Virginia: Bill Filed to Eliminate Right-to-Carry Permit Reciprocity!

On December 22, 2015, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced that he had conducted an audit of the state’s reciprocity agreements. The anti-gun attorney general concluded 25 of the 30 recognized state Right-to-Carry permits would no longer be recognized by the Commonwealth as of February 1, 2016.

Understanding the problems that Herring’s anti-gun activism would create for law-abiding Virginians and visitors to the state, Virginia lawmakers set to work cleaning up the attorney general’s mess. The result of this cleanup effort was rare bipartisan gun compromise.

In early 2016 H.B. 1163 and S.B. 610 were passed. The legislation made Virginia a full recognition state and required the state police to enter into formal reciprocity agreements with any state that so required. As part of the compromise, pro-gun lawmakers agreed to a measure requiring the state police to attend all gun shows in the commonwealth to provide voluntary background checks and a change to Virginia’s domestic violence protective order law. The Right-to-Carry reciprocity legislation passed the House of Delegates by a margin of 72 to 26, while it passed the Senate 29 to 11. It was then signed by Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe.

Such bipartisan agreement was possible on this issue because the Right-to-Carry movement has been a sweeping success. Examination of Right-to-Carry permit holder revocation data in large states, such as Florida and Texas, has long made it clear that permit holders are among the most law-abiding demographics in society.

H.B. 569 would eliminate the changes made to state law in 2016, and revert it to the language that Herring abused in 2015

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