McAuliffe to unveil gun control measures, including expanded background checks

[djpup]

RICHMOND — Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Monday will call for a package of gun restrictions in Virginia, including a renewal of the state’s one-a-month limit on handgun purchases and a requirement that buyers at gun shows undergo background checks.

McAuliffe will also propose keeping guns away from people convicted of crimes related to domestic violence and revoking concealed-handgun permits for parents who are behind on child-support payments.

McAuliffe (D) will unveil his plan during a speech in Arlington County the day after the two-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, according to a news release provided to The Washington Post.

While campaigning for governor last year, McAuliffe veered from the playbook of Democrats seeking statewide office, pushing openly for gun control and other liberal causes, including abortion rights and action to mitigate climate change.

Such issues had been off-limits even for many Democrats in the historically conservative state, but McAuliffe capitalized on Virginia’s changing demographics, speaking directly to liberal and moderate voters in the Washington suburbs who helped Democrats sweep last year’s three statewide races.

It will be harder for McAuliffe to persuade the Republican-controlled General Assembly to give up any ground on Second Amendment issues, especially as some fend off challenges from the right. But the governor is betting that the mass shootings at Sandy Hook in Newtown, Conn., and at Virginia Tech in 2007 make it politically toxic for Republicans in more moderate districts to oppose the measures.

“As Governor, there is no greater responsibility than ensuring the health and safety of the citizens I serve,” McAuliffe said in the release. “Our Commonwealth and our nation have seen too many tragedies as a result of dangerous weapons getting into the hands of the wrong people. These common-sense proposals will keep guns out of the hands of criminals, will keep our communities safe, and will help to build a new Virginia economy.”

Shortly after taking office, McAuliffe attempted to shore up his base by amending a GOP-backed handgun bill. The change, which would have required Virginians who store guns in their cars to use “locked” containers, was rejected by House Republicans, and McAuliffe then vetoed the bill.

Monday’s gun-control proposals represent a more methodical approach by the governor, who in May signed a bill sponsored by Sen. Bryce E. Reeves (R-Spotsylvania) allowing gun dealers to use a state police database to see if a gun has been used in a felony before they make a purchase. The law takes effect Jan. 1.

A limit on purchases to one gun per month became law in 1993 under Gov. L. Douglas Wilder (D), but it was repealed during the tenure of Republican Robert F. McDonnell nearly two decades later.

The news release from McAuliffe’s office, which says the governor is a “gun owner and supporter of the Second Amendment,” praises the limit as a way to “prevent dangerous people from stockpiling and trafficking dangerous weapons.”

Gun rights advocates have argued that restricting ownership would not have stopped high-profile Virginia shootings for which mentally ill individuals were responsible, such as the Virginia Tech case and the tragedy that struck Sen. R. Creigh Deeds and his family last year.

After the Bath County Democrat’s son stabbed his father and then fatally shot himself, lawmakers passed a package of bills, which the governor signed, aimed at improving access to mental-health services.

Citing American Journal of Public Health research that the administration says shows that women are much more likely to be killed in domestic-violence situations when a gun is present, McAuliffe would ban anyone subject to a protection-from-abuse order from having a gun.

The ban would also apply to anyone convicted of certain misdemeanors, such as stalking, sexual battery, assault and battery against a family member and brandishing a firearm, as well as anyone with two or more assault and battery convictions.


This measure is intended to eliminate what advocates call a loophole in state law that allows possession of guns by such offenders in Virginia, according to the governor’s office.

McAuliffe would also revoke concealed-handgun permits for parents who are delinquent on child-support payments. There are currently about 9,000 such people, and they owe more than $15 million, the governor’s office said.

Although federally licensed firearms dealers must conduct background checks before selling a firearm, private vendors face no such requirement, giving criminals what McAuliffe’s office calls “an easy avenue” to buy guns at gun shows.

In a separate provision, McAuliffe would give Virginia State Police the authority to process voluntary background check requests when submitted to them by private vendors. In his budget address Wednesday, he will set aside $100,000 to pay for state police to attend the shows.

He would also prohibit gun shows from advertising their exclusion from the background check law in hope of discouraging criminals from buying guns this way.

“These are responsible policies that will benefit Virginia’s neighborhoods and families and will create safer environments for our law enforcement officials,” Brian Moran, McAuliffe’s secretary of public safety, said in the statement. “By implementing these common-sense measures, Virginia can lead the way on curbing gun violence and can prevent dangerous individuals from illegally obtaining firearms.”

J

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...beb_story.html

[Pilot321]

A very telling precursor to Tom Wolf, and what we will be facing.

[Lougotzz]

I don't think either will have much luck. Always fight this garbage.

[Brick]

What gives with this?

