TYSONS CORNER, VA - NOVEMBER 5: Virginia Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe (D), during an election night event, November 5, 2013 in Tysons Corner, VA. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

A TTAG tipster sent us a copy of Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s Executive Action to Prevent Gun Violence. Click here to read. Citing the thoroughly debunked “private gun sales loophole” 40 percent stat, McAuliffe’s EA 50 establishes a joint task force to prosecute gun crimes with a wide remit (“identify those areas within our regulatory system that significantly hamper law enforcement’s ability to effectively pursue illegal transfers of weapons”) and evokes unspecified legal powers for the Governor (“I reserve the right to initiate any other legal proceedings that may be necessary to protect the citizens of the Commonwealth from illegal firearms sales”). But wait! There’s more . . .

EA 50 creates a reward-based “tip line” to rat out firearms offenders; mandates a trace on all firearms used in a crime, encourages judges and prosecutors to confiscate more guns where the confiscating’s good, and bans open carry in all state government buildings (“prevention requires us to address areas of concern before they are realized”). It also directs the legislature to “propose regulations to ban the carrying of concealed weapons in offices occupied by executive branch agencies.” Effective immediately.

[h/t HW]

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79 COMMENTS

    • Elections, and propositions.

      This in today from Firearms Policy Coalition:

      “California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing a 2016 ballot initiative that would ask [CA] voters to strengthen the state’s gun laws by restricting ammunition sales, requiring owners to turn in assault-style magazines that have a large capacity and requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen guns to law enforcement.

      “If adopted, the proposal Newsom planned to release Thursday [October 15] would make California the first state in the nation to require background checks at the point of sale for ammunition, although other states require purchasers to obtain licenses and go through background checks ahead of time.

      “The proposal was drafted by Newsom, a candidate for California governor in 2018, and sponsored by the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

      “The reported ballot initiative would, if passed, make numerous changes to state law, including:
      -Require that gun owners with [grandfathered] “large capacity magazines” sell them, take them out of state, or turn them in to law enforcement to be destroyed.

      – Require background checks for all ammunition purchases and that dealers acquire an ammunition sales permit. Retailers also would be required to report lost or stolen ammunition.

      – Require that all lost or stolen firearms be reported to law enforcement.”

      I can already smell the anti-gun industrial complex billionaire dollars paying for billboards and on air advertising to promote this initiative. No doubt the Hollywood elite airheads will want to be included in the push, too.

      • Hmm, beat me to it. I just sent this along to Robert. This proposal would ban internet sales of ammunition, for one, and with the added cost of a background check for each and every purchase, make the cost of ammo unconscionably high. (Currently, California charges $25 for a background check in connection with a firearm purchase.) To make matters even more worse, the DOJ claimed (in an action attacking the ten day wait for persons who already own guns that was held unconstitutional in the trial court, appeal pending), that it does not have sufficient manpower and computer hardware to process BCs any faster than it currently does. Adding in ammo BCs would cause the system to collapse under the work load, bringing arms sales to a halt, or at least a very slow march.

        Now let’s add to the misery. Newsome, a former mayor of San Francisco, is the presumptive front runner for the governor’s seat when Brown terms out, especially since the other person who’d declared an interest, former SF City Attorney and current AG Kamala Harris, has announced a run for Barbara Boxer’s soon to be vacated Senate seat. Both are rabidly anti-gun. Foaming at the mouth rabidly anti-gun.

        I really don’t understand his proposal with gong after the guns possessed by prohibited persons. As it is , the California DROS system–which is supposed to set the fee at cost–generates a surplus of about $6 per transaction, money that, instead of returning to buyers, the Legislature in its infinite wisdom gave to the DOJ to pursue recoveries of such weapons. So this is just an example of making what is illegal illegaler.

        • I’ve said it before. There is no need to ban guns, all they need to do is make ammo too expensive or hard to get.
          Easily done by taxation or outright bans. Ammo is not protected by 2A.

        • As you know, this proposition is far worse than the original de Leon authored AB 962 signed by Schwarzenegger requiring face to face ‘handgun’ ammunition sales (which was found and so far upheld as unconstitutional in Parker v. California).

          This proposal is so onerous as to disrupt ammunition sales completely with the convenient excuse that background checks will require lengthy delays. I don’t doubt there will be quantity limits on ammo purchases, as well, making it even harder for Joe or Josephine citizen to shoot with any regularity. Plus the simple heavy inconvenience put on consumers and sellers just to complete a simple purchase/sales transaction.

          And law suits to challenge the Proposition if it passes; bring ‘em. One of the antis’ strategies is to drain pro-gun organizations’ coffers. A ray of hope might be early injunctive relief because of likely success on the Constitutional infringement argument, but that’s iffy in this state and ya’ still gotta pay. As for the little guy – the individual law abiding gun owners; they hardly stand a chance from state infringement, shallow pockets and all.

