Public Comments for: HB489 - Fire Programs Fund; increases annual assessment used to fund.
Last Name: Cordeaux Locality: Newark

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Last Name: Spiro Locality: Hamburg Finkenwerder

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Last Name: Doe Locality: Virginia Beach

Please stop trying to make criminals of law abiding citizens who just want to protect themselves. Me and my partner have recently become firearm owners because of situations that have arisen in our day to day lives, such as harassment of my wife almost to the point of altercation, sketchy characters waiting in front of our door/ducking in and out of our bushes at all times of the night, people breaking into cars in the neighborhood etc (many times the police/security were called only to arrive 45mins to an hour later). with many of these nonsensical bills you condemn us to allowing any possible violence to happen to us without a chance of defending our selves. Instead of helping fix the problem, you seek to make criminals out of any Virginian who has followed the law and legal purchased a firearm. Shame on you. I am Virginian native and since I was 18 I voted leaning blue in local and state elections you all are making me think this was a mistake. I am not proud of Virginia “progressives” who would rather strip my wife of her chance and right to defend her self rather than try to address the root of crime. Don’t make law abiding people criminals. Do some actual work and address the criminals! 2 of the proposed bills would make in illegal to bring your concealed firearm into a restaurant and another makes it a crime to have the firearm in your vehicle…. Like really? This is literally just to fill jails and strip people of their rights.

Last Name: Devich Locality: Purcellville

The 2nd amendment states "shall not be infringed". All of these bills are infringement and are therefore unconstitutional. Should we pass laws that people must pass a test before they can have freedom of speech? What about pass a test before you can vote? What about if someone does not have training they will be slaves again? Name one other right outlined in the constitution where a citizen has to jump through hoops before they can use that right? I oppose all of these bills as they will do more harm than good. I can understand wanting to keep people safe but gun control does the opposite. These bills will only make it harder for law abiding citizens to exercise their rights while criminals will still ignore the law. Criminals will still get illegal guns or weapons and will commit more crimes since they know the public is unable to defend themselves. Benjamin Franklin once said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." You writing bills saying "give up your rights and guns and we will protect you". Well ask the Native Americans how that worked out for them. Ask a Jewish person who was under Nazi control how that worked out for them. Well Hitler's first step was to take away the guns from the public so they could not protect themselves and over 6 million people lost their lives. Since you do not know history you are writing bills which will doom us to repeat it. You know 75 years ago when you could just buy a gun in a catalog and it was shipped to your house we did not have this issue. In the 60s and 70s when people would have a gun in their truck at school or take one in for show and tell we did not have a gun issue. This is a mental health issue. Deal with mental health and you will fix the public safety issue. Zero of my guns have killed people because guns do not kill people. People kill people. Look at Ukraine and Israel for just one form of example why we need LESS gun control. All of these gun laws are unconstitutional and should be thrown out. Do the right thing and let us law abiding citizens have their rights as outlined in the constitution. Do not pass laws which infringe on our rights. If the 2nd amendment falls, the 1st will follow . When the 1st and 2nd fall the 13th will fall and our country will be lost and we will be back in chains.

Last Name: Lopez Locality: Virginia Beach

I strongly, along with many fellow Virginians oppose any villainous disarmament bills disguised as "public safety". The second amendment clearly states "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED" and out of touch elitist politicians who enjoy the luxury of armed security are choosing to ignore the constitution and force us to rely on sub-par police protection. The same people who want to defund the police want to disarm us. Embracing the second amendment is what is keeping our crime rates low compared to New York and California. We have seen the blatant disregard that criminals have for these so-called laws; emboldened criminals who are not afraid of the consequences and innocent law-abiding people who are forced to live in fear because a bunch of tyrants are letting power corrupt them. I do not want to live in fear and neither do the rest of us. In addition; a lot of counties and cities have declared themselves as second amendment sanctuaries to protect the rights of free individuals from the overreach of tyrannical politicians. These bills are a Trojan horse that will lead to more crime. You anti-gun politicians should be ashamed of yourselves; give up your private security and train yourselves. Then you will change your minds; because in the end, nobody is coming to save you. I would rather have a fighting chance against armed assailants than die waiting for help to arrive. These bills are pure evil

Last Name: Rust Locality: Chesterfield

I oppose all these unconstitutional, dangerous, and pointless laws.

