{"id":64546,"date":"2021-02-05T13:18:11","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T19:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=64546"},"modified":"2021-02-05T13:18:11","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T19:18:11","slug":"64546","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=64546","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Virginia Senate Rejects Background Checks For Gun Rentals<\/a><\/p>\n

While Democrats in Virginia are studiously avoiding\u00a0Gov. Ralph Northam\u2019s proposed ban<\/a>\u00a0on modern sporting rifles, commonly-owned ammunition magazines, and suppressors during the current legislative session, they\u2019ve still been pushing a number of gun control bills that aren\u2019t as high-profile ahead of November\u2019s elections in the state.<\/p>\n

One bill brought by Sen. Creigh Deeds would have required background checks on\u00a0all firearm rentals at gun ranges<\/a>. The measure was authored by Deeds after two suicides at a Richmond-area gun range last year, but many gun store owners and operators\u00a0objected to the legislation<\/a>, pointing out that they\u2019re already working to ensure that troubled individuals aren\u2019t using rented firearms to take their own life.<\/p>\n

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Mitchell Tyler, co-owner of Safeside Tactical, which operates two gun ranges \u2014 in Roanoke and Lynchburg \u2014 said Safeside has various measures in place to identify potentially troubled people and not rent or sell them firearms, even if those people could pass a background check.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tyler said Safeside is part of a group made up of more than two dozen gun ranges across the country, and suicide by firearm is often an issue they discuss. He said policies differ by gun ranges. He said some don\u2019t rent to someone who wants to shoot alone, while others only let range members shoot.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThese are difficult conversations to have, and owners all feel a sense of remorse and sadness, the weight of it,\u201d Tyler said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Safeside\u2019s staff receives training from Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare about the signs someone may exhibit if they\u2019re not doing well mentally. The business also maintains a list of people not to sell to if they came in and were threatening, for example. Customers or family members can also temporarily add someone mentally struggling to a list so Safeside can be on alert if that person comes in trying to get a gun.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Apparently Tyler\u2019s testimony and the objections of other range owners made a difference, because the Virginia State Senate\u00a0rejected Deeds\u2019 bill<\/a>\u00a0during debate Thursday afternoon.<\/div>\n
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Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, who made the motion to re-refer the bill to committee, said one of the suicide victims\u2019 families lives in her district, so she is \u201cvery empathetic to finding a path forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good to pass a bill that\u2019s addressing an issue we\u2019re concerned about,\u201d Dunnavant said. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t matter if it doesn\u2019t get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, who sponsored the legislation, urged his colleagues to stick with the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would argue that the bill, the way it\u2019s drafted, will be effective,\u201d Deeds said. \u201cIt can\u2019t bring any of these young people back\u2026 but hopefully it can prevent some tragedies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three Democrats \u2014 Sens. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax, Lynwood Lewis, D-Accomack, and Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, voted with the Senate\u2019s 18 Republicans to defeat the measure.<\/p>\n

Deeds acknowledged his proposal would require some \u201crejiggering\u201d by the State Police, because federal law doesn\u2019t require background checks for gun rentals. Because of that limitation, the state would essentially have to create its own background check process for gun rentals, one that would pull in state-level information on criminal convictions and mental health history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The fact that Deeds\u2019 proposal is unworkable without creating a new statewide background check system was probably the deal-breaker for those Democrats who ended up voting against the bill. Virginia facing a\u00a0budget shortfall<\/a>\u00a0thanks to the coronavirus-related closures ordered by Gov. Ralph Northam, and giving more money to police (regardless of the reason) isn\u2019t a high priority for many in the Democratic caucus.<\/p>\n

Others, like Sen. Chap Petersen, who voted against Northam\u2019s gun ban bill last year, were in favor of Deeds\u2019 proposal. Petersen says that lawmakers have a responsibility to ensure that the gun control laws that\u00a0have<\/em>\u00a0passed can be enforced, and that means adding to the bureaucracy already in place. More gun control begets more gun control, in other words.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad that Petersen\u2019s position didn\u2019t carry the day in the state Senate, and I\u2019d encourage him to think about whether or not the gun control laws that were signed by Northam last year are really worth enforcing in the first place. Repeal would be a much better option in my opinion, though it\u2019s not likely to happen with Democrats in complete control of the state legislature. The defeat of one gun control bill is good news for Virginia gun owners, but we need to be working on taking back the House of Delegates and statewide offices like governor and attorney general in this November\u2019s elections to make repeal possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virginia Senate Rejects Background Checks For Gun Rentals While Democrats in Virginia are studiously avoiding\u00a0Gov. Ralph Northam\u2019s proposed ban\u00a0on modern sporting rifles, commonly-owned ammunition magazines, and suppressors during the current legislative session, they\u2019ve still been pushing a number of gun control bills that aren\u2019t as high-profile ahead of November\u2019s elections in the state. One bill … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64547,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64546\/revisions\/64547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}