In the wake of vetoing legislation that would have allowed women to quickly arm themselves against domestic abusers, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) is now pushing for handgun rationing in Virginia.
He is proposing a legislative amendment that mandates law-abiding Virginians can only buy one handgun a month.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that McAuliffe’s amendment would criminalize law-abiding citizens by making it “a Class 1 misdemeanor — punishable by up to a year in jail and $2,500 fine — for anyone other than a licensed firearms dealer to buy more than one handgun within a 30-day period.”
A handgun rationing law was previously on the books in Virginia but was repealed in 2012 by Gov. Bob McDonnell (R).
McAuliffe wants to bar law-abiding citizens from buying more than one handgun a month because of an “indictment that charged 22 Virginians with running more than 200 guns bought in Virginia north to New York and selling them to an undercover officer.”
The NRA-ILA pointed out that the straw purchasers named in the indictment were “directed…to acquire specific types or models of firearms from Federal Firearms Licensed retailers.” Instead of recognizing the straw purchases as yet another example of the futility of requiring background checks for gun purchases, Gov. McAuliffe issued a statement in which he alluded to the crimes of 22 straw purchases as justification for limiting the gun purchases of all law-abiding Virginians:
One-handgun-a-month was enacted almost a quarter century ago to counter Virginia’s shameful reputation as the gun-running capital of the East Coast. Five years ago, the General Assembly took the ill-advised step of repealing this commonsense limitation. As a result, Virginia is once again becoming the go-to state for criminals to purchase weapons in bulk.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.