General Assembly Hard At Work

It seems like every year, state legislators work very hard to pass more laws, criminalizing and regulating even more behavior than the previous year.  Indeed, wouldn’t it make sense for us to ask our legislators how many bad laws they managed to repeal this session? Unfortunately, that is not how our political system works.

All that being said, some laws are simply honest attempts to fix other laws that have proven ineffective or have had unintended consequences for the public after they were enacted.
Since the actions of the General Assembly will undoubtedly affect our lives here in Fairfax County, here is a small list of some of the more interesting laws being considered this session.

SB 786, introduced by Democratic Sen. Dave Marsden of Burke, would impose a $250 civil fine for failing to report to law enforcement that a firearm he or she lawfully possesses is lost or stolen.

Another gun law to watch for is SB911, which was introduced by Sen. Janet Howell of Reston. This proposed law would require criminal background checks for any firearms sold at gun show events, even ones that are sold by a non-licensed vendor outside the ordinary course of business.
These look like the token gun control legislation that Democrats try to push through every year.  While its outlook remains doubtful, the Newtown shooting event may make measures like these more attractive in the public eye. 

Meanwhile HB1357 introduced by Tom Rust of Herndon would make texting while driving a primary offense.  Currently, the secondary nature of this offense means that the police cannot pull you over if they see you texting in your vehicle.  However, if they pull you over for speeding, they can charge you with the additional offense of texting.  With the new law, the Police will be able to make a traffic stop and fine you for texting if they see it while patrolling around.