          Prohibited persons; CA of course has already had that and DOJ under Harris last year, with the help of state legislature anti-gun politicians, raided the DROS funding to expand enforcement. My take; Newsome wants to lock in generous budgetary funding for APPS and expand prohibited person enforcement, maybe into other firearm law enforcement areas.

          With the Democrats controlling the state legislature Newsome will no doubt attempt further inroads into firearm ownership restrictions if he (as he likely will) wins the Governorship. He will do whatever he can to infringe on Californians’ protected right to keep and bear arms, any way he can.

          Statist enforced utopia ‘n all.

        • “it does not have sufficient manpower and computer hardware to process BCs any faster than it currently does. Adding in ammo BCs would cause the system to collapse under the work load, bringing arms sales to a halt, or at least a very slow march.”

          Its not a BUG, its a FEATURE…..

      • It’s now WAAAY past time for firearms and ammunition manufacturers to follow the lead established by Ronnie Barrett by refusing to sell a single gun or a single round of ammunition to Kalifornica LEOs….until those LEOs stand up to the Loony Liberal Leftist Gun Grabbers/Gun Haters; telling them to “Back off!…the 2nd Amendment means EXACTLY what it says: ‘The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms Shall NOT Be Infringed’.”

    • Retired Para wrote: ” This is why elections matter!!!!”

      This is why we need to be careful who we vote for. Be pragmatic about it, not just ideological. I’ll explain.

      In the VA Governors election, McAuliffe got 48% of the vote, his Republican challenger got 45%, and a Libertarian got 7%. Notice that the vote against McAuliffe was 52%; the majority voted against him. A wealthy Democrat contributed several million dollars towards the Libertarian’s campaign, in a blatant attempt to split the voters against McAuliffe, and he succeeded. (When asked about his contribution, he said that was why he did it.) If even half of those who voted on ideological principle had been more pragmatic (had voted for the Republican candidate who had some chance of winning), then McAuliffe would have been defeated. McAuliffe got more votes than the Republican, because the right could not stick together and support one candidate. McAuliffe did not win that election, the right gave the election to him.

      Yes, your votes matter, and if you vote stupidly you should expect a stupid result. It always makes more sense to vote for a candidate who can win. Splitting a voting bloc among two or three candidates always allows the other side to win, and is that better than some “protest vote”?

      • Well said. I heard the late, great conservative thinker William F. Buckley Jr. speak in Norfolk years ago. He said of third parties: “The only intelligent vote for a thinking conservative is for the most conservative candidate WHO HAS A GOOD CHANCE OF WINNING.” I think you could substitute something about being pro-gun for “conservative.”

        I see people in gun discussions online say they’d never vote for some candidate because that candidate might have made one or two statements that were not 100% pro-2A. But really, are you going to let Bernie or Hillary win over that?

      • To be clear, its the voting system itself that forces that kind of strategic voting crap. As a libertarian I would never vote for any other party (I’m in Canada/ am Canadian). That said, both our countries need to move to a different system of voting otherwise this crap will continue.

        They’re talking about going to a proportional system here in Canada but I’m skeptical it will happen. Our newly elected liberal gov would lose seats and their majority under a proportional system.

  3. I just love it when politicians support their constituency by totally ignoring them.

    Wait, no I don’t.

  5. This is what comes of electing a Democrat.

    If I remember correctly, the Virginia legislature is Republican-majority…hopefully they’ll tell him to stick his legislative directive back into the stinky orifice from which it came (and maybe he can park his head there while he’s at it).

      • The same crowd that is saying Bernie is totally down with Second Amendment. Democrats and Socialists abhor your gun rights. They will strip you of everything they can and in some cases even things they cannot.

      • Not that there are no differences, that the differences aren’t as simple as R vs D. There’s no shortage of Republicans that have sold 2A rights down the river.

      • EXECUTIVE ACTION Chip . Way too easy. The only way to stop all these constitutional overrides with EA is if Republican Governors start doing their own EA, as in abolishing unions , dissolving welfare , ignoring ACA mandates , instituting mandatory carry laws , forbidding NSA intrusion into their states , enforcing immigration laws and anything else they deem to be unconstitutional .

      • Taken as a whole, there really is not an appreciable difference. The devil is in the minute details.

    • Cuccineli, who ran against McAuliffe and lost, had already shown through his actions as attorney general that he was truly anti-gun, despite his protestations to the contrary. While his tenure in the general assembly was generally good, he voted the right way most of the time, he was weak on introducing legislation that didn’t fit his narrow world view, and especially weak introducing gun legislation. his stint as AG started off bad by breaking his promise not to defend GMU’s gun ban. He followed it up with a few “questionable” AG opinions.

