Is Open Carry Permitted in Virginia? By Old Town Lawyers
Anyone can possess a firearm in the state of Virginia if unless you have a felony conviction or have been involuntarily committed or have been convicted of a crime involving domestic violence. Now of course there are child safety issues regarding guns. So you can't hand a gun to a 4-year-old, for example, but it's very common in Virginia for children to go out hunting with their parents. So there is no 18 requirements. There is a requirement of being 18 to purchase a gun through a gun dealer, but other than that, you can possess a gun. You also can do what they call open carry. Open carry is permitted in Virginia, and that's so long as everybody can see that you have a gun. There's nothing to prevent you from being out and about with it. You can put a gun in a holster and walk into any store in the Commonwealth of Virginia, legally, not bars, not where they sell alcohol, but any other store you can walk in legally with a gun, the owner of private property.
Private establishment
So a private establishment can prohibit people from coming onto the premises with a gun. You see this sometimes in banks, for example, but that is simply based on their rights as being an owner of private property just like any owner could, A private property could say somebody couldn't come into their house if they had a gun. The real issue most of the time comes with concealed carry. You have to have a permit to carry a concealed firearm in Virginia, even if that's on your person in a purse under your jacket or in your car in a glove compartment. When to get a concealed carry permit, you basically have to take a firearm safety course and submit an application to the circuit court, and the circuit court can approve or deny it. Most of the time, unless you have a felony conviction, it will be approved. But there are some misdemeanors that can bar you from being able to get a concealed carry permit, such as substance abuse convictions. The other thing there seems to be confusion on, I've heard a lot of people talk about this idea of having a registered firearm. There is no firearms registry within the Commonwealth of Virginia. You're not reporting to anybody that you own a gun.
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Credit: Rebecca Wade, ESQ Old Town Lawyers
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