Virginia Delegate files bill to repeal one handgun a month rationing scheme

Delegate Scott Lingamfelter (R - Prince William and Fauquier Counties)

Virginia State Delegate Scott Lingamfelter (R - Prince William & Fauquier Counties), a retired US Army Colonel who sits on the influential Militia, Police, and Public Safety Committee, has pre-filed House Bill 49 ahead of the 2010 Virginia General Assembly session. HB 49 would repeal Virginia's one handgun a month purchase rationing scheme.  Only 3 other states ration handgun purchases:  California, Maryland, and New Jersey (South Carolina repealed their gun rationing law several years ago).

Governor-elect Bob McDonnell (R) voted for the one handgun a month law in 1993 as a state Delegate from Virginia Beach.  But McDonnell explained  during his campaign for Governor that he now supports repeal of gun rationing because improved nationwide instant background checks make gun rationing obsolete.

Though anti-gun rights organizers are expected to oppose the bill, many observers expect Lingamfelter's bill to pass the Virginia General Assembly for a number of reasons.  First, since the enactment of Virginia's gun rationing law, the US Congress passed the federal Brady Act and created a nationwide system of federal and state instant background checks on gun dealer sales in every state.  Second, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the passage of the federal NICS Improvement Act in 2007 has significantly "strengthen[ed] the Brady Law's National Instant Check System (NICS)." 

But Philip Van Cleave, President of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) suggests a third reason the bill will pass.  Van Cleave argues that the bill has a good chance at passing because not only is public support for gun control at an all time low, but growing legal and popular recognition of gun ownership as a fundamental constitutional right makes gun rationing increasingly seem "about as un-American as book burning."

Delegate Lingamfelter's bill join's Roanoke Senator Ralph Smith's mail order gun permit proposal as just two out of an expected avalanche of pro-gun rights bills to be considered by the 2010 Virginia General Assembly.  Van Cleave expects pro-gun bills to do well in the 2010 session in part because of election victories by pro-gun House of Delegate candidates last November.

Van Cleave also said his group's top priorities include repealing Virginia's relatively rare state ban on carrying concealed handguns in alcohol serving restaurants and ending the even more rare state "one handgun a month" rationing law.  To push their agenda VCDL is asking their members to descend en masse on Richmond on Monday, January 18th, Martin Luther King's Day, to lobby legislators to vote pro-gun this session.

See additional coverage of this story by the Washington Examiner's William Flook:  Gun control opponents hope to reshape handgun laws.