McAuliffe will also propose keeping guns away from people convicted of crimes related to domestic violence

It's already illegal under FEDERAL law!

[JenniferG]

What gives with this?

It's already illegal under FEDERAL law!

Under State law in PA it is illegal for municipalities to make their own gun laws but they do it anyway and then use the leftist press in Philadelphia to complain about taking the rights of municipalities away when they're called on it.

Wolf will be doing the same in a matter of hours after he is sworn in but not before he proposes to raise taxes on the middle class.

[jerkin]

"As Governor, there is no greater responsibility than ensuring the health and safety of the citizens I serve,” McAuliffe said in the release. “Our Commonwealth and our nation have seen too many tragedies as a result of dangerous weapons getting into the hands of the wrong people. These common-sense proposals will keep guns out of the hands of criminals, will keep our communities safe, and will help to build a new Virginia economy.”

Could someone please explain to me how revoking carry permits from a person behind on their child support ensures the health and safety of the citizens he serves, keeps guns out of the hands of criminals, keeps communities safe or helps build a new economy?

Maybe I'm missing something.

[JenniferG]

Could someone please explain to me how revoking carry permits from a person behind on their child support ensures the health and safety of the citizens he serves, keeps guns out of the hands of criminals, keeps communities safe or helps build a new economy?

Maybe I'm missing something.

You're not missing anything, they are adding something, something that is made up and non existent. He also wants to reinstate the one gun a month Fast Eddie Rendell delusion.

An extremist McAuliffe voter comments:

Why one handgun a month, this means that people can buy 12 handguns a year. I don't know why someone needs 12 handguns when they could only shoot one at a time. Perhaps one every 5 years may be a common sense standard along with a max number for possession.

There are two reasons McAuliffe is governor of Virginia today. He funded a libertarian candidate that drew off voters in big enough numbers to deny the Republican a win. The number of leftist government workers have increased to a great degree in the districts just outside of Washington like pigs feeding at the trough gobbling up hard earned taxpayer money and of course they voted the man that funded Bill Clinton with unlimited supplies of illegal campaign money. Even the leftists that have some twisted bits of shame acknowledge McAuliffe's evil.

I Can’t Believe Terry McAuliffe Is Going to Be Governor of Virginia
No experience in office? Check. Sketchy business partners? Check. Media manipulation? Check.

—By Stephanie Mencimer

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...ernor-virginia

The list of McAuliffe's questionable business dealings goes on. But he has used his substantial influence to try to minimize the news coverage of his various wheeling-and-dealing. In 1996, the New York Daily News fired reporter David Eisenstadt after he wrote an unfavorable story about McAuliffe potentially having connections to notorious fundraiser John Huang, who in 1999 pleaded guilty to felony charges for arranging more than $150,000 in illegal campaign contributions to the Democratic Party. McAuliffe later gloated to the Washington Post about having called paper owner Mort Zuckerman to get Eisenstadt canned.

[c45man]

Am I missing something here? This fool McAuliffe could not get his last scheme of a gun restriction law through the Republican controlled state assembly. What makes him or anyone else thing that the same assembly is going to let an even more intrusive and restrictive set of laws come to fruition. The belief that this issue is less caustic in the minds of many politicians, just for the sake of the second anniversary of Sandy Hook, is an idiots notion. The only thing caustic in the matter is the failure of the anti-gun zealots to pass any sort of national anti-gun laws despite the total exploitation of the CT. tragedy. This fact has been the disdain of the leftists ever since Sandy Hook.

The lapdog McAuliffe is in the same situation as his lapdog partner in PA. Wuff, no doubt, will bring the matter forward, but the matter will not even get as far as the failed attempt to privatize state stores under the Corbett administration.

[pyld]

There are two reasons McAuliffe is governor of Virginia today. He funded a libertarian candidate that drew off voters in big enough numbers to deny the Republican a win. The number of leftist government workers have increased to a great degree in the districts just outside of Washington like pigs feeding at the trough gobbling up hard earned taxpayer money and of course they voted the man that funded Bill Clinton with unlimited supplies of illegal campaign money. Even the leftists that have some twisted bits of shame acknowledge McAuliffe's evil.

The bit about funding the libertarian's candidacy was and remains a figment of Rush Limbaugh's imagination.

McAuliffe won because the Republicans nominated Ken Cuccinelli. Had they nominated someone who valued liberty, they'd have kept the %10 or so of Republican voters who voted libertarian and McAuliffe would not be governor.

[JenniferG]

No figment, a tried and true strategy.

Former presidential candidate and Congressman Ron Paul, notorious for his Libertarian views and dedication to principle, campaigned for Cuccinelli in Virginia last night. When Ron Paul is campaigning for the Republican in the race, you know the Libertarian is fake.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepa...-race-n1737981