01/18/2016 Senate Proceedings

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Index

HB278—00:00:40
HB269—00:00:10
HB297—00:00:40
HB281—00:00:10
HB276—00:00:12
HB299—00:01:54
HB61—00:00:40
HB286—00:00:12
HB271—00:00:12
HB28—00:00:40
HB285—00:02:02
HB352—00:00:40
HB299—00:00:10
HB53—00:00:40
HB309—00:00:10
HB294—00:00:40
HB285—00:00:10
HB56—00:00:40
HB299—00:00:10
HB285—00:04:20
HB53—00:00:40
HB301—00:00:12
HB56—00:00:40
HB345—00:00:10
HB301—00:00:40
HB295—00:00:10
HB285—00:00:40
HB290—00:00:10
HB285—00:00:40
HB56—00:00:10
HB290—00:00:40
HB20—00:00:10
HB309—00:00:40
HB8—00:00:10
HB285—00:00:12
HB308—00:00:40
HB295—00:00:10
HB290—00:00:40
HB276—00:00:10
HB284—00:00:12
HB310—00:00:40
HB309—00:00:12
HB269—00:00:40
HB373—00:00:10
HB281—00:00:12
HB8—00:00:40
HB295—00:00:10
HB285—00:00:40
HB295—00:00:10
HB61—00:00:40
HB20—00:00:10
HB285—00:00:40
HB286—00:00:12
HB285—00:29:06
HB310—00:00:40
HB285—00:00:28
HB28—00:00:12
HB301—00:00:12
HB374—00:00:40
HB308—00:00:12
HB334—00:00:14
HB309—00:00:16
HB285—00:01:52
HB373—00:00:46
HB308—00:00:40
HB285—00:00:40
HB56—00:00:40
HB308—00:00:10
HB281—00:00:40
HB285—00:01:14
HB286—00:00:40
HB310—00:00:10
HB308—00:02:02
HB285—00:00:16
HB286—00:00:40
HB308—00:00:10
HB373—00:00:14
HB271—00:00:30
HB272—00:00:40
HB23—00:00:14
HB334—00:00:40
HB8—00:00:12
HB297—00:00:40
HB272—00:00:20
HB297—00:00:40
HB272—00:00:44
HB295—00:01:10
HB61—00:00:14
HB334—00:00:40
HB295—00:00:54
HB285—00:00:14
HB271—00:00:14
HB352—00:05:37
HB271—00:05:44
HB285—00:00:40
HB61—00:00:10
HB23—00:00:40
HB61—00:00:10
HB334—00:00:40
HB295—00:00:14
HB376—00:00:40
HB8—00:00:56
HB334—00:00:12
HB308—00:00:12
HB297—00:00:40
HB267—00:00:10
HB299—00:00:40
HB285—00:00:12
HB297—00:00:12
HB295—00:00:12
HB20—00:00:40
HB56—00:00:12
HB271—00:00:40
HB373—00:00:12
HB376—00:00:14
HB295—00:01:16
HB334—00:00:20
HB394—00:00:12
HB61—00:00:12
HB285—00:08:10
HB297—00:02:12
HB352—00:00:12
HB282—00:00:40
HB323—00:00:10
HB285—00:00:12
HB271—00:01:42
HB285—00:00:40
HB301—00:00:10
HB8—00:00:40
HB297—00:03:54
Sen. Roz Dance (D-Petersburg)—00:42
Sen. Tommy Norment (R-Williamsburg)—02:32
Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R-Winchester)—00:26
Sen. Dick Saslaw (D-Springfield)—00:18
Sen. Ben Chafin (R-Lebanon)—00:10
Sen. Bill Stanley (R-Moneta)—00:18
Sen. Tommy Norment (R-Williamsburg)—00:00
Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Burke)—00:12
Sen. Dick Black (R-Leesburg)—00:10
Del. Tom Garrett (R-Louisa)—00:10
Sen. Bill Carrico (R-Grayson)—00:16
Sen. Dick Saslaw (D-Springfield)—00:10
Sen. Barbara Favola (D-Arlington)—00:50
Sen. Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg)—00:14
Del. Tom Garrett (R-Louisa)—00:10
Sen. Bill Carrico (R-Grayson)—00:14
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Minutes

Called to order at 12 m. by Lt. Governor Ralph S. Northam

Prayer offered by The Reverend Mark Morrow, CrossWalk Community
Church, Williamsburg, Virginia

ROLL CALL OF MEMBERS: quorum present

Motion of Senator Miller dispensed with reading of Journal (30-Y
8-N)

