One gun per month

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Styx

Styx

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Are one gun per month, e.i., 12 guns per year, laws constitutional per case law?

My FFL allows for substantial discounts on multiple firearms that are transfered at one time, so I tend to wait and purchase 2 or 3 at a time to save $75-$100 or so in fees. I also tend to trade, sell, and buy several firearms per year. The new 30 law in VA that doesn't even make an exception for permit holders will decrease gun sales and profits for gun shops more so than I believe people realize.

What cases have gone through the courts and are there any working their way up the latter?
 
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Styx said:
Are one gun per month or 12 guns per year laws construction per case law?

My FFL allows for substantial discounts on multiple firearms that are transfered at one time, so I tend to wait and purchase 2 or 3 at a time to save $75-$100 or so in fees. I also tend to trade, sell, and buy several firearms per year. The new 30 law in VA that doesn't even make an exception for permit holders will decrease gun sales and profits for gun shops more so than I believe people realize.

What cases have gone through the courts and are there any working their way up the latter?
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i never even knew any such limits existed...i'm gonna watch this thread.
 
Styx said:
It exist in over a dozen states, and VA was recently added to the list.
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wow....something new i learned again on this site.

i was "thinking" about getting yet another semi-automatic, not sure if i wanna go Sig Saur, or Taurus this time.

but what ever i do decide, it has to be full sized.

best of my knowledge, my state does not have any such law regarding this.

where is this list, so i can look it up?

thanks in advance.
 
What matters is what the law in VA specifically says...

VA SB 69, as provided to the Governor to sign into law: https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB69

R. Except as provided in subdivisions 1 and 2, it shall be unlawful for any person who is not a licensed firearms dealer to purchase more than one handgun within any 30-day period. For the purposes of this subsection, "purchase" does not include the exchange or replacement of a handgun by a seller for a handgun purchased from such seller by the same person seeking the exchange or replacement within the 30-day period immediately preceding the date of exchange or replacement. A violation of this subsection is punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.
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Sounds to me like it's explicitly 1 handgun a month, not 12 handguns per year... so the timer would be based on the last purchase.

However...

Section 1 below "R" allows for an application to be made for multiple purchases, and Section 2 lists exemptions to the law, one of which is

h. A person who holds a valid Virginia permit to carry a concealed handgun;
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Private sales are also exempt from this legislation.
 
Whether VA or the other states with gun purchase limitations they all have one thing in common. They are statutory law not common or regulatory law. So the courts have nothing to do with them unless the law is challenged in court. I have read that these laws are difficult to overturn in court because the limit does not prevent someone from exercising the 2A Right because it does not prevent the rights to keep and bear arms and therefore fulfills the Constitutional intent of self defense.
 
pdsmith505 said:
What matters is what the law in VA specifically says...
Sounds to me like it's explicitly 1 handgun a month, not 12 handguns per year... so the timer would be based on the last purchase.
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1 per a month = 12 per year maximum.
 
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If you look at it another way you can buy 120 guns in 10 years. I do not like laws like the one gun a month law.
 
Styx said:
1 per a month = 12 per year maximum.
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Sure. But saying the law allows 12 purchases a year doesn't tell the whole story. If the law simply limited purchases to 12 handguns in any given year, you could buy all 12 in one day.

But that's not what the SB 69 does. SB 69 imposes a 30-day wait between subsequent gun purchases.


Styx said:
Are one gun per month or 12 guns per year laws construction per case law?
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Looking back on your post, I think you meant to type "constitutional" instead of "construction". Sorry I didn't catch that earlier.

Such laws have been around in one form or another in several states since 1975 starting in South Carolina, of all places.

In September 2015, the DC Circuit of Appeals struck down D.C. Code § 7-2502.03(e) (DC's one gun a month law, opinion here - https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/inter...69B85257EC400534ABB/$file/14-7071-1573768.pdf). The Court's discussion on the constitutionality of that particular statute begins on page 26 of the opinion, if you care to read it.

