Gun laws in Virginia?

[SunnySlopes]

My wife and I are tentatively thinking about moving to Lynchburg, VA.

How are the gun laws there? CCW? Shall issue? How about my AR? Glock 19? The rest of my gun collection? (Mostly older revolvers and a few 1911s.)

Anything else you could tell me would be nice. (Political environment. Housing. Fishing, etc.)

thanx

 

[WardenWolf]

It's shall issue, and everything that's Federally legal is legal there (not sure about NFA, though). I live in Arizona, but have a friend who lives in Virginia and have traveled there (and carried there, as they reciprocate). Their laws are effectively identical to Arizona's.

 

[billib]

va gun laws

Sunny, check vcdl.org and vaguntrader.com, i think they have summaries. shall issue for ccw with training or military experience, gun friendly state. good luck with your move and welcome to virginia!

 

[va1911]

I used to live there. They have the VA citizens defense league who does an enormous amount if work for 2a. VA had restaurant carry before most states had ccw. Great place. There are some nice trout waters north and west of lynchburg. Shenandoah natl park and skyline drive, beautiful place. Now I really miss it!

 

[gregj]

You can OC here in Va, shall issue CHP, etc. Lots of places to fish, not sure about hunting. Feel free to PM me if you'd like more info.

 

[JohnBT]

Hunting? Lynchburg is all but on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Izaac Walton Park isn't very expensive to join and they have a 300-yard rifle range, 50-yard pistol range, clays, trap, etc. www.iwll.org

I used to make two trips a month to Lynchburg to work and I'd stay over both trips, so I tried a variety of restaurants and bars. It's a conservative town, with colleges and farming, but there used to be a lot of manufacturing since the town is on the James River.

Babcock & Wilcox has an mPower™ Reactor Engineering and Design office there, so don't let me make it sound too rural.

Charlottesville and UVA is an hour north and Roanoke is just south. Roanoke was a large train town. I lived there until I was four. Blacksburg is another 40 miles south of Roanoke. I spent 4 years there.

Check out Smith Mountain Lake, Peaks of Otter and Appomattox for things to do the in area.

Did I mention Lynchburg is conservative? Friendly though. It must be pushing 100k people now if you include Liberty University and Lynchburg College.

John

Oh, and I can't forget Sweet Briar College. Classy place. Didn't your school have a riding program with a 300' x 120' indoor horse ring? Bring your own horse or hire one of their 40. Instruction is included in the tuition.

http://sbc.edu/riding

"Sweet Briar College is situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia about 10 miles from the Appalachian Trail and the Blue Ridge Parkway. The campus is on U.S. 29 12 miles north of Lynchburg and 45 miles south of Charlottesville."

 

[JohnBT]

If you go, check out the ACE HARDWARE & GUN STORE on Lakeside Drive. They had a handful of hardware aisles and the rest was gun store. JT

Fishing - www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/waterbodies/display.asp?id=158

Do you like smallmouth bass?

"Smallmouth bass fishing will be good throughout the river. Both the mountain sections (upstream from Lynchburg) and the piedmont sections (between Lynchburg and Richmond) generally provide good fishing."

 

[AlexanderA]

Virginia is generally gun-friendly. Regarding NFA weapons, it's not more restrictive than the federal law. The "Uniform Machine Gun Act," a holdover from the 1930's, is still on the books. What this means in practice is that machine guns have to be registered with the State Police within 24 hours after acquisition, and you have to be a little careful not to fall afoul of some legal presumptions regarding "offensive or aggressive purpose" when the machine guns are off-premises. CLEO signoffs are done at the local level, and some Chiefs won't sign while others will. Non-signing CLEOs can be gotten around by forming a trust to hold the NFA weapons.

 

[Black Knight]

VA gun laws are very people friendly. We are a shall issue state. Open carry is legal without a permit (even for visitors). We have state pre-emption so cities can not have laws stricter than the state. Also you can now enter resturaunts that serve alcohol concealed as long as you don't partake spirits. If you like hunting or fishing Virginia is a great place. Check out the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries website for licensing info. Come to Virginia and learn what Southern Hospitality is all about. Welcome.

