Democrats are making it a felony to bring a large-capacity magazine into Virginia

[Leucosticte]

https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB961EH1

It is unlawful for any person to import, sell, transfer, manufacture, purchase, [ possess, ] or transport any large-capacity firearms magazine. A violation of this [ section subsection ] is punishable as a Class 6 felony.

Yeah, if they just made it a misdemeanor, probably people would be like, "Whatever, it's only a misdemeanor" and they would ignore the law, figuring they're unlikely to get caught anyway. So, they have to make it a felony to deter people, because people will be scared of getting that hefty prison sentence and losing their civil rights and their ability to get certain jobs.

Who are going to be most of those getting busted under this law, though? White gun nuts, or black gangsta thugz? I'm guessing the latter, so presumably Democrats will end up having to repeal this racist piece of legislation sometime down the road, unless maybe this kind of legislation gets passed by so many states (or gets passed federally) that it will be hard to find a jurisdiction where you can buy large-capacity magazines at a gun shop.

This could also be a slippery slope to just banning detachable magazines altogether. Imagine the impact that's going to have on shootout scenes in action films; it won't be plausible that a law-abiding hero could take on the whole criminal gang all by himself, unless he's sharpshooter. Yeah, maybe he can take down five of them with five shots like in that one scene in Enemy at the Gates, but he's not going to be putting down suppressive fire.

 

[Leucosticte]

It's not a done deal that this will pass; it still has to make it through the state senate, but the vote will be pretty close, which is going to encourage making another try in a couple years, when there's perhaps a larger Democratic majority; and really the only thing needed to make it pass next time is a recent mass shooting to get people riled up into a mood where they want to grab all that guns away from everyone. https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+HB961

I was on the campaign trail a couple years ago, right after the Parkland shooting, and a lot of the voters were making the assault weapons ban a litmus test about whether they'd support a candidate. Well, guns that use low-capacity detachable magazines will still be legal under the new legislation, as long as the gun isn't too scary-looking:

"Assault firearm" means:

1. A semi-automatic center-fire rifle that expels single or multiple projectiles by action of an explosion of a combustible material with a fixed magazine capacity in excess of 12 rounds;

2. A semi-automatic center-fire rifle that expels single or multiple projectiles by action of an explosion of a combustible material that has the ability to accept a detachable magazine and has one of the following characteristics: (i) a folding or telescoping stock; (ii) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the rifle; (iii) a second handgrip or a protruding grip that can be held by the non-trigger hand; (iv) a grenade launcher; (v) a flare launcher, (vi) a silencer; (vii) a flash suppressor; (viii) a muzzle brake; (ix) a muzzle compensator; (x) a threaded barrel capable of accepting (a) a silencer, (b) a flash suppressor, (c) a muzzle brake, or (d) a muzzle compensator; or (xi) any characteristic of like kind as enumerated in clauses (i) through (x).

You can still probably shoot up a school with those of the legally permissible non-scary-looking rifles as long as you're quick enough about changing out the 12-round magazines. So they're going to eventually have to just say, "Okay, you're only allowed to have Revolutionary War-era muzzleloaders, and you can only buy one a month."

 

[Admin]

Well the second amendment isn't going us any real good anyway, it only allows for 3 things

0. political hostage taking
1. political terrorism
2. fight to death to avoid torture.

very few people are willing to do anything like that, most conservative gun nuts are cowards unwilling to pull the trigger, no wonder they like Trump, they can relate to him a lot.

Most people will just leave rather than dying trying to fight for freedom when 90% of the population are absolute shit that frankly dont deserve anything.

 

[Leucosticte]

UPDATE: The bill died, for this year anyway.

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/17/806663375/virginia-governors-bill-to-ban-assault-weapons-fails-with-help-from-his-own-part

Virginia's Democratic governor seemed poised to make broad changes to his state's gun control laws, but was dealt a stinging blow by his own party Monday when a state Senate committee blocked a bill that would have, among other things, banned sales of assault weapons.

Four Democrats on Virginia's Senate Judiciary Committee broke ranks with their party handing the Republican minority a victory in tabling the bill for the remainder of the year. It also sent the measure to the state's Crime Commission for further review.

The bill would have banned the sale or transfer of certain assault-style weapons in Virginia. It also would have made it illegal to possess silencers and magazines holding more than 12 rounds.