Purchasing & Carrying Guns in VA

So a friend of mine asked me to post about what it takes to purchase a handgun and to legally carry it in Virginia.

So let's start with the rules for gun ownership in general. The NRA maintains an exellent online matrix of gun laws in all 50 states. Each state's gun laws are summarized there, and I do mean summarized, because the intricacies of gun related laws can be mind boggling. Since I live in Virginia, these are the laws that apply to me and most of my friends. Basically it boils down to this: there are no licensing requirements for purchasing firearms in the state of Virginia. This applies to all single shot, pump action, semi-auto, bolt action, etc rifles, shotguns, and handguns. Anything full-auto is heavily regulated by the Federal Government, and requires special FBI background check, licensing, and expensive fees in addition to the bloated prices for full-auto weaponry (usually just take the cost of whatever gun it is in semi-auto, and add a zero).

The Virginia Constitution is very clear about gun ownership & rights, even more so than the Federal one:

"That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state, therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power." Article 1, Section 13.

You can purchase a gun in Virginia at any gun store, pawn shop, or gun show as long as you meet several basic requirements. Those are: you have not committed & been convicted of any felony crimes. Misdemeanors are ok as long as they are not related to domestic abuse. If you ever commit and are convicted of a felony, you loose your right to own a gun and to vote, and I'm fine with that, as I think the two go hand in hand. Furthermore, you cannot buy a gun if you have ever been committed to a mental institution. When you purchase a gun, you have to fill out two questionaires that go through criminal history and other related topics. But, if you're a US citizen, have declared Virginia residency, and have no felonies or domestic abuse misdemeanors on your rap, then you're OK by Virginia law to buy a gun. After you fill out the paperwork, the licensed firearms dealer will then make a call to the state police where they will run a background check to make sure that you're telling the truth about not being a felon. If it's a busy day, like when there is a gun show going on somewhere in the state, the background check can take an hour or so, but usually the process takes less than five minutes.

Gun dealers are required to keep these records on hand for a period of months, after which they are destroyed, so that the Government could never go back and get a list of who owns what guns incase they decide they want to round up all the guns from all the gun owners. This is very wise. Remember kids, the purpose of the 2nd Ammendment is to remind our elected officials that they serve us, not the other way around.

Anyways, back to gun purchasing. Guns purchased from a pawn shop will be used, and sometimes you can get decent deals there. Guns purchased from licensed gun shops will be expensive, but new, and they often will do cool things like special orders for you if you know exactly the gun you want. The cheapest way to pickup a gun is at a gun show, where you have dozens or hundreds of merchants competing for your business. I've often seen the same gun at shows for a half dozen different prices.

In Virginia, there is a rule that you can only buy one handgun a month, with no limit on other types of firearms. This was created to prevent gun traffickers from buying up a dozen cheap handguns and selling them on the streets or running them up to NYC and doing the same. An added bonus to having a Conceal Carry Permit in Virginia is that this rule doesn't apply to you anymore, although it still might if you have a wife.

Oh yeah, people under 18 can't buy guns in Virginia, and firearms dealers can't sell guns to people who they think will then sell or give the gun to somebody under 18, unless it is a family member. Oh, and if you have a restraining order on you, you can't buy any guns either.

There is one caveat to all these legal loopholes however. There are very few restrictions placed upon sales between private individuals who are not selling firearms as a business. i.e. if I were to buy a gun, and I wanted to sell it to my friend Bob, I could legally do so, so long as to the best of my knowledge, that I knew that Bob was not a convicted felon. In Virginia, if you sell your gun to a convicted felon, and the guy commits a crime and is caught, and the police somehow trace this back to you, they can slam you with what's called a "Strawman Purchase". They are not kind in such situations, so don't even mess around with this.

When you purchase the gun, you must present two pieces of identification. One must have your picture, your name, and your current address on it. The other only needs to have your name and current address. I particularly like using my Drivers License along with my Voter Registration Card, but your Vehicle Registration will work too, as will any power bill in your name at your current address. Once I got my conceal carry permit, I was very happy to be able to use that as my 2nd form of ID (the gun store clerks look at you a little less suspicious).

So, let's say you've cleared the sane legal hurdles that we have in Virginia and have purchased a handgun and now you want to carry it. Good news! In Virginia, we have laws that make sense for those concerned about self defense. First of all, it is totally legal to openly carry a handgun on you at all times, except onto certain restricted areas. Those 'gun free' zones are places like schools, post offices, court houses, and churches. Furthermore, if any private business posts a 'no guns allowed' policy, you have to comply legally. These gun free zones apply to both conceal carry and open carry. Open carry means having a loaded handgun in a clearly visible holster on your belt. It must be clearly visible for it to be considered open carry. Now, while this might be legal, it isn't exactly advisable, although some gun rights activists do open carry all the time. Why isn't it advisable? Because people in our society aren't used to seeing armed people walking around. They get scared, and they call the cops, and then you get harrassed for doing something that is completely legal. So, this is why people opt to get conceal carry licenses.

