Concealed weapons bill passes

Concealed weapons bill passes
By Bob Gibson / bgibson@dailyprogress.com 978-7243
February 22, 2008


RICHMOND - The House of Delegates on Thursday passed a bill to allow people with a concealed weapons permit to bring a hidden handgun into a restaurant if they do not drink.
The measure sponsored by Sen. Emmett W. Hanger, R-Mount Solon, won House approval on a 62-36 vote and now goes to the desk of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.
Delegates in both parties said they expect Kaine to veto it. A spokesman for the governor said he would have to review the bill’s details before deciding whether to sign it.
Gun-rights advocates have sought the bill for years. It passed the Senate by a 24-15 vote last week, so neither chamber passed the measure by a veto-proof two-thirds margin.
Virginia has nearly 150,000 residents who hold concealed-carry permits, said Del. C. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, who spoke for the bill and said those who hold concealed-weapons permits “are among the most law-abiding citizens in Virginia.”
Delegates who opposed the measure said they doubt whether increasing the number of guns in restaurants that serve alcohol would make people safer.
“In the Wild West in Tombstone, Arizona, even there you had to check your gun at the bar,” said Del. Jennifer L. McClellan, D-Richmond. “People learned back then that guns and alcohol did not mix.”
Delegates who favored the bill said current law allows a person to carry a handgun into a restaurant or bar if the weapon is not concealed and to drink until the restaurant cuts the person off. Any restaurant owner has a right to post a sign saying no one may enter with a gun, and the bill does not change that right.
Del. Harvey B. Morgan, R-Gloucester, said the legislation is years overdue. If someone is walking down the street with a legally concealed weapon “and someone says let’s get some lunch, what are you going to do, put it under an ash can?” he asked.
“Are you going to take it into a restaurant and say, ‘I wonder if the proprietor will hold this for me,’” Morgan said. “I’ve always thought it was absolutely insane to require someone legally carrying a firearm to somehow dispose of it before getting a bite to eat,” he said. He said experience in other states shows that “concealed weapons permits have reduced armed robberies.”
Del. David J. Toscano, D-Charlottesville, was one of 29 Democrats who voted against the bill and who were joined by seven Republicans.
“I was very concerned about where this is going,” Toscano said. “I do not think that guns and alcohol mix very well and while I recognize people’s right under the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms, I don’t think it’s appropriate to make it easier to keep and bear them in a restaurant.”
Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle County, was one of 46 Republicans who voted for the measure along with 14 Democrats and two independents.
“If you go through the trouble and background check for a concealed carry permit, I think it makes sense for them to have an additional prerogative under the law,” Bell said. “This is certainly the group that’s been vetted and had the police background check.”
On another measure, the House voted 69-29 to pass a bill allowing people who don’t have concealed weapons permits to transport guns in a locked glove box or other interior compartment of a vehicle rather than carry them on the seat in plain view, as current law requires.
That bill now heads to Kaine’s desk.
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