Last Name: Bowman Locality: Alexandria

Alexandria is a vibrant city based on history, culture, a waterfront and lots of tourism. If Virginia has money and space to build an arena then you have money and space to build new schools. Our school system is deplorable. It’s overcrowded. Think of your citizens before thinking about your quick money grab that eventually leads to an inevitable loss. We don’t want or need an arena. This is pure greed.

Last Name: Pahuja Organization: Virginia Moms for Change Locality: Henrico

I am a member of Virginia Moms for Change, a gun violence prevention group, and I support the following bills: HB1174, HB1181, HB1195, HB12, HB1424, HB1462, HB158, HB175, HB183, HB23, HB270, HB318, HB319, HB351, HB362, HB585, HB602, HB637, HB791, HB797, HB798, HB799, HB861, HB916, & HB945 I am a member of Virginia Moms for Change, a gun violence prevention group, and I oppose these bills: HB1030, HB1141, HB1198, HB1230, HB1235, HB1321, HB1325, HB1386, HB289, HB389, HB756, & HB872 Innocent children are dying on our watch. Please do something.

Last Name: Phillips Locality: North Chesterfield

The end of solitary confinement must be done My son was murdered in solitary confinement at Red Onion Prison in Pound Va on 1/3/22.

Last Name: Goodman Locality: Floyd

Our Constitution does not provide citizens with privileges. It establishes a government with checks and balances and specifically limits the governments ability to remove the rights of its people. In regards to the matter at hand, it specifically says the the government cannot place limitations on the right of a citizen to keep and bear arms. Before I get the typical response, I know you are already aware that the phrase "well regulated" specifically refers to an being trained and ready to bear said arms. The language at the time did not use the term "regulated" as we do with modern regulations. It has been proven in the courts repeatedly that the laws you are currently considering are unconstitutional. Of this I am sure you are already aware. By spending time and tax dollars discussing laws that you know to be unconstitutional, you are in fact wasting time and tax dollars that could be spent on productive issues. I can only assume your intent is to intentionally waste time, and force members of the firearms industry to waste money on legal fees defending the constitution you have sworn to uphold. Please consider actual data and actual facts when considering gun legislation. No data supports the claim the "assault weapon" bans actually reduce gun related crime. More guns are being purchased now than ever before, yet now that the latest FBI data has been released, we can see that gun related crimes have not increased. Also, like every year that the FBI has released data, so called "assault weapons" make up a very small portion of all gun crimes. For your general knowledge the term "assault weapon" was first coined by Adolf Hitler. He renamed one of their new automatic firearms, the Sturmgewehr, because he felt that the name "assault weapon" would strike fear in allied forces. This is also the exact reason the gun control community uses this term as well. The fact is that these firearms are not fully automatic and cannot be made so without a high degree of machining skills and mechanical knowhow. Plus doing so is already illegal. The fact is the Biden's latest gun control act has not been equally enforced. It was supposed to provide additional support for school security and mental health services. It was supposed to provide stronger punishments for those cought breaking existing gun laws. It was supposed to allow FFL's to use the NICS system to check employees. It was supposed to allow FFL's to be able to instantly check inventory or potential purchase/trades by their serial number to determine if the firearm has been stolen or used in any crimes. None of these provisions have been acted upon or enforced. Please drop these latest gun control bills. They are unconstitutional and will never pass. Please do not waste your time and our tax dollars on these wasted efforts. Regards, Jonathan Goodman

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