ROANOKE, Va. – Two lawmakers in Virginia want to keep everyone safe with two possible gun laws waiting for Governor Glenn Youngkin’s signature.
Senator Saddam Salim, a Democrat representing District 37 in the Senate of Virginia, introduced a law that could institute a five-day waiting period before someone can purchase a gun after they’ve completed a consent form to have the licensed dealer obtain criminal history record information.
Salim stated this law would be in effect if you want to purchase a gun at a store or a gun show.
“Right now, what happens is that the system will come up with three different options. When somebody puts that in, they either pass, or it’s undetermined, or additional information is needed. And what this would do is, regardless of the immediate status that it comes back with, it puts a five-day waiting period from the time somebody puts in the application and a lot of time, people’s applications might come in early it may take more than the five days,” said Salim.
Salim explained this would help if anyone had bad intentions.
“There are a lot of school shootings, and there’s a lot of folks that are in domestic abuse cases or places where their partners or somebody else in the situation where they’re heated. They want to go get a firearm or to essentially intimidate somebody else. And that is what we’re trying to provide as a cooling period so this person could go ahead and take that time,” said Salim.
Currently, there is no waiting period for someone to purchase a gun in Virginia.
He noted this would apply if someone has a concealed carry permit as well.
“If I go to a gun show right now and I have a concealed carry, but I want to buy a different gun or a similar one, I still have to go through that same background check process. The current permit just says you’ve been vetted before. You shouldn’t have any issues. A lot of times folks will say, ‘Well, you know, my system’s down, but it looks like you’re good to go. We’re going to push this through.’ So, this is going to also prevent some of that, avoid any type of fraud that could happen within the concealed carry permits, even though you may not have that problem,” said Salim.
10 News asked Salim why he wanted to institute a five-day waiting period.
“So, when we look at California, Hawaii, Illinois, Washington, D.C., Colorado, Florida, Maine and even our smaller states like Vermont, their waiting period is between three days to 14 days. So, I had to look at all of those and see what really worked and what didn’t work and then look at our background check systems as well and how long some of that might take. So, the median number that we were looking at was about five days given,” said Salim.
Salim introduced a similar bill in the Virginia General Assembly last year, which reached Youngkin’s desk but was vetoed.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jennifer Boysko introduced a bill requiring gun owners to lock up firearms if they know children are in the home or if someone is prohibited from possessing a firearm.
If someone does not do this, it will be a class four misdemeanor.
She said this will help prevent accidental shootings, suicide and school shootings.
“Guns in the home are the number one place where active shooters in schools have gotten their firearms. This is a real problem. And we know that approximately 2 in 5 households in the United States have at least one firearm in their home. And this is one way that we can get the guns out of the hands of children and make sure that they’re safe,” said Boysko.
Boysko also mentioned that signs would be posted in stores stating that gun owners must lock up their guns.
“I also put money in the budget that would provide resources so that folks who might not have, as you know, the ability to purchase a safe would be able to go to and get a special credit,” said Boysko.
Boysko noted she presented the bill to the Governor last year, and he vetoed it because he claimed that people with less money could not afford gun safes.
“And so that’s why I put money in the budget that would provide funding for people to get safe. I also provided money in the budget to help pay for the firearms for our law enforcement officers as well, so that there’s no reason that anybody shouldn’t be able to have a safe in their home,” said Boysko.
Both Senators emphasized that their bills are not intended to take away anyone’s Second Amendment right.
“But it is essentially making it safer so that when you do purchase that that gun, when you do get it or when your kids get it or somebody else that you know gets it, it is intentional that they’re getting it for their own safety rather than trying to have malicious purposes or causing self-inflicted harm or anything else,” said Salim.
“It’s common sense to lock up your guns and keep the harm away from the children,” said Boysko.