      So yeah, a Clintonite was able to exercise some bad judgment over the executive branch agencies. We’ll recover.

        • Cuccinelli is far from weak on guns. He took several actions to expand gun rights. This is typical behavior of an true extemist. If a person is not with them 100% then they are on his side.

        • @tdiinva; perhaps not an “extremist”, just one of those “pro-gun Democrats” rationalizing again.

    • Yes, the VA legislature enjoys a Republican majority, which has told McAuliffe to go piss up a rope quite a few times.

  6. “I reserve the right to initiate any other legal proceedings that may be necessary to protect the citizens of the Commonwealth…”

    the scariest part.

  7. Can you say “Recall” ? We ousted ours, but got worse as a temp replacement. Come next November, God willing we all make it that far, there had better be some change, all over this country.

    Good luck from Oregon.

    • Can we recall and dissolve VA?

      McAuliffe is a pro-a_ _ -munch, but he’s only marginally as a_ _ -munch as the ‘people’ of VA that have provided us this human
      p o o p s t a I n.

      FUVA

        • NOTE: VA governors are indeed limited to two terms, but the must be served NON-CONSECUTIVELY.

          So we have a “new” governor every four years.

  9. We have this idiot as governor only because of Northern Virginia liberals and minorities in our eastern large cities. Virginia is very red except for blue dots in about 5 spots in the entire state. However, that is where many people live and his machine can stuff the ballot boxes.

    • I’m a Virginia minority citizen. Born and raised and living in VA all my life.

      What the hell did I do on account of my ethnicity to contribute to this?
      Did I vote for him after he carpetbagged his way in with Clinton popularity? I certainly didn’t.

      • Minorities generally vote for Democrats because Democrats promise them free things out of the public treasury. Statistics bears this out. There are always exceptions, such as yourself. Don’t take it personally.

        • We do take it personally. Ken blamed “liberals and minorities.” So I guess a conservative or independent minority member (like Bobing and myself) is equally culpable as any liberal voter.

          Don’t blame “minorities” if you want more on your side.

        • I too am a minority Virginian, from inner Northern Virginia at that, and this sort of rhetoric does not help anything. There are many minorities, and many people in Northern Virginia, who not looking for a government handout, and are strong supporters of the Second Amendment. You can say we shouldn’t take offense, but it’s hard not to when you are being painted with a broad brush as part of the problem. Many people in the DC area live in VA instead of Maryland or the District because of gun rights. If you go to a VCDL lobby day, you will see plenty of minorities and many, many Northern Virginians, maybe more than half. Making gun rights a racial issue or a regional issue just weakens our side and plays into the hands of the antis.

        • Don’t blame “minorities” if you want more on your side.

          People who blame minorities don’t want more on their side.

    • I think ethnicity has much less to do with it than urban vs. suburban/rural. Look at Cal, NY, Oregon, FLA, etc. Big cities lean toward the left and outside the city to the right. I think it is because the city teaches you to be dependent on the government and others, where as the suburbs and (especially) rural areas tend to teach you self reliance. In the city you have an apartment in a building and you depend on the super to fix stuff, the doorman to keep people out, bus to get you around, and on and on. Outside the city I have my house, I fix my own problems, I protect my own house and property, I drive myself around.

    • Sorry, Ted Cruz put McAuliffe in the state house with his government shutdown antics. The shutdown buried Cuccinelli’s campaign. When it all ended Cuccinelli came withn the third party margin. That is a major reason why Ted Cruz is not my perfered chouce even though I agree with him on policy.

  10. All these Democrats spouting tolerance and COEXIST bumper stickers. They sure aren’t tolerant when it comes to civilian gun ownership.

    • Robert, I think that you and Nick may need to trace this guy’s IP addresses a little closer.

      I’ve seen various similar posts by this “Stoopid” fella, and I’d bet dollars to doughnuts it comes back to a Bloomberg-affiliated server or website, or at least is associated with various left-wing causes. This troll apparently thinks that posting threats online and then attempting to hide behind plausible deniability demonizes conservatives in general and gun owners in particular; with the side bonus of making him feel better about himself.

      Of course, he could cure his own problem quite effectively by turning his weapon around 180 degrees.

      Tom

      • No “Bloomberg affiliated” here.

        No threats have been posted.

        What were the founding Fathers called?

        • The problem with your one bullet suggestion is that first Terry has to feel remorse over being the biggest douchebag in the state before he even begins to contemplate eating a bullet. He’s obviously proud to be a douche, so don’t ever expect him to do the right thing by killing himself.

      • +1 with Tom–this certainly isn’t the first time the most appropriately screen-named troll has made similar, if not identical, comments.

    • Your chosen screen name fits you perfectly. There is no place for comments such as yours amongst rational individuals.

      • “rational individuals”

        The above thinking has lost us our Constitution rights.

