Virginia House Delegate Jason Ballard (R-Pearisburg) introduced legislation last week that could allow state law enforcement to apply an existing law against those who engage in “swatting,” a slang term for making a false police report to compel an intense police response, typically involving a SWAT team, to a specific address.
House Bill 1583 would amend and reenact the portion of Virginia code specifying bomb threats are a Class 5 felony to include threats, whether real or false, to “discharge a firearm within or at” any location where it is already illegal to call a bomb threat. It also would change the law to make such threats a Class 1 misdemeanor for offenders under 18.
Virginia courts can sentence those guilty of Class 5 felonies to up to one year in jail, between one and 10 years in prison, and impose a $2,500 fine. Those guilty of Class 1 misdemeanors can be sentenced to up to one year in jail and fined up to $2,500.
The existing law allows authorities to charge offenders either where threats are made or where they are received, makes it a Class 5 felony to make a bomb threat to “any place of assembly, building or other structure, or any means of transportation” and applies the lighter, misdemeanor charge to offenders who are younger than 15.
Governor Glenn Youngkin previously signed legislation in 2023 that updated a law to increase the penalties for swatting calls that result in “serious bodily injury” to a Class 6 felony, which is punishable by up to five years in prison. Swatting incidents that do not result in serious injury are a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Ballard filed the legislation weeks after U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger announced that more than 50 members of Congress were the subject of “swatting” attempts during the previous month, meaning over 9 percent of the 535 members have been targeted. Capitol police have reportedly assigned 20 agents to respond to the threats.
Such incidents grew in profile in late 2023, when Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA-14) was revealed to be the target of a Christmas Day “swatting” attempt. Despite one man being sentenced to supervised release after making death threats to Greene, the swatting attempts have continued against the congresswoman, with Greene revealing last month that a bystander was killed during law enforcement’s response to a false call at her address.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Swat Team” by FBI SWAT team Watervliet Arsenal. CC BY 2.0.