A great resource for conceal carry info in any state is packing.org. It has state-by-state info and a forum where people can ask questions. Here is the page for the conceal carry laws of Virginia.

The basic process of getting a Conceal Carry Permit (abreviated to CCP) is fairly simple. You have to have written proof that you have completed a gun safety class. This can be any gun safety class, such as the one that's required of all hunters before they can get a hunting license, or one offered by the NRA. Most people however choose to take a class specifically tailored for concealed carry, and I highly recommend them. Most of these concealed carry classes do have a shooting proficiency requirement though. It's fairly basic, but it is not easy to complete with a short barrelled handgun or snub nosed revolver. If you're going to take one of these classes, either bring, borrow, or rent a gun that has a longer barrell than what you'll be carrying on you because the test will be much easier that way. Remember kids, a longer heavier barrel translates into increased accuracy. When I went to take my conceal carry course, one guy was smart enough to bring his match 22 caliber target pistol, and he effortlessly passed the test.

Once you've got that piece of paper that proves that you have completed a conceal carry course or gun safety class, you must take a copy of this to your local courthouse, along with some cash. I think the fee is something like $50. So, you fill out the paperwork, you pay the fee, and then you get fingerprinted. The Williamsburg couthouse where I had this done had an electronic fingerprint machine that digitally scanned in my prints, so I didn't even have to get ink on my fingers. Then the government does an extensive background check, and if you're not a felon or a stalker (see above) then they grant you a license. The government has up to 45 days to get this license to you, and sometimes they'll take 44 days. It just depends. Oh, and in Virginia, conceal carry is a 'shall issue' state, not a 'may issue'. There is a difference. In a 'shall issue' state, as long as you pass the background check and submit to the licensing and finger printing, they'll give you the permit. In 'may issue' states, you must prove to your local sherif that your life is in danger and you need to be armed. This is bullshit, because depending on the political views of your local sherif, he or she can deny you the ability to defend yourself. Maryland is such a state.

After you've completed your licensing requirements and received your license, you can now carry a concealed loaded handgun just about anywhere. Anyone interested in the fine details of where you can and cannot carry, refer to the packing.org links above. Note however that in Virginia, you cannot carry a concealed weapon legally into any restaurant that serves alcohol, but it's totally legal to carry it openly. Some people comply with this. Others go by the philosophy that a concealed weapon that is carried discretely will not attract attention to yourself, do so at your own discretion.

As far as how to conceal the gun, I think I'll save that for another post, as there is an entire artform to it.

Having a CCP is handy for a number of reasons. For one, it makes transporting your guns to and from the range easier to comply with legally, as the rules for carrying weapons in your car are rather byzantine; unless of course you have a CCP, in which case you can just carry it however you want. Now that I own an easily concealable & reliable revolver, I carry it with me every time I leave the house. If I'm going to work, and I'm taking a car, I'll usually leave the weapon in the vehicle while I'm at work. If I'm taking my motorcycle, I'll leave it in my motorcycle jacket; as I do not want to be noticed carrying a weapon around my place of employment. This does make me less safe, and in the very remote chance of a maniac lone gunman, I'd have no means of defending myself and the others around me at the time unless I'm near either my car or my motorcycle jacket, but it's a tradeoff I make in order to comply as best as I am willing with the rules of my employer. Although, with a small enough gun that is properly concealed, I have been known to leave it on me.

The biggest drawback to the CCP is that you are now a licensed gun owner. The government knows that you own at least one handgun, and if things ever got politically nasty for gun owners, the gun nazis would have a list of people to round up. The way I look at it, is that if things ever got that bad: (1) I'd move to another state, (2) or give up one of my guns while concealing the others, or (3) take the Jeffersonian approach, and remind my government that they can have my guns from my cold dead hands. Liberty is never free, and to paraphrase Jefferson, sometimes the tree of liberty must be watered by the blood of true patriots.

One more word of advice, if you do choose to buy a gun, I highly recommend picking up a copy of The Virginia Gun Owner's Guide. It covers everything I have mentioned, and it also covers things like when you can legally use the gun to defend yourself. Although, if you take a conceal carry course, they will most likely go over those legal situations where you are allowed to pull the trigger in order to protect your life or the lives of others. The Virginia court system has a decent track record for siding with people who used their firearms in defense of their lives or property, so you do have some legal history on your side if you ever had to pull the trigger, but you should only do so as an absolute last resort.

That said, it's very rare for a gun that is used in self defense to actually have to be fired. A few months ago, somebody on the Livejournal Guns community asked everyone to post if they had ever used their conceal carry weapon to prevent a crime or defend their lives. Amongst the dozens of posts, there was not one where the trigger actually had to be pulled. In all of these cases, just pulling out the gun was enough to end the crime. Now think about that. Most of these cases were never reported to the police, so they never turn up in government crime statistics.

So for those that are willing, I highly recommend going through the legal hoops of purchasing a handgun legally and obtaining a conceal carry permit. After all, the more honest law abiding citizens that are armed, the more criminals have to fear us, and therefor the less crime.