Virginia Democrats Kill Common-Sense Gun Laws

That’s odd.

I thought Virginia Democrats - flush with Mike Bloomberg gun-control cash - were in favor of what they call “common sense” gun safety laws.

Yet so far they’ve killed every single bill that would increase punishment for armed lawbreakers, while enthusiastically embracing bills aimed at restricting the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

For instance, under current Virginia law anyone committing a felony while using a firearm is slapped with a mandatory three years in prison.

But SB86 would increase the mandatory sentence to five years for the first offense. And 10 years for a second or subsequent offense. 

This might serve as a deterrent. Failing that, it would keep convicts behind bars longer if they used a gun during their crime, thus reducing gun violence.

On Wednesday that bill was killed by Democrats in the Senate’s Judiciary Committee.

Surely you’d expect Democrats to support SB85, though. That proposal would enhance penalties for the theft of a firearm and increase penalties for anyone using a stolen gun in the commission of a crime. Oh, it would also impose a two-year mandatory prison sentence on anyone caught selling stolen firearms.

Again. A common-sense gun law, am I right?

Nope. On Wednesday Senate Democrats killed that bill in the Judiciary Committee.

But how about SB83, which would mandate a six-month jail sentence for anyone brandishing a firearm at a law enforcement officer? That should certainly receive bipartisan support.

Ah, no. On Wednesday Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee nuked that bill, too.

There’s no way anyone could oppose SB82, a measure that would require a three year mandatory sentence for anyone who violated a protective order while armed with a firearm. Politicians must know this bill would protect women who are most often the victims of domestic abuse, right?

Wrong. On Wednesday, that bill also bit the dust. Killed by Democrats on the Senate’s Judiciary Committee.

What about SB84, a proposal that would create a separate felony for anyone committing a serious crime while possessing a concealed weapon?

On Wednesday the Senate Judiciary committee deep-sixed that one, too.

All of these measures were introduced by Virginia Beach GOP Sen. Bill DeSteph who believes serious gun laws ought to be aimed at punishing criminals, not at limiting the right of law-abiding citizens.

“We want to prevent gun violence,” DeSteph told me Thursday. “The only way to do that is to keep people who commit these crimes in prison…Democrats are not about reducing gun violence, though,  they’re all about gun control."

He’s right.

On the same day the Democrats in the Senate were shooting down DeSteph’s common-sense gun bills, they passed the controversial “Red Flag Law” that involves seizing guns from people who have done nothing wrong but are feared to be a threat to themselves or others. The measure raises serious constitutional questions, the sort the ACLU might care about if they weren’t wedded to the Democratic Party.

The Senate also passed the one-handgun-a-month bill, although no one can explain how being able to buy two handguns in a single month is any more dangerous than buying two guns in two months.

Meanwhile, the new majority in Richmond is also busy trying to reverse Virginia’s no-parole laws that have kept the commonwealth’s crime rate low for decades. Bills that would green light “geriatric” releases for violent offenders as young as 50 are under serious consideration.

Terrific.

If it seems that the majority in Richmond is suddenly coddling criminals and cracking down on law-abiding gun owners, they are.

And on Wednesday the new majority showed that it isn’t serious about reducing gun violence. Not if it means increasing the punishment for armed thugs.