VCDL President Phillip Van Cleave writes:

Uncork the champagne and prepare to celebrate the BEST year for gun owners in Virginia since 1995! Your hard work, countless emails and phone calls have moved mountains!

Governor Warner has signed every gun bill that came to his desk, except one (SB326 - a cleanup bill). SB326 had an extremely minor wording change and I expect it to be approved by the House and Senate and passed into law next week.

The magnitude of this victory for gun owners in Virginia is staggering and I am proud that VCDL led the way by drafting some of the key bills and by supporting all of the pro-gun initiatives.

The main changes to VA law effective 7/1/2004 are:

* Full preemption for everyone including non-permit holders. No more city pistol purchase permits, park bans, etc. Virginia will now have one set of statewide, consistent gun laws! This bill was put in at VCDL's request. Thank you Delegates Cole and Hogan!

* No more county pistol permits or waiting periods (congratulations Fairfax and Arlington!) This bill was put in at VCDL's request. Thank you Delegate Cole!

* No one-gun-a-month for permit holders or curio and relic collectors. Thank you Delegate Janis!

* More states will recognize Virginia permits and Virginia will recognize more permits from other states - including two we just recently stopped recognizing - AZ and ID! Thank you delegates Athey and Abbitt (Abbitt put in VCDL's version).

* Non-residents can apply for Virginia permits

* If there is a delay in issuing a permit, you will be automatically given a 90 day temporary permit.

* You will be able to buy long guns in any other state that allows such a purchase and gun owners from other states can by long guns here.

* If you are denied a permit, the court must tell you why and what you can do to appeal it.

The one downside was SB660, the airport terminal ban, was also signed into law. We will work to correct all the problems in that bill next year.

One more item I was holding until HB530 was signed into law is that a enormous (1,000 table) gun show is coming to Northern Virginia! C&E Gun shows, who does the huge 600 table Richmond gun show at the Show Place, is going to host the new show in Fairfax county, The show is scheduled for July 31st through August 1st at the Dulles Expo Center.

For more information, click here:

http://www.cegunshows.com/dulles_ad.htm

As a Northern Virginia resident, I can hardly wait for the gun show. I'm also obviously thrilled about the one gun a month exemption and no more pistol permits.