6 Va. Democrats flip flop & vote to limit military members to 1 handgun a year

April 12, 1:35 PMDC Gun Rights ExaminerMike Stollenwerk

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Does your Senator wear these?

Almost nobody expected Governor Tim Kaine's veto of HB 1851 to be sustained by the Virginia General Assembly after Kaine insulted military members with his dishonest veto message.  But as the Virginia Sport Shooters Association noted, "the biggest surprise of the day" was the flip flop votes of 6 Virginia Senate Democrats to reverse their previous vote for the bill in order to sustain Governor Kaine's veto by just one vote.

HB 1851 was a simple bill that would have merely exempted active duty military members residing in Virginia from Virginia's onerous and constitutionally suspect "one handgun a month" gun purchase rationing scheme (and allowed active duty military IDs to serve as proof of citizenship or permanent residence for certain gun related transactions).  Here's what Senator Ken Cuccinelli (R - Fairfax County), now running for Attorney General, had to say about this debacle:

"Incredibly, several of my Democratic colleagues in the Senate, after voting to end the "one gun a month" rule for members of the armed forces during the session, reversed course and voted to sustain the Governor's veto of HB 1851. They evidently have a newfound concern about entrusting the members of the United States military with firearms.  These Senators were the following Democrats: Senators Barker, Colgan, Herring, Lucas, McEachin, and Petersen.  No Republicans flip-flopped on this bill."

But actually its worse than Cuccinelli suggests.  HB 1851 was designed to ensure that Virginia's "one handgun a month" law did not turn into "one handgun a year" for military members who only get 30 days of leave per year.

Most Virginians who serve on active duty are not going to serve in Virginia - they are going to be deployed outside of Virginia for most or even all of their military career, and at most, only be able to come back to Virginia for up to 30 days per year.  So thanks to these 6 Virginia Senators, Virginia's one handgun a month law is in practice a "one handgun a year" law for military members.

We need to find out what happened.  Do these Senators not understand what "active duty" means?  Did Governor Kaine twist their arms to get them to help cover up his outrageous insulting veto message?

ACTION ITEM:  If you live in one of these Senate flip floppers' districts, please call them and ask them the following question:  Why did you cast the deciding vote to limit military members to 1 handgun a year?

Meet the 6 Flip Flopping Virginia Senate Democrats who voted to limit military members to one handgun a year: 

Petersen, Chap (D - Fairfax)
George Barker (D - Fairfax County)
Charles Colgan (D - Manassas)
Mark Herring (D - Leesburg)
Donald McEachin (D - Richmond)
Miller, Yvonne (D - Norfolk)