Virginia Gun Control Laws

Virginia Gun Laws

There are many current laws and restrictions in the state of Virginia. The Virginia State Legislature passes laws, but it does not provide the necessary funding to maintain or enforce the current laws. Under Virginia’s firearms and concealed handguns laws, “A person must be at least 18 years of age to purchase a rifle or shotgun from a licensed firearms dealer. To purchase a handgun from a licensed firearms dealer, you must be at least 21 years of age, pursuant to federal law. For statutory regulations concerning underage persons possessing firearms, refer to Virginia Code Section18.2-308.7, possession or transportation of certain firearms by persons under the age of eighteen” Virginia State Police. Creating new gun control

Last year, over half the budget for the Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security was cut as a result of Governor McAuliffe’s 2015 Fiscal Year Savings Plan which is supposed to keep the Virginia economy competitive. Just for the Department of State Police, Virginia took away roughly $12.4 million of general fund away. Governor McAuliffe stated, “In a government as lean and well-run as ours, there are a few spending cuts you can make without impacting the lives of Virginians. The goal was to keep lay-offs to a minimum and protect our core service” Virginia. Since the Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security provide the funding to the State Police, there were 68 trooper position lay-offs to adapt to the new plan. They only refilled about 27 trooper positions that were laid-off. The budget is now half of what it used to be and needs to be raised for the department so that the office may use that money toward maintaining the gun laws. On top of providing more funding to the Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security, they need to provide enough funding to hire someone to supervise the money for each county in Virginia. This person will make sure the extra funding is not being abused and used for other things that are not involved with gun law

As stated in the beginning, creating new gun control legislation would only further restrict the rights of citizens to carry a concealed weapon legally. The Virginia State Legislature needs to fund the enforcement of the current gun control laws. The State needs to provide more funding towards the Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security to give to the police departments so they may utilize that money to enforce the current laws. They may also improve on the Virginia Firearms Transaction Program to ensure that anyone with a background that might be considered to be dangerous will not be able to purchase any guns at that time. The more funding the State Legislature can provide the police forces, the more they can find ways to better the ways to maintain the current gun laws so Virginia can be a little bit