Dem Bill in VA Could Limit Number of Outdoor Gun Ranges
A Virginia Democrat is calling for new rules that could vastly limit the number of outdoor gun ranges in Virginia.
The proposal comes amid major steps by Democrats to curtail gun rights and strong pushback from Virginians that includes a march in Richmond on Monday.
The proposed legislation was introduced Jan. 8 by Democratic state Sen. John Bell.
The bill would make it “unlawful to operate an outdoor shooting range within 500 yards of any property zoned for residential use unless the Range Design Criteria developed by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Health, Safety and Security have been met.”
Mark Oliva, director of public affairs of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said the issue is not what the bill does, but what it could do.
“The key language [in the bill] is any property zoned for residential use. That language would allow a county commission to simply change the zoning designation to regulate out the existence or potential for a small business outdoor range to operate,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Oliva said ranges set up on private property could be considered to be breaking the law.
“This language is unclear if this applies strictly to a commercial, county, state or federal outdoor range,” he said. “That seems to apply to private parties who are participating in recreational shooting on their own property, making them subject to fines of up to $1,000,000 for the first violation and an additional $5,000 each day following.”
“This is an attempt to legislate out of existence the opportunity to learn and participate in the recreational shooting sports and limit the ability of law-abiding Virginians to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” he said.
Bell’s state Senate district includes Loudon County, where in September a woman was injured by a bullet fired by individuals who were target shooting on private property, according to Loudon Now.
That incident prompted calls for new regulations.
“While I’m grateful the latest shooting incident in a heavily populated area of Loudoun did not result in loss of life, I don’t believe the safety of Loudoun’s families should be left to chance,” Democratic County Chairwoman Phyllis J. Randall said at the time. “Loudoun County has seen over eight incidents of stray bullets from backyard shooting ranges in the last eighteen months.”
Another Virginia Democrat proposed HB 567, which would require indoor gun ranges to be housed in buildings owned by the state of Virginia or the federal government. The only exceptions are for indoor ranges with fewer than 50 employees and indoor ranges where police or federal law enforcement officers make up 90 percent of the users.
Democrats, who gained majorities in both chambers of the Virginia legislature in November, have aggressively pushed gun control bills this month. The state Senate has already passed three of these bills.
At the local level, Virginians have pushed back, with 136 counties, cities and towns passing some version of a Second Amendment sanctuary resolution to protect gun owners from any confiscation plan that might be adopted, according to the Virginia Citizens Defense League.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in the Second Amendment movement,” Cam Edwards, a Virginia resident and editor of Bearing Arms, a gun rights website, said, according to The Guardian. The closest political analogy would be the tea party, he said, “but this movement is centered around a single issue.”
“I’ve never seen this much intensity with so many people,” said Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. “If they pass gun control, I don’t know where it’s going, but I’m just praying they don’t do it. Leave it alone. Walk away.”
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