 

[mortablunt]

Gold Star no permit Open Carry. Mag limit: 20 for rifles and 5 of the largest ammo for shotguns.
CC: Shall issue, and it's normally quick.
AR: All good.
Glock: All good.

They just killed their 1 handgun a month law, so that's gone. Virginia is two places. There's Northern Virginia, where I live, which is very close to metropolitan. It's quite wealthy and suburban. It's pretty much suburbs and commercial outlets connected by highways. The rest of Virginia is to put it bluntly, redneck land; quite rural. You can get away with OC with pretty much anything, no problem, so long as it's within the law. However, carrying in Northern Virginia can be a pain because of how many schools, neighborhoods, and other such things there are. The NRA is headquartered not even 10 miles from my house. Hunting and fishing are not great in the North, but the rest of the state has plenty to go around. It's quite a gun friendly state and to be truthful, you don't need to even bother with concealed there. You can put your guns in the car and drive. You do not need to inform officers that you have weaponry. However, if you crash your car into anything, no matter how slight or crazy the accident, you will be charged with Reckless Driving, which can get you a year in jail. Do your best to avoid having crashes reported to the Police. The state has no Castle Doctrine in formal law, but a pretty generous precedent to self defense has been formed in case law.

 

[va1911]

I was thinking trout and forgot about smallies. You'll have fun on the James.

 

[paramedic70002]

"Streetsweepers" are banned. Can't say too much else bad about VA that isn't common among many states.

 

[lathedog]

Not sure if it is state law, or whatever, but when I lived there most of the dealers demanded two forms of ID to sell you a gun. They would accept voter registration which is funny as there is no picture on that. All of them made a big deal about selling "assault weapons", whatever that means. each dealer had a different definition, but the most common was "any semi-automatic rifle".

VA also has one-handgun-a-month, but trades and private sales do not count. Of course I am not giving legal advice, just recalling what I went thru when living there.

I bought a shotgun at one of the big-box stores that is all about shooting and the outdoors, and they were a real mess. I felt like I was in CA, not VA. Long story, but they did not strike me as truly gun-friendly. Most of the small shops and real gun stores were pretty cool, though.

There is a real lack of shooting ranges, and they are crowded and expensive compared to out west. People go nuts at the range, and I have never seen anything like it in the military, police ranges, or public ranges in the rest of the country. Lots of unsafe stuff, like mag dumps where the last rounds hit the ceiling. It always seemed like about 10% of the shooters at ranges I went to in VA would be kicked out of most ranges in the rest of the US, immediately.

Lots more class 3 stuff than anywhere else I've lived (except military bases of course). Just an observation.

Most folks in VA, and the East Coast in general, think VA is a real free state. If you are coming from the Southwest, or Pacific Northwest, or Rocky Mountain states, you will probably feel a bit more limited in VA, gunrights-wise. VA is much better than MD, for example, let alone NY/NJ/MA. But it is nowhere near as gun friendly as WA, AZ, UT, NV, MT, WY, AK... I could go on with 15 or 20 more states.

I used to have this conversation with other folks that moved to VA from really free states. The locals felt they were in some sort of right-wing paradise, but this was all in comparison to the nearby slave labor states to the North and East. If you are from a state like Alaska you will feel like you entered a low security prison. I moved there from Washington state and I felt a little bit trapped the whole time, and I lived out near WV and stayed clear of the DC metro area as much as possible.

I hate to be the bearer of less sunshine and fewer unicorns, as VA is not all bad. It is just that I would give it a 7 or 7.5 on a scale of 10, 10 being AZ or AK or UT.

 

[brickeyee]

VA also has one-handgun-a-month

Repealed as of this July.

 

[mortablunt]

f you are from a state like Alaska you will feel like you entered a low security prison.