COMMUNICATION FROM HOUSE (HN10115): reading waived (37?Y 2?N)

The House of Delegates has passed the following House bill: HB 58

COMMUNICATION FROM HOUSE (HN20115): reading waived (37?Y 2?N)

The House of Delegates has passed the following House joint
resolutions: HJ 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25,
26, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 54,
57, 59, 60, 62, 67, 68, 71, 74, 75, 80, 81, 85, 91, 95, 98, 102, 105, 106, 107,
111, 113, 114, 118, 121, 122, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 132, 133, 140, 141,
142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156

BILLS REPORTED

From Courts of Justice: SB 11A, 27S, 50 rereferred to Finance, 57S
rereferred to Finance, 109, 205, 240, 241S, 297 rereferred to Finance, 339A
rereferred to Finance, 354 rereferred to Finance, 423, 424A

BILLS REREFERRED

From Courts of Justice: SB 204 rereferred to Commerce and Labor, 290
rereferred to General Laws and Technology, 377 rereferred to General Laws and
Technology, 416 rereferred to General Laws and Technology

Leave of absence granted: Senator Lewis

Bills presented, ordered printed and referred/joint resolutions
laid on Clerks Desk under Senate Rules 11(b), (26)g and HJR 37: see January 19
Senate Calendar

On motion of Senator Newman, the Senate adjourned at 1:02 p.m.
to convene Tuesday, January 19, 2016 at 12 m.

 

 

 

 

Transcript

What follows is a transcript of this day’s session that was created as closed-captioning text, written in real time during the session. We have made an effort to automatically clean up the text, but it is far from perfect.

[no audio] [applause] the Senator from Franklin, Senator Stanley.

I rise forpurposes of introduction.

The Senator has the floor.

I have the privilege of sitting next to their husband and father as my new seat mate. Paula Carrico the wife of charles william Carrico and his lovely daughter who was a Senate page if you recall, mr. President and she is sitting up there with some great Senate pages of years past who have come back to say hello to us. If you would give them the warm welcome of the Senate I would appreciate it.

I sure will. Will mrs. Carrico and your wonderful family please rise? Always great to see you back in Richmond and here to keep an eye on and support our husband and good Carrico Senator. We appreciate you working with him. I know it is a long distance for him to be here and serve our constituents. I ask the members of the Senate to join me in offering mrs. Carrico and her daughter the warm welcome of the Senate. [applause]

Resolution, petitions and bills are now in order. Is there any other business for the morning hour? I'm sorry, the senior Senator from henrico, Senator McEachin. Any other business? The clerk will please call the calendar.

Senate calendar for Monday, January 18, 2016. We do not have a calendar.

Thank you, madam clerk. The Senator from James city county.

Mr. President, being complimentary of the clerk and her staff on the way that they are managing the calendar. Moving with great expediency. Inquiry does that complete the calendar? Yes, we have.

Senator from James city county.

On behalf of Senator Hanger and myself I wanted to share that the staff of the Senate finance committee will present an overview of the governor's proposed amendments on the budget on Senate bill 29 or the caboose bill on the meeting on Tuesday, tomorrow January 19 at 9:00 a.M. In Senate room b and all senators are invited and encouraged especially if you are not on the finance committee to please attend and have the benefit of that overview. So, Senator Hanger and I would be extremely appreciative if all of you would attend and at least get a preliminary overview of the budget.

Thank you, Senator. The Senator from western Fairfax County.

