Virginia House votes to lift handgun purchase limit

By Michael Sluss

RICHMOND

The House of Delegates today cast a final vote on legislation to repeal Virginia’s one-per-month limit on handgun purchases, leaving it to Gov. Bob McDonnell to sign the measure into law.

The House voted 64-32 to send the Senate version of the legislation (SB 323) to McDonnell’s desk. An identical House-sponsored (HB 940) version of the bill already has cleared both houses, but McDonnell has yet to act on it. McDonnell has said he favors repealing the law, even though he voted for it nearly two decades ago while serving the state legislature.

House members briefly debated the bill again today, repeating familiar arguments. Opponents of the bill insisted that most Virginians want to keep the handgun purchase restriction on the books and argued that repealing it would make the state a magnet for drug-runners.

Supporters of the bill said the state already has carved out multiple exemptions to the one-gun restriction and maintained that improved background check technology has rendered the law unnecessary.

“There is excessive rhetoric,” said Del. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William County, who sponsored the House bill. “Excessive rhetoric is not going to protect the people of the commonwealth. Effective laws will.”

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence circulated an email to supporters today asking them to urge McDonnell to veto the bill.