Two Virginia Democrats in the State Senate introduced legislation last week to increase penalties for gun owners in cases of minors committing crimes, with even higher punishments if the adult knew the minor offender was previously charged with a violent crime.
Virginia State Senator-elect Schuyler VanValkenburg (D-Henrico) (pictured above, left) and State Senator Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) (pictured above, right) introduced SB 44 to amend the Code of Virginia to make it a Class 1 misdemeanor, “If the owner of a firearm allows a minor to possess his firearm and such a minor” takes the firearm to a school zone or gun-free zone, or uses the firearm “to intentionally or with gross negligence cause bodily injury to himself or another person.”
The same penalty will apply if a gun owner, defined as “any person who purchased, received as a gift, or otherwise acquired a firearm,” should authorities determine they know “or reasonably should know that a minor is in close proximity to his firearm” and the minor uses it to break the law.
For the purpose of the bill, “close proximity” is defined as “within any real or personal property where a minor and a firearm are present, including a dwelling whether the minor is a resident or guest, a boat, or a motor vehicle.”
If the minor who commits the gun infraction was previously known by the gun owner to have been charged or convicted with a violent crime, the bill would make them guilty of a Class 5 felony.
Existing Virginia law already makes it Class 1 misdemeanor for a person to “recklessly leave a loaded, unsecured firearm in such a manner as to endanger the life or limb of any child” under 14, and for “any person knowingly to authorize” a minor less than 12 years of age “to use a firearm except when the child is under the supervision of an adult.”
VanValkenburg, a Virginia educator and frequent critic of Youngkin’s education policies, wrote on social media that the bill was submitted after a Henrico middle school student brought a firearm to school.
In 2022, Ebbin helped lead efforts to block some of Youngkin’s appointees, and had a confrontation with top Youngkin aide Matt Moran. According to Ebbin, Moran said Ebbin threatened the governor, and Ebbin claimed Moran told him the governor could veto his bills.
Youngkin vetoed nine of the 10 bills Ebbin sponsored in 2022, even though he amended and signed similar versions of the bills passed through the House of Delegates, leading to questions about whether the governor meant to send a message to other Democrats or retaliate against Ebbins.
While Virginia Speaker-nominee Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) said he wanted to pursue bipartisan legislation shortly after Democrats won a majority in the House of Delegates, top Democratic lawmakers quickly announced a partisan agenda that includes enshrining abortion access into the Virginia Constitution, automatically restoring voting access for felons, and restricting the types of rifles that can be owned in the commonwealth.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Background Photo “Virginia Capitol” by Doug Kerr. CC BY-SA 2.0.
I am as far from a liberal as a person can be, but people who own firearms have an obligation, a serious obligation, to keep their firearms out of other people’s hands, especially people under the age of 18. How many articles have we read on the Tennessee Star regarding the theft of handguns in Nashville from locked vehicles? Buy a damn $25.00 lock box and some paddle locks.
I have archived countless national news articles about children accessing their parents or other adults handgun and bringing it to school. In one instance earlier this year a student shot his teacher with his mothers handgun. This seems to be a monthly occurrence in America.
Our right to keep and bear arms is the only thing that is keeping America from becoming another globalist $h!t hole country. And I dare say that 99% of gun owners take their responsibility of ownership seriously. It’s the remaining 1% that are jeopardizing our Constitutional right to bear arms through there stupidity and neglect. Unfortunately, penalizing an adult AFTER their child has accidentally shot their sibling does nothing to undo that tragedy. At the lease, in instances like this, the penalties for not keeping your firearms under your control should be a felony, which would then preclude you from ever owning firearms again.
America is suffering an epidemic of violence that is only going to escalate in the near term. The current administration and their globalist handlers would love nothing more than to disarm law abiding Americans of their right to self-defense. That 1% of irresponsible gun owners are providing the excuse for the lefts desire to disarm America.
https://twitter.com/from_da_soil/status/1723896829064982570
This is so wrong but typical of the left’s perverted thinking.