        Suggest using more irrational.

  13. I wonder where Mr. McAuliffe got the idea that he is a king and therefore able decree that his wishes become law.

    These people are working very hard to crowd gun owners into a corner. It’s almost like they want something to happen.

    • Virginians need to find a sheriff with some backbone to arrest this guy when he comes through that county. Sheriff’s have that power. Of course, the Governor would get released, but it would make it a truly public case then, and his proverbial goose would be cooked.

  14. “I reserve the right to initiate…” So he just told the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia that he’s a dictator, that he no longer follows or waits for their elected representatives to make law, and that he will tell the citizenry what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Hey, Virginians, are y’all okay with that?

  15. California, CT, MD and now VA governors all kneeling before their Lord and Master Obama to receive their reward for following his orders.

  16. While I don’t want to see anyone dead, I’m going to laugh so hard if a mass shooting takes place inside a government building following this. Kind of like how Oregon banned the private sale of guns to “prevent mass shootings” a few months before the shooting at community college.

  17. From what I read the FIRST part of this amendment should be the most concerning…

    I. Establish Joint Task Force to Prosecute Gun Crimes…the Task Force will put special emphasis on enforcing two key protections under the law:

    1.) That only licensed firearms dealers engage in the business of selling firearms.
    2.) That persons prohibited from owning firearms are prevented from obtaining them.

    I am all for preventing persons prohibited from owning firearms to have firearms, but putting special emphasis on having only FFL dealers engage in the business of selling firearms is the GATEWAY to limiting my freedoms as a law abiding citizen.

    For now, Virginia allows for relatively easy private sale of firearms this task force they are creating will no doubt be used to violate legal gun owners rights. Most all of my firearms were obtained through private sale because it makes more sense than paying $50-$100 more than I should for a gun through and FFL. At the same time I have never sold or traded a firearms to someone who 1. is not a current VA resident 2. does not has a current VA drivers license 3. DOES NOT HAVE A CURRENT CCP and 4. is not willing to fill out a basic bill of sale.

    If we aren’t vigilant as law abiding, gun owning citizens, we will find ourselves in more trouble than we want, especially with a new hotline for uninformed people to call the police on us when we decide to make a perfectly legal gun sale in the public (safe) parking lot…

    • This just a guess but I think this is aimed at straw purchases. 2 years ago VA went back to being able to purchase as many handguns as your wallet would allow you from 1 per month unless you had your conceal carry. I could see this targeting the people who are making straw purchases and then those receiving the pistols haul out of state.

      The area of concern will be the word “business” will they define it a dollar amount or number what metric they use to define business.

      • Even if the surface (or original) intent of this executive action is to prevent the illegal straw purchase of firearms, I think it is a short step down a slippery slope to make it illegal for private sales down the road.

    • What Jack has mentioned is already the case here in Kalifornia. No private sales without FFL’s as the middleman so they can keep their BS gun owner database all correct and collect their fees.

  18. “EA 50 creates a reward-based “tip line” to rat out firearms offenders;”

    I can easily see this in places like New York and Connecticut requiring registration of AR platform firearms that had estimated 90 percent non-compliance.

    Got a jerk at work that pisses you off? Ex-wife? dumbass neighbor?

    Snitch them out and get a cash reward!

  19. This is weak sauce. The Virginia governor has little independent executive power. He cannot redefine private sales that are define as private in statute. This is the very definition. of security theater.

    I support the idea of going after straw purchaers. I always thought Bloomberg should have been prosecured when hired detectives to buy guns at Virginia gun shows.

  20. Thank god our Commonwealth is safe now! I await the disarming of the Virginia State Police on our Capitol grounds.

    What a first-class embarrassment. From now on I’m going to tell people I’m New Mexico. 😐

  21. We don’t need to blame democrats in Northern VA for McAuliffe.

    Blame the 146,000 people (6.5 % of all votes cast) who voted for the Libertarian candidate. Switch some of those over and Cuccunelli wins. I have many libertarian positions, but I can’t understand making a “throw away vote” with such consequences. Liberals have taken the wrong lessons from the 2013 VA governors race. Yes, the increasingly liberal Northern VA precincts help them. But a majority of Virginians voted for a right wing candidate. The real lesson for liberals is that their opponents can’t get their heads on straight.

  22. he is a Clintonite. I ask if they can account for his whereabouts when Vince Foster purportedly killed himself. just saying

  23. I’m quite weary to hear the words, “executive action.” I used to see this as a good thing, now i see it as egregious.

    I predict at some point in the future, whether ammo or firearms or both, an “action” or law will be passed by a State and the SHTF, sending it to SCOTUS where we will see a more firmly reminder of their previous decisions and or even visit the Dick Act. When this occurs the door will be slammed in the face of the anti-2A movement, forcing them to seek another subject to bash.

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