notes:
Gun owners know just how easy it would be to run afoul of this law. Many gun owners keep ammunition in their vehicles to facilitate quick trips to the range or for hunting. Other gun owners keep additional ammunition for their carry firearms in their vehicles for self-defense purposes.
As it exists, § 18.2-308.1 would seem to provide a small exemption to this prohibition for “a person who has a valid concealed handgun permit and possesses a concealed handgun while in a motor vehicle in a parking lot, traffic circle, or other means of vehicular ingress or egress to the school.” However, given the sloppy drafting, it is not clear if the exemption would only pertain to the concealed firearm or if it would pertain to the concealed firearm and its ammunition.
Moreover, current Virginia law exempts “a person who possesses an unloaded firearm that is in a closed container, or a knife having a metal blade, in or upon a motor vehicle, or an unloaded shotgun or rifle in a firearms rack in or upon a motor vehicle.” HB318 does not extend this exemption to include ammunition.
Therefore, under this legislation, a person who frequently uses their motor vehicle to hunt, shoot, or carry, would need to remove every piece of ammunition from their vehicle before parking and leaving the vehicle on school property, even if they are a concealed handgun permit holder.
Under the proposed legislation, it would not matter if a person was found with only one round of ammunition and it would not matter if the person had no way of utilizing the ammunition. The mere possession of a single round of ammunition by itself would be enough to trigger jailtime.
Democrats can say all they want they ‘support the Second Amendment’ and ‘believe in an individual’s right to own a gun,’ but by their actions they continually prove otherwise.
This legislation isn’t just unnecessary, it’s dumb. And again, it sure smells like a set-up.
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Courtesy of The National Sentinel
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