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appalachiablue

(41,052 posts)
Mon Feb 17, 2020, 11:06 PM Feb 2020

'Virginia Governor's Bill To Ban Assault Weapons Fails, With Help From His Own Party'

'Virginia Governor's Bill To Ban Assault Weapons Fails, With Help From His Own Party,' NPR, Feb. 17, 2010.

Virginia's Democratic governor seemed poised to make broad changes to his state's gun control laws, but was dealt a stinging blow by his own party Monday when a state Senate committee blocked a bill that would have, among other things, banned sales of assault weapons. Four Democrats on Virginia's Senate Judiciary Committee broke ranks with their party handing the Republican minority a victory in tabling the bill for the remainder of the year. It also sent the measure to the state's Crime Commission for further review.
The bill would have banned the sale or transfer of certain assault-style weapons in Virginia. It also would have made it illegal to possess silencers and magazines holding more than 12 rounds.

Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, had championed the legislation, which was part of a series of eight gun-control measures the Virginia House passed earlier this year. The seven remaining bills are still being considered in the state Senate. Still, after Democrats' big gains last fall in the Virginia General Assembly — controlling the governor's mansion and both chambers of Virginia's General Assembly for the first time in a generation — changes in gun laws appeared on track to move forward unimpeded.

A spokesperson for Northam, Alena Yarmosky, said in a statement to NPR that the governor was "disappointed" in the Senate panel's vote Monday. The governor "fully expects the Crime Commission to give this measure the detailed review the Senators called for," she added. "We will be back next year." Democrats, led by Northam, have renewed their push for tighter gun restrictions following last year's mass shooting at a Virginia Beach municipal complex in which 12 victims died. The gunman worked at the government building and used a sound suppressor, which he obtained legally, during the May 31 rampage.

Among the items lawmakers in the Virginia House have approved include one calling for universal background checks on private firearms sales and creating an extreme risk protection order, also known as a "red flag" law. Those laws allow authorities to temporarily confiscate firearms from someone thought to be a threat to themselves or others.
But then the Senate committee balked at the assault-style weapons bill. After Monday's 10-5 vote, state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, called the four Democrats who voted to table the measure a "bunch of wimps," according to The Washington Post. Meanwhile the National Rifle Association, which is headquartered in Fairfax, Va., celebrated the defeat in a tweet, calling the bill "anti-American."...

More, https://www.npr.org/2020/02/17/806663375/virginia-governors-bill-to-ban-assault-weapons-fails-with-help-from-his-own-part



- Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) in Richmond, Va. in January.



- Demonstrators stand outside a security zone ahead of a pro-gun rally in Richmond, Va., on the morning of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

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'Virginia Governor's Bill To Ban Assault Weapons Fails, With Help From His Own Party' (Original Post) appalachiablue Feb 2020 OP
A terrible shame. Frasier Balzov Feb 2020 #1

Frasier Balzov

(2,598 posts)
1. A terrible shame.
Mon Feb 17, 2020, 11:15 PM
Feb 2020

Preventing new product from being introduced into society is the bare minimum it will take to alleviate the assault weapon problem.

Keep pushing to turn our sad fate around Virginia.

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