The Virginia attorney general has announced that the commonwealth will stop honoring concealed carry permits and licenses from 25 states. (Dave Workman photo)
By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
The Democrat Attorney General of Virginia has announced that starting Feb. 1, the commonwealth will stop honoring the concealed carry permits and licenses from 25 states on the grounds that those other states’ issuing guidelines do not meet the “requirements and qualifications” for recognition.
The announcement by Attorney General Mark R. Herring was immediately seen by Second Amendment activists as a blow to concealed carry reciprocity.
According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the decision came following an audit by his office and the State Police. This audit reportedly found that the states to be dropped from recognition “do not meet Virginia’s standards.”
This comes weeks after anti-gun Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe issued an executive order prohibiting open carry of firearms by private citizens in “executive branch agencies and government buildings.” The Times-Dispatch also recalled that McAuliffe “established a task force that includes the attorney general and will direct state resources toward gun prosecutions, ordered the Virginia State Police to create a tip line to let people collect rewards for reporting gun violations.”
The Washington Post reported that Virginia residents with criminal or mental histories cannot get carry permits in the commonwealth.
Delegate Robert Bell III, a Republican who has announced his intention to challenge Herring in 2017, called the move an “overreach from a nakedly partisan attorney general.”
“Instead of doing the job he was elected to do,” Bell told a reporter, “Mark Herring continues to put the political goals of his liberal supporters ahead of sound legal judgement.”
McAuliffe has an anti-gun record and he stepped up the rhetoric following the on-air assassination of two television news reporters earlier this year by a disgruntled former reporter for the same station. Even before the authorities had identified the killer, McAuliffe was talking about gun control and the need for background checks, which quickly became the focus of some ridicule because the gunman had legally purchased his gun and passed a background check.
The Richmond newspaper identified the affected states and noted which ones had already stopped recognizing Virginia permits. The states are:
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
Delaware #
Florida *
Idaho
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana *
Minnesota #
Mississippi
Montana
Nebraska
New Mexico
North Dakota *
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania *
South Carolina *
South Dakota
Tennessee
Washington #
Wisconsin #
Wyoming *
* States that no longer recognize Virginia permits because of laws in those states requiring mutual recognition (reciprocity).
# States that do not currently recognize a Virginia concealed handgun permit. (Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch).
