Criminal gun laws in Virginia
Afternoon Facebook attorney Tim Anderson here on every Tuesday at two o'clock. We typically do the Anderson Law Power Hour. We didn't do it this Tuesday because that was Christmas Eve and we're not going to do it next Tuesday. I'm not going to spend an entire hour on this, but I did want to give everyone a basic background of the criminal laws that currently apply in Virginia. Not subject to the new laws, but just the current laws that are in Virginia that you may not know about. There are more than 50 criminal gun laws in Virginia, and I wanted to spend a little bit of time going through the ones that you may find that you've never heard of, just so you understand them. Understand what the law currently is in Virginia. We haven't done this in a while. I think it's a good time to do it.
Firearm into a church
Alright, 18.2 dash 2 83 of the Code of Virginia. Oh, by the way, you can go to Google and when I say 18.2 dash 2 83 you can go to Google and you can type that into Google and put Code of Virginia after it and it will pop up the code for you. Alright, so that's a quirky one we've been trying to get rid of for a long time. Basically it is a misdemeanor to carry a firearm into a church while a religious meeting is taking place. Now, most pastors that allow guns in churches tell their congregates that they have waived that. But whether or not you can legally carry a firearm in your church under Virginia law could be a misdemeanor. You should be kind of aware of that. It's kind of a silly law. I'm not aware of anyone ever being prosecuted under it. But basically the rule is if you carry a gun into a church and you don't have permission from the pastor to do it or the board of the church, then that could be a misdemeanor, clearly misdemeanor to carry a gun into a courthouse.
Gun into an Airport
That's a class one misdemeanor. Also class one misdemeanor to carry a gun into an airport that is also a class one misdemeanor. I was just at Norfolk Airport a couple days ago and I saw somebody getting arrested at TSA and they're likely because they suspect had some kind of a prohibited weapon in their bag. They would typically be charged under 18.2 dash 2 87 0.01, which is a class one misdemeanor. Now, Virginia misdemeanors are either punishable by class one misdemeanors or punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. So as I'm saying class one misdemeanors, these are jailable offenses. Class two misdemeanors are jailable offenses. Class three and class four misdemeanors are fines only. And of course the felonies that we're about to get into are felonies and those carry possible prison time. Now there's a lot of laws dealing with sought off shotguns and possessions of machine guns. Those are all really relative to this conversation. Most people don't have those. I'm not going to spend a lot of time. It is a misdemeanor for a minor to possess a.
Handgun possession by children
So if your 17-year-old has a handgun without being in the presence of the parent, that is a class one misdemeanor to the minor for possessing that. So your children should not be possessing a handgun and it also is a misdemeanor for them to possess an assault rifle or an assault firearm. And that is defined in the code as well. So they're not allowed to possess 'em. It doesn't mean they can't shoot them with a parent. They're just not allowed to transport them or possess them outside of their parents' purview. Non-citizens can't own guns. Those are misdemeanors and felonies. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that. If you get a protective order issued against you, you have 24 hours to divest yourself of all of your firearms until that protective order is dissolved. So if you get served with a protective order, you have 24 hours from that moment to get rid of your firearms by either transferring them to a family member or a friend or getting them stored in a location that you don't have access to until that protective order has been removed or dissolved felons in possessions of firearms.
Felony
That's a felony. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that. Have a firearm while you are possessing drugs. That's a felony. Again, I'm not going to spend a lot of time. Most people that are watching this are not criminals. So I'm not going to spend a lot of the time on that. Now, theft of a firearm is a felony. So if somebody steals your gun, that is a felony regardless of how much the gun is worth, that is a class five felony. That's 18.2 dash 95, section three of that code section. It's also a felony to receive a stolen gun. So if you have a firearm that you receive that is stolen, that is a felony, it's a misdemeanor to alter the serial number off of a firearm, that would be like filing off the serial number. That would be a misdemeanor.