I can't seem to find any other published opinion on such laws from any other circuit.
 
pdsmith505 said:
Sure. But saying the law allows 12 purchases a year doesn't tell the whole story. If the law simply limited purchases to 12 handguns in any given year, you could buy all 12 in one year.
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I figured within context of my post and other one-gun-per-month laws, it was self explanatory that I was referring to the fact that they were putting a limit on the maximum number of firearms that could be purchased per year. That makes more sense, within context, than a law that would allow 12 guns purchased all at once as that would defeat the logic behind the one gun per month law....

Yes, it was an autocorrect typo, thank you. I meant constitutional.
 
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Remember that in Virginia we had a one-handgun-a-month limit for a number of years. It was eventually repealed, and this year it is being reinstated. I can tell you, as a gun collector who lived under this system, it didn't amount to a hill of beans. I don't recall ever wanting to buy more than one handgun in a 30-day period. But if I had, it would have been a simple matter to pay for the gun, and have the dealer hold it until the expiration of the 30 days. As a practical matter, the limit didn't apply to "purchases" but rather to physical "transfers."
 
AlexanderA said:
Remember that in Virginia we had a one-handgun-a-month limit for a number of years. It was eventually repealed, and this year it is being reinstated. I can tell you, as a gun collector who lived under this system, it didn't amount to a hill of beans. I don't recall ever wanting to buy more than one handgun in a 30-day period. But if I had, it would have been a simple matter to pay for the gun, and have the dealer hold it until the expiration of the 30 days. As a practical matter, the limit didn't apply to "purchases" but rather to physical "transfers."
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Under the old law, you did not have to wait if you had a CPP. As a collector, if you never had to wait that mean you either didn't have to because you had a CCP, or you weren't an avid collector. As I posted in my OP, I usually do several transfers at one time throughout the year to save on transfer fees. I understand that you must have rarely made any purchases so you weren't affected; however, those who do shouldn't have to wait several months to take possession of their property.

I also assume that firearm sales were slower back during the old law, and have increased greatly since then. I don't expect LGS to horde possibly hundreds of firearms that have been purchased from them, online transferred firearms, as well as their regular inventory for the same fees are if at all. I expect fees to rise.

Then on top of that, you'll have to do and pay for several pay background checks and several transfer fees. Right now it cost me $20 to transfer 3 firearms and then $5 each after that. Again, I get that this is no skin off your back, but it will cost others hundreds of extra dollars.
 
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As I mentioned before... the language of the bill sent to the Governor for signature states that:

R. Except as provided in subdivisions 1 and 2, it shall be unlawful for any person who is not a 218 licensed firearms dealer to purchase more than one handgun within any 30-day period.
...
2. The provisions of this subsection shall not apply to:
...
h. A person who holds a valid Virginia permit to carry a concealed handgun;
...
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As it was in the old VA law, if you have a carry permit, you can buy more than one handgun in a 30 day period.

https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB69ER+pdf
 
pdsmith505 said:
As I mentioned before... the language of the bill sent to the Governor for signature states that:



As it was in the old VA law, if you have a carry permit, you can buy more than one handgun in a 30 day period.

https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB69ER+pdf
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So they did add the exemption back in? Everything I heard, read, and information I received from the Virginia Civil Defensive League stated otherwise.

[EDIT] Seems that they amend the bill to make an exemption for those with a CPP. That's good news. Thanks pdsmith505.
 
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Styx said:
I understand that you must have rarely made any purchases so you weren't affected; however, those who do shouldn't have to wait several months to take possession of their property.
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I'm not saying that the one-handgun-a-month limit is a good thing. I'd rather not have it than have it. My only point is that, in the great scheme of things, it can be tolerated, and transactions can be structured around it. In the years when it was previously in effect, I did a lot of buying. But I never felt the need to buy handguns on a regular monthly basis.
 
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