virginia citizens defense league

Defending Your Right to Defend Yourself

va-alert

Published 1/27/2026

On Wednesday afternoon, January 28, 30 minutes after the Senate adjourns from the Floor, the Senate Courts of Justice committee is meeting to vote on some gun bills which were not heard on Monday. (The status of bills on Monday will be put in a Legislative Update once Legislative Services posts the updated text for some of the bills.)

ACTION ITEM #1

We need everyone to send a prewritten email to their senator. Our system will figure out who your senator is automatically, based on your address. This can be done in under a minute.

You don’t need to do this step if you sent this message earlier in the week.

Click here to send the email.

ACTION ITEM #2

You can speak at the meeting online, so you don’t have to go to the Capitol to do so. Keep your comments short and they can be as simple as, “I oppose this bill.”  NOTE: There is one good bill in the mix: SB 723 (Senator Sturtevant). In which case you could say something as simple as, “I support this bill.”

Registration to speak starts on Wednesday, 1/2 hour before the committee meeting is to begin, which should correspond to the Senate adjourning the Floor session. The Senate should adjourn sometime after 2pm, but the time varies. Your computer must have a microphone and camera. You can register by clicking here.

DETAILS ON GUN BILLS IN COMMITTEE ON WEDNESDAY

SB 27, Senator Carroll Foy, allows a highly regulated industry, the firearms industry, to be sued civilly for a variety of already illegal actions. It also holds the manufacturers and sellers of even the most benign of firearm accessories, like a butt stock or a gun case, liable to a civil lawsuit if it doesn’t “properly” protect that item from theft or misuse by a criminal! How could a firearm accessory seller reasonablyknow if they were selling a gun sling or a holster to a prohibited person? If an automobile parts store sells a seat cover to a driver who subsequently drives drunk and kills a family, it would make no sense to allow the store and the seat cover manufacturer to be sued. This bill is designed to have a chilling effect on all aspects of the firearms industry and nothing else.

SB 38, Senator Favola, requires a person with a protective order against them or a person with a domestic violence conviction to surrender, sell, or turn their guns over to someone 21-years-old or older and someone who does not live with them. It requires the person to be advised that if a police officer believes they have not turned over all their guns, that the officer can get a search warrant to look for any such guns.  There are multiple problems with the bill as written. If a husband and wife co-own a shotgun for home defense, for example, and the husband gets a protective order issued against him, the wife would no longer have access to that co-owned shotgun. That punishes the wife and needlessly endangers her life. There is also the question of not allowing a person 18 to 20-years-old to retain the guns. A person in that age range can legally possess rifles, shotguns, and handguns. Why can’t young adults be used to hold the guns?

SB 160, Senator Perry, makes battery in a “dating relationship” a misdemeanor and takes away the right to purchase, possess, or transport a firearm for three years. Misdemeanors should never take away a civil right.

SB 364, Senator Carroll Foy, creates a state agency named the Virginia Center for Firearm Violence Intervention and Prevention.  The Center would only be targeting violence committed using firearms and ignoring the root causes of crime, as well as all the other ways violence is inflicted on victims – knives, blunt objects, hands and feet, etc.  Half of violent crimes are not committed with a firearm!  The term “Gun Violence” in the name of the agency gives away the true agenda: “gun violence” is a term coined by the gun-control lobby to blame guns, which are inanimate objects, and not the criminals that misuse guns.  If a police officer shoots someone, the officer gets the blame, not his gun.  But, if a criminal shoots someone, the gun gets the blame and not the criminal.  No one says, “tire iron violence” or “hand and feet violence.”  Instead, it is just called “violence.”  But there is a disarmament agenda with firearms and “gun violence” is just an excuse to go after firearms with more useless gun control.

SB 643, Senator Surovell, requires a person to have a permit to purchase a firearm (“permit”), which is good for 5 years. To qualify for a permit, the applicant must have had his fingerprints taken and have had firearms training within the last two years. The training must be approved by the Department of Criminal Justice Services and include live fire of at least 10 rounds. Persons under 21-years-old cannot apply for a permit and are thus prohibited from buying firearms. A person renting a gun, persons with dual residency, and out of state residents purchasing long guns must have a permit. In a private sale, the purchaser must have a verified permit. The State Police can charge whatever fee they feel covers their cost in processing the permit application and can take as long as 45 days to issue the permit. Local law enforcement will be notified that you have been issued or denied a permit. This bill adds new misdemeanor prohibitors from getting a permit. The bill also removes the exemption from One Handgun a Month by CHP holders.  This bill will get innocent people killed, as it will take at least two months before a person can purchase their first firearm. If they are purchasing that firearm for urgent self-defense, that is simply too long. The price to get a permit, which will likely be in the hundreds of dollars, will be prohibitive for poor people and is the equivalent of a poll tax. And even with all the hoops to get a permit, even citizens with concealed handgun permits will be limited to one handgun a month. Local law-enforcement will be handed a registry of gun owners. And gun rentals at shooting ranges will not be possible for people who have not yet got their permit or are visiting from out of state or from another country.

PBI SB 723, Senator Sturtevant, allows someone without a concealed handgun permit, but who would qualify for one, to carry a concealed handgun anywhere they could lawfully open carry a handgun.  Twenty-nine states now have Permitless Carry, none have repealed it, and more states are expected to follow suit. Neighboring Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia are all Permitless Carry states, with North Carolina expected to do so in the near future.

SB 797, Senator Carroll Foy, requires a person to have a permit to purchase a firearm (“permit”), which is good for 5 years. To qualify for a permit, the applicant must have had his fingerprints taken and have had firearms training within the last two years. The training must be approved by the Department of Criminal Justice Services and include live fire of at least 10 rounds. Persons under 21-years-old cannot apply for a permit and are thus prohibited from buying firearms. A person renting a gun, persons with dual residency, and out of state residents purchasing long guns must have a permit. In a private sale, the purchaser must have a verified permit. The State Police can charge whatever fee they feel covers their cost in processing the permit application and can take as long as 45 days to issue the permit. Local law enforcement will be notified that you have been issued or denied a permit. This bill adds new misdemeanor prohibitors from getting a permit. The bill also removes the exemption from One Handgun a Month by CHP holders.  This bill will get innocent people killed, as it will take at least two months before a person can purchase their first firearm. If they are purchasing that firearm for urgent self-defense, that is simply too long. The price to get a permit, which will likely be in the hundreds of dollars, will be prohibitive for poor people and is the equivalent of a poll tax. And even with all the hoops to get a permit, even citizens with concealed handgun permits will be limited to one handgun a month. Local law-enforcement will be handed a registry of gun owners. And gun rentals at shooting ranges will not be possible for people who have not yet got their permit or are visiting from out of state or from another country.