As Republicans in Florida and elsewhere warm up to the idea of using court warrants to take guns away from people who may pose a threat, Virginia Democrats are calling on the Republican-controlled House of Delegates to reconsider a similar bill that never got a hearing.
About 20 House Democrats held a news conference Thursday morning urging Republicans to revive blocked gun-control bills in the wake of last month’s mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 people dead. The Democratic lawmakers said they opposed the idea of arming teachers and called for raising the minimum age to buy AR-15s to 21.
With a little more than a week left to go before the session’s end, lawmakers are running out of time to act, and a GOP leader said procedural rules dictate that Republicans can’t bring back any of the gun bills even if they wanted to.
House Bill 198, filed by Del. Rip Sullivan, D-Fairfax, would let judges issue temporary warrants ordering a person to give up their firearms if law enforcement believes the individual poses a “substantial risk” of hurting themselves or others. The idea has gained traction in the gun debate after reports that there were multiple red flags about the 19-year-old Florida shooter’s violent leanings, but no one intervened.
“A bill like this in Florida just might have stopped Parkland,” Sullivan said. “And a bill like this in Virginia just might stop the next one.”
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, has backed a similar proposal in his state, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has said he’ll introduce a federal bill to create so-called gun violence restraining orders.
Sullivan’s bill was never put to a vote. It was left in the House Courts of Justice Committee at the crossover deadline, which was one day before the Feb. 14 Parkland shooting.
Even though House rules say the body can only act on Senate bills after crossover, Democrats suggested Republicans could refer the bill to the Rules Committee and send it to the floor with no recommendation in order to debate it.
“We can no longer abdicate our responsibility,” said Del. Charniele Herring of Alexandria, the Democratic caucus chair. “We have to act. And we have to act now.”
House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, said that even if the rules allowed the House to carry out that maneuver, which he insisted was not technically possible, the legislature shouldn’t rush a decision on a delicate issue.
“The notion that the government can decide what criteria you need to meet for them to swoop in and take your guns away is scary to many people. And rightfully so,” Gilbert said.
Because Virginia State Police would have to set up a system to track the gun warrants, Sullivan’s proposal would cost an estimated $521,489 in fiscal year 2019, according to state budget officials, and money to pay for it is not included in General Assembly budget bills working their way toward passage.
Gilbert said the idea of gun restraining orders will be part of an “ongoing discussion” about intervention. He added that he’d want to see strong due process provisions in any future legislation.
“If law-abiding gun owners weren’t convinced that liberal-leaning representatives’ only goal was to take away their firearms and the right to have them, then they might be a lot more open to ideas like that,” Gilbert said.
Sullivan’s proposal calls for a court hearing within 14 days to decide if a person’s guns should be returned to them or not.
House Minority Leader David Toscano, D-Charlottesville, called Gilbert’s comments about the rules an “excuse,” saying there are “other ways” to move a bill forward if the majority wanted to pass one. He did not elaborate.
After the Florida shooting, Gov. Ralph Northam has reiterated his calls for stronger gun-control measures in Virginia, including the long-sought Democratic priority of universal background checks on gun sales. The governor can send down new legislation late in the session, but Northam has stressed recently that little can be done without Republican involvement.
“Governor Northam will continue to do everything he can to advocate for common-sense gun safety reform and is encouraging legislators from both sides of the aisle to revisit the solutions outlined at the beginning of the legislative session,” Northam spokeswoman Ofirah Yheskel said. “He and his team have reached out to Republicans in the General Assembly on the issue and continue to hope they will come to the table.”
A House subcommittee voted down a variety of gun-control proposals earlier this year on 4-2, party-line votes. The defeated proposals included several bills to ban bump stocks, the rapid-fire gun modifications used by the Las Vegas shooter. This week, President Donald Trump said he intends to ban bump stocks via executive order, a move House Democrats said they would welcome.
With Republicans holding a dramatically slimmed-down 51-49 majority, some pro-gun bills that passed the Senate have faltered in the House this year. A bill to allow guns in churches was sent back to committee to die. A Senate bill to let firefighters and EMTs carry concealed handguns while performing their official duties is on the House floor this week, but has been passed by two days in a row.
Even though Republicans don’t seem to be budging on gun-control bills, House Democrats have kept up a barrage of floor speeches urging Virginia to be part of the nationwide reckoning with guns being driven by young survivors of the Florida shooting.
“I’m embarrassed to go home to say to my constituents once again that we didn’t take up such a fundamentally important issue,” Del. Ken Plum, D-Fairfax, said Thursday.
Del. Brenda Pogge, R-James City, responded with a speech of her own, blaming video games for fueling violent fantasies.
“You watch what your kids are looking at on the video screen, on the Babylonian idiot box,” Pogge said.
