Friday, August 29, 2008
The General Assembly is not in session.
Tracking Virginia’s General Assembly
since 2007.
HB3186: Firearms; accessibility to mentally ill person or person prohibited to possess, liability.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding a section numbered 8.01-44.8 as follows:
§ 8.01-44.8. Allowing access to firearms by mentally ill persons or persons prohibited from possessing firearms.
A party has a civil cause of action against any person who leaves an unsecured firearm in such a manner that it is readily accessible by (i) a person suffering from mental illness or mental retardation, as those terms are defined in § 37.2-100, who is prone to violence or (ii) a person who is prohibited from possessing a firearm under §§ 18.2-308.1:1 through 18.2-308.2 and where the firearm is used by a person described in clause (i) or (ii) to threaten, injure, or kill the party. Liability shall only be established where it is shown that the person who allowed access to the firearm knew or reasonably should have known of the conditions described in clause (i) or (ii). A party is entitled to recover compensatory damages for his injury and, if compensatory damages are awarded, a party may be awarded punitive damages.
Additional Data
Explanation
This is the actual text of the bill — the legislation itself. Generally this is amending existing law, proposing the addition or removal of words from laws that are already on the books.
Words that are highlighted in yellow are
proposed additions, and words that are crossed out in
red are proposed removals.
The numbers with the § symbol before them are references to existing laws, and if you click on them they’ll take you to that part of the law on the state's website.