SB33: Outdoor theaters, cabarets, etc.; localities may adopt an ordinance to prohibit firearms on premise.

SENATE BILL NO. 33
Offered January 9, 2008
Prefiled December 19, 2007
A BILL to amend and reenact § 15.2-915 of the Code of Virginia, relating to local control of firearms; outdoor theaters, cabarets, carnivals, and fairs.
Patron-- Locke

Referred to Committee on Local Government

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1.  That § 15.2-915 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 15.2-915. Control of firearms; applicability to authorities and local governmental agencies.

A. No locality shall adopt or enforce any ordinance, resolution or motion, as permitted by § 15.2-1425, and no agent of such locality shall take any administrative action, governing the purchase, possession, transfer, ownership, carrying, storage or transporting of firearms, ammunition, or components or combination thereof other than those expressly authorized by statute. For purposes of this section, a statute that does not refer to firearms, ammunition, or components or combination thereof, shall not be construed to provide express authorization.

Nothing in this section shall prohibit a locality from adopting workplace rules relating to terms and conditions of employment of the workforce. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a law-enforcement officer, as defined in § 9.1-101 from acting within the scope of his duties.

The provisions of this section applicable to a locality shall also apply to any authority or to a local governmental entity, including a department or agency, but not including any local or regional jail or juvenile detention facility.

B. Any local ordinance, resolution or motion adopted prior to the effective date of this act governing the purchase, possession, transfer, ownership, carrying or transporting of firearms, ammunition, or components or combination thereof, other than those expressly authorized by statute, is invalid.

C. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a locality from adopting an ordinance that prohibits firearms, ammunition, or components or combination thereof, at outdoor theaters, cabarets, carnivals, and fairs at which 500 or more persons are authorized to lawfully attend.