Attend college in Maryland. Now that's like a low security Club Fed prison.

 

[AlexanderA]

Not sure if it is state law, or whatever, but when I lived there most of the dealers demanded two forms of ID to sell you a gun. They would accept voter registration which is funny as there is no picture on that. All of them made a big deal about selling "assault weapons", whatever that means. each dealer had a different definition, but the most common was "any semi-automatic rifle".

Va. dealers ask for 2 forms of ID -- a driver's license and something else (such as a car registration or utility bill) to verify a current address. Only the primary ID needs to have a picture.

There's a state law, enacted after the Kansi shooting at the CIA hdqtrs., which limits sales of certain defined "assault weapons" (including stripped AR-15 lowers) to U.S. citizens. A passport, birth certificate, etc., is used to prove this, but since it doesn't show a current address it can't count as the primary ID.

 

[tyeo098]

One of the following forms of proof of citizenship or lawful residence, pursuant to §18.2-308.2 must be presented to purchase an assault firearm:

a certified birth certificate or certificate of birth abroad issued by the US State Department,
an un-expired US Passport,
a U. S. citizen identification card,
a current voter registration card,
a current selective service registration card,
an immigrant or registration card issued by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and
a certificate of citizenship or a certificate of naturalization issued by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

DL + Voters Registration should be all you need to comply with the 2 forms of ID and special AF requirements.

Silly, I know. You would think of our state to have such a law, but it is what it is.

You'll like the Old Dominion. Very nice place. Nice scenery, nice people.

 

[inclinebench]

Lathdog, I would venture to guess that you were not in the southern or western part of the state. I live in the western part of the state and we have free public ranges, as well as private land to shoot on. Northern Virginia is very different than the rest of the state due to the huge population of outsiders and D.C. commuters. I have been out west, and some places are comparable to western Virginia, and other places made me feel like I was in a Socialist Republic compared to where I am from.

 

[bikerdoc]

You will like it. Please join VCDL once you move.

 

[rromeo]

Lathdog, I would venture to guess that you were not in the southern or western part of the state. I live in the western part of the state and we have free public ranges, as well as private land to shoot on. Northern Virginia is very different than the rest of the state due to the huge population of outsiders and D.C. commuters. I have been out west, and some places are comparable to western Virginia, and other places made me feel like I was in a Socialist Republic compared to where I am from.

Agreed.

 

[JohnBT]

"Most folks in VA, and the East Coast in general"

You weren't here long enough to meet most of the people you're talking about. Free states out west. Ha.

 

[JohnBT]

Over 55% of Utah is owned by the feds.

70% if you count all of these outfits:

"...either BLM land, Utah State Trustland, or U.S. National Forest, U.S. National Park, U.S. National Monument, National Recreation Area or U.S. Wilderness Area."

I know, let's do the top 10 states that the feds own:

1.Nevada 84.5%
2.Alaska 69.1%
3.Utah 57.4%
4.Oregon 53.1%
5.Idaho 50.2%
6.Arizona 48.1%
7.California 45.3%
8.Wyoming 42.3%
9.New Mexico 41.8%
10.Colorado 36.6%

Free states you say? They don't even own their own states.

 

[tazbigdog]

Lived there for 14 years, from the Eastern Shore to the Shenandoah mountains. Very gun friendly and alot of gunshows and flea markets to walk through.

 

[brickeyee]

If you move to Virginia buy and read "The virginia Gun ower's guide."

ALL Virginia lethal force law is common (case) law.

We have NO statute lethal force law.

Not even one.

The police (and everyone) operate under the common law.

All that said, we have a VERY good body of common law.

 

[tyeo098]

If you move to Virginia buy and read "The virginia Gun ower's guide."

ALL Virginia lethal force law is common (case) law.

We have NO statute lethal force law.

Not even one.

The police (and everyone) operate under the common law.

All that said, we have a VERY good body of common law.

We have over 400 years of common law to interpret situations.
Most Stand your Ground laws would actually weaken our current laws.