CCRKBA BLASTS SPANBERGER’S AMENDED HB 1525 GUN LEGISLATION
Added Emergency Clause Could Doom Guv’s Altered Bill
BELLEVUE, WA – Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s attempt to amend House Bill 1525 is a legislative trainwreck which raises the minimum age to purchase and possess certain firearms by young adults under age 21, many of whom already own such guns, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said.
Where Gov. Spanberger’s effort could—and should—justifiably collapse is her addition of an emergency declaration at the end of her amended bill. Under the Virginia Constitution, an emergency expressed in the body of a bill requires a vote of four-fifths of the members voting in each house. Because of the vote split in both the House and Senate, Spanberger’s amended HB 1525 might not be approved.
“In her zeal to enact stricter gun controls,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “Governor Spanberger may have fatally wounded her amended legislation.”
In the governor’s news release regarding this measure, her office states that Spanberger’s amendments to HB 1525 “direct Virginia State Police to resume background checks on private sales of firearms, as well as make these bills consistent with the House Bill 217 and Senate Bill 749.”
“Governor Spanberger has already been warned by the U.S. Department of Justice against enacting legislation which would infringe on the Second Amendment rights of citizens,” Gottlieb noted. “Young adults in the 18-to-20-year age group are citizens who have reached the legal age of majority. They can vote, run for office, enlist in the military, start businesses, sign contracts, get married and start families, so pressing an amended version of legislation already passed by Virginia lawmakers by raising the minimum age to purchase certain firearms—and declaring it an emergency—is definitely not only the wrong approach, but blatant age discrimination.
“The governor is playing to her far-left fringe constituents,” Gottlieb added. “That may play well on left-wing Internet sites, but it could spark federal legal action which has already been threatened. Spanberger obviously took office with the intention of positioning herself as a champion of restrictive gun control. That strategy just might backfire.”
