Virginia Dems Kill Bill That Targeted Criminals Who Use Guns

HB 1175 would have increased the penalty for using or brandishing a firearm while committing certain felonies, which seems like a pretty common sense bill to me. Instead, members of the House Public Safety Committee rejected the measure on Tuesday, while approving a number of gun bills that are meant to restrict the rights of legal gun owners in the name of public safety.

So they’re okay with making it a felony to continue to possess your 15-round magazine or to transfer a firearm without a background check, but the status quo is fine when it comes to punishing those who use guns in the commission of a crime. Think about that for a second. Ralph Northam, who believes himself to be a champion of criminal justice reform, would turn the vast majority of Virginia gun owners into felons with HB 961 while maintaining the current penalties for actually using a gun in a violent crime. The reform that Northam wants to enact would simply replace the war on drugs with a war on legal gun owners.

Northam would create criminals out of law-abiding Virginians, instead of ensuring that violent criminals stay behind bars for a significant period of time for their crimes, and the public’s safety