Ralph Northam on Gun Control

Appreciate thoughts & prayers but need commonsense gun laws

Common sense gun laws do not violate Second Amendment

We are back, with eight common-sense measures to keep dangerous persons away from firearms.

This common-sense legislation does not violate the Second Amendment. No one is calling out the National Guard. No one is cutting off your electricity or turning off the Internet. No one is going door-to-door to confiscate guns. These laws are intended to keep Virginians safe. Period. It's time to act.

Ban assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines

Gov. Ralph Northam (D) backed the legislation, part of a package of eight gun-control measures he advanced after a shooter killed 12 people at a Virginia Beach municipal building on May 31. Republicans' refusal to act on those bills last summer, in a special session that they gaveled out in 90 minutes, became a rallying cry for Democrats in November elections. They flipped the state House and Senate blue for the first time in a generation.

The House has passed all eight of Northam's bills. But four Democrats sided with Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the assault weapons bill for the year. On a 10-to-5 vote, the committee sent the measure to the state's Crime Commission for study.

More deaths due to guns than car accidents: so let's act

In comparison, that's more deaths due to gun violence than the 956 Virginians who died due to vehicle accidents in 2017.

We have recognized that we have a problem with road safety and vehicle deaths--and we have acted together to prevent future ones [such as] the Executive Leadership Team on Highway Safety, and efforts to strengthen our Move Over law, aimed at protecting our first responders.

If we are able to agree that we need to act when we have a problem with highway safety and preventable deaths, then surely we can agree to work together to keep more Virginians alive by improving gun safety. This has to be a dialogue--that's a two-way exchange of ideas.

This year I'm proposing we act to approve an "extreme risk law." It creates a legal way for law enforcement and the courts to temporarily remove firearms from someone who has shown dangerous behavior, and who poses a risk to themselves or others.

Start with universal background checks

There are many actions we should take over our time together to save lives by reducing gun violence. Let's start by keeping guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them by passing universal background checks.

As long as Virginians' lives are at risk because there are too many guns in the hands of people who would use them to harm others, we will fight on this ground. As long as schools, churches, offices and concert venues are exposed to horrific, preventable violence, we will fight on this ground. As long as the people who sent us all here continue to cry out for solutions to the epidemic of gun violence, we will fight on this ground.

Supports universal background checks

• Keeping families safe from gun violence by requiring background checks for every firearm purchase.
• Finally raising the threshold for felony larceny from $200 to $1000 so that one mistake does not ruin a person's entire life.
• Cut carbon and create clean energy jobs

No concealed carry without a permit

Legislative Outcome:: Introduced Dec. 15; failed Senate 20-20 on Feb. 1, with tie-breaker vote by Lt. Governor Northam (who voted NAY).

Keep guns out of the hands of criminals & the mentally ill