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Approved: m1garand

It turns out the HB1997 has passed the House without a third reading. It passed 51 to 48. We will now prepare to fix this mess in the Senate.

Please disregard the previous alert and don't send any emails on this issue to the House.

I apologize for the confusion.

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Here is an update on the Senate bills we were watching:

Sunday in the Senate Courts of Justice committee meeting, Senator Stolle withdrew his reciprocity bill, SB1142. While this bill had some good points, there were enough bad points that VCDL had to oppose the bill as it was written. Your e-mails and calls helped convince Senator Stolle to withdraw the bill.

Senator Cuccinelli's recognition bill, SB771, was killed by the committee on a vote of 11 to 4.

The following Senators voted correctly on the bill:

Trumbo, Edwards, Mims, Cuccinelli

The following Senators voted INCORRECTLY on this bill:

Stolle, Saslaw, Marsh, Quayle, Norment, Howell, Lucas, Reynolds, Puller, Rerras, Blevins

If any of the Senators that voted incorrectly are yours, let them know you are disappointed in their vote on SB771.

Senator Stolle, chairman of the committee, said that he could not support HB771 because it recognized other states without those state recognizing Virginia. I told the committee that Virginia gun owners wanted to take the high-road and honor all other permits. I said that we would reap the benefits later.

Senator Stolle also said that the bill must have the 24-hour instantaneous permit validation for out-of-state permits. This criteria, of course, greatly reduces the number of states that will honor Virginia.

The State Police pointed out that the language would allow someone that was younger than 21 to carry a gun in Virginia. Senator Cuccinelli made an amendment prohibiting that case, but Cuccinelli, correctly, did not offer to amend in the 24 hour instant validation as it would have defeated the purpose of having a universal recognition bill.

Of the four reciprocity/recognition bills that were introduced, one is still alive and it is part of the omnibus gun bill (HB2798 - Del. Cline). That bill takes us a small step forward in reciprocity and recognition, but that is better than standing still. In the Senate it will most likely be assigned to the Courts of Justice committee.

Keep your keyboard warm, as when things start to move, they will move quickly.