Alright? Reckless operation of a firearm. That is a misdemeanor under Virginia that most commonly in Virginia is somebody who would shoot a gun in the air to maybe try to stop a fight or to do something dangerous with a firearm that would possibly result in life limb or property damage, serious injury to somebody else. So it's a misdemeanor. If it is just a property issue, it's a felony if it results in serious bodily injury to somebody else. So if you shoot a gun in the air, nothing happens. That could still be a felony, but more than likely it would be just a misdemeanor. But if that bullet comes down and hits somebody, then that would certainly
Be a felony. Brandishing a firearm misdemeanor, that means pointing a gun at somebody not in self-defense. That would be a misdemeanor. That is 18.2 dash 2 82. Alright, concealed carry. So it's a crime to conceal carry in Virginia unless you have a permit. If you get convicted, two times of carrying concealed without a permit that becomes a felony and a third offense can result in a ban of you being able to own a firearm for life. Alright? All right. If you can carry a firearm while under the influence of alcohol, that's a misdemeanor. So the question is, what is under the influence of alcohol? A sip of wine clearly is not under the influence, but there's no standard in Virginia like there is with DUIs. So if it's like 0.08 for DUIs, it doesn't work like that on the concealed carry. So under the evidence is subjective and that is a misdemeanor.
Alright? Again, these are all restricted ammunitions and sought off shotguns. It is to discharge a firearm in public. That's a class one misdemeanor. So that's a big one. There was a recently a guy who shot his dying dog in his garage. The dog was dying and he shot him in his garage in Virginia Beach and that is a crime under Virginia law to discharge a firearm in public. He did it actually, I think he did it actually on the beach. And because of that, that would be a crime to do so under the Virginia Code, 18.2 dash two 80 on that one felony to discharge a firearm within a thousand feet of a school ground. That is kind of a dangerous thing because that could be, there are the school grounds also include the baseball fields. It's not just the building. So you do have to understand where the school property is.
And a lot of schools, certainly in the rural areas are located near people's land. You do have to understand that you have to be a thousand feet away from school grounds if you are discharging a firearm, including the outer territory of the school. Shooting at a occupied vehicle is a class four felony, clearly shooting at a police officer or law enforcement emergency. That's a felony. Obviously those are common. If you discharge a firearm from a vehicle that is a felony. So if you're driving down the road and you shoot somebody's tire or something like that, that would be a felony under Virginia Law 18.2 dash 2 79.
Misdemeanor
Alright, so carrying a firearm in public concealed while consuming alcohol is a misdemeanor currently. So if you have your firearm concealed, you are in public and you take a sip of wine at the wine fest, that would be a misdemeanor under the law, even if you're not intoxicated. So you do have to keep that in mind. That's 18.2 dash 3 0 8 2. Keep that in mind. I talked about this in my last video. Recklessly Leaving a loaded firearm is a class three misdemeanor. If you leave it in such a way that a minor under the age of 14 could get to it, if you allow a firearm, a child to use a firearm without adult supervision, that is a misdemeanor. So the rule on that is under 12. So if your kid uses that gun without supervision, that would be a misdemeanor. If they are under 12, now if they are 14 or 15 currently, they can go out and hunt with you. They could go out into the woods and they could shoot the gun without you necessarily being right by their side. That would not be a violation of that code section. Now, that probably is going to change in this new legislative session, but as it is right now, that is not going to change.
Giving a firearm to an ineligible person
Possession of firearm, giving a firearm to an ineligible person, that's a crime. So if you have somebody who has a domestic violence conviction and you give them a gun, you can be charged even Facebook with a crime on that. That is 18.2 dash 3 0 8 2 2 subsection M. Giving a firearm to somebody who's undocumented in an illegal would be a crime under Virginia law. That's also a federal problem as well. And one other one that you probably didn't know about is if you transfer a firearm to a person who's prohibited, that is in and of itself just giving them that gun. So if you buy your brother a gun and he's a felon, you can get criminally charged with that, giving it to 'em or selling it to him or anything like that if you knew that he was prohibited when you did it. Now, Virginia also has something called the Three Strikes Rule. If you commit three weapon violations in Virginia, then it becomes a felony. That is 18.2 dash 3 11 2.
And those are the current laws that we currently have, the criminal laws in Virginia. Hope that helps, and I know I went pretty fast through that, but you can go back and watch this at a slower speed. I wanted to get that out there so that you had it. You understood what the current laws are as we're comparing the new laws. I hope you have a great day Facebook, and I know a lot of you're kind of upset about my previous video. Just keep in mind, those are my opinions. I'm still going to give you the law as I see it. I'm going to break it down. You don't have to agree with me on everything. I'm going to do my best to tell you what's going on in Richmond and I hope that you'll still find that to be valuable. And for that, have a great day and we will see you the next time something popped up out of the House of Delegates or the Senate. Have a great day.
YouTube Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsh6S_xcrpM
Credit: Tim Anderson, Anderson Law
Wondering how to get a Carry permit in Virginia? check out our course for Virginia Carry Permit