From VA Del. Dan Helmer; will be very interesting to see if this passes the State Senate (it should pass the House of Delegates easily) and is signed into law by soon-to-be Governor Abigail Spanberger…
Delegate Helmer Introduces Assault Weapons Ban
Fairfax Delegate Re-Introduces Bill that has Twice Passed the House of Delegate and Senate & Vetoed by Gov. Youngkin
FAIRFAX – Today, Delegate Helmer re-introduced an assault weapons ban in the Virginia House of Delegates. Delegate Helmer, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, has successfully passed similar bills in past sessions out of both the House and the Senate, only for Gov. Glenn Youngkin to veto the legislation. Helmer released the following statement:
“Weapons similar to those that I used fighting for our country overseas have no place in our schools, in our churches, and on our streets. No Virginia parent should have to worry about whether their child will come home when we put them on a bus; we shouldn’t live in a world where we note the emergency exits when we enter a movie theater. It is time that Virginia pass this commonsense legislation to finally ban these weapons of war from our Commonwealth.”
You can read the full text of Helmer’s bill here.
Helmer’s bill will prohibit future sales, purchases, and transfers of assault weapons and bans high capacity magazines. Ten states currently prohibit assault weapons, including Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts. This bill would ban trafficking in the kinds of weapons responsible for 9 of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in American history.
Research from Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun violence nonprofit, has found that:
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- Nine of the 10 deadliest U.S. mass shootings have been carried out with assault weapons, including the Las Vegas, Orlando, El Paso, Sutherland Springs, San Bernardino, Parkland, Dayton, and Uvalde shootings.
- Between 2009 and 2020, when assault weapons were used in a mass shooting, 6 times as many people were shot, twice as many people were killed, and 22 times as many people were wounded per incident on average, compared to mass shootings where assault weapons were not used.
- In shootings where assault weapons or high capacity magazines are used, 155% more people are shot, and 47% more people are killed.
- Assault weapons bans work: while the 1994 federal ban was in effect, gun massacres (defined as six or more people shot and killed) fell by 37%, and the number of people dying from gun massacres declined by 43%.
- Researchers estimate that if we still had a federal assault weapons ban, we would see 70% fewer mass shooting deaths.