I put a sign up outside my office in anticipation of gun lobby today to emphasize I believe the obstruction to a lot of common sense legislation is getting folks hurt. And this is one of the best days I had here in a couple of years. Needless to say I was very popular. I had eight different groups come through and filled the office and we had a great exchange of information. I'm so proud to be from Virginia where people from both sides can come in and I learned a lot from them and I hope they learned a lot from me and over a weekend I put a picture up of it on facebook and it took off. Most people liked it but it broke throughout boundaries of the commonwealth and appears I 'm not popular in kansas. Some of my new fans called me interesting names and hoped I would get stabbed while they watched so they could shoot the perpetrator afterwards because I 'm not worth saving and asked if they gave up my armed guards and if anyone is packing in here, don't protect me and I got yelled at in print in all capital letters that I needed to learn the constitution. Concealed carry is not a right, it is a privilege granted by law. I support it. It worked well and served us well. I work for a justice research firm and it is true, you know, there are some benefits. But that is where it stops. I believe that if we can strengthen the training requirements around concealed permits we might be able to count on the good guy with the gun theory that wayne la pierre has proposed if we have people prepared to act. You are there to protect yourself but I want to make sure that people are prepared. The attorney general ruling that state police enforce the law related to reciprocal arrangements I think was the right decision. I had the second aamendment lobby to my House for coffee and conservative only town haul and I hear one consistent thing enforce the laws on the books. They say why don't you enforce the existing gun laws. The attorney general is and I support them for doing it and thank him for doing it. I support the second amendment and I 'm to uphold it. It provides individuals have the right to own a firearm. The supreme court decisions made that abundantly clear. Not every gun law is a violation of the. This law that any law violates the constitution is flat out wrong and dangerous. Let me say one thing, no one coming to take your guns away. It is time for the gun lobby to stop trying to scare members happen help us pass legislation that will help save lives. Universal background steps save lives. Common sense tells us this is true. Keeping weapons out of the hands from those that have protective orders taken out against them saves lives. Studies have shown this to be true. Common sense tells us this is true. 80% to 90% agreen thish shoe you about you the lobbyist stymies us time and time again. Those visiting us today to talk about guns see the management of firearms differently from others of us. All of us come to beliefs through many influences, family, culture, professional life. For many guns bring back memories of dad, the hunting trips and passing on of lessons and responsibilities for a potentially dangerous tool. A right of pass and that was cherished and important to pass on. A social system and culture that holds the same values help to hold the community together. Shared beliefs. Some kids don't have dads and the despite the pleadings of adults and teachers the lure of a gun as a sign of manhood is often irresistible. My beliefs have come from 45 years spent as a probation officer, detention superintendent, Virginia juvenile justice director and technical consultant for the u.S. Department of justice helping them in their efforts to reduce youth violence around the country. It starts out a happy healthy young gun owning family in search of protection, but their world can be overtaken by a life, overtaken by alcohol abuse, depression or angry or disturbed adolescent and it can become the genesis of a family's tragedy. Our lives change but the nature of the gun never does. The gun remains in the home without creating a problem until perhaps the owner passes away and the guns begin a new journey. Hopefully a safe one. To often passed on to a child this sells or pawns it or gives it to cousin joe and has it introduced to the street or it is a stolen or does something foolish itself. I have seen it all. At lot of you are prosecutors and have been in law enforcement. The life of a gun is like a giant sifting process. As the gun works its way to the bottom of the responsibility period and ultimately a tragic, tragic use. Look, we can all disagree on how firearms should be managed. There is no law that will save every life or stop every criminal. Is everyone happy with the violence in our country and commonwealth. We will hit the half million mark on gun deaths in this century sometime in 2016. We lose 88 to 90 people per day, 32,000 per year and for the first time in more than 60 years the death rate for americans killed by firearms is as high as the mortality rate linked to motor vehicle accidents. We could solve some problems putting together an ad hoc study group to try to find something that would work and be consistent. The studies for disease control should be studying this but they are not allowed to study gun violence a is a public health issue by federal law. The time to act is now. Let's work together and pass legislation that will actually make a difference actually save lives and actually not interfere with any once's right to defend themselves. Thank you, mr. President.

Thank you, Senator. The senior Senator from loudoun, Senator Black.

I rise on a point of personal privilege.

The Senator has the floor.

I wish to respond very briefly, not in depth to the remarks of my esteemed colleague. And there is one particular point that I would like to single out. This is the comment that no one wants to take your guns. Well, I was the chief of the criminal law division at the pentagon in the early 1990s and I testified before a congressional committee relative to some gun smuggling that was taking place at the end of the gulf war. There had been an order in place that prohibited guns from being brought back and as a result there were a number of prosecutions. Some members of congress were upset about that. And I was defending the department of defense's position relative to those prosecutions. When I was finished, I was approached by a very close aide of chuck schumer's. And I 'm not sure to this day whether it was his chief of staff, but it was obviously someone of considerable influence. He was a congressman at the time. And he came to me and he said chuck schumer would like to speak with you because I believe that they had the impression that because of the work that I had done that I was very much an advocate against guns rather than franksly, I was rather neutral on the issue but I was very much a constitutionist. So I went over to chuck schumer's office expecting to see him. He was called out to have to vote on a bill. So, I ended up speaking with the chief of staff or whoever it was. And in the course of that discussion he complimented me on my presentation before the committee and he then expounded on chuck schumer's philosophy about guns. And he told me, he said you know, he said chuck schumer believes that there should be no guns in the hands any private citizen. And I responded and I said you mean even rifles and shotguns. He says absolutely. He said there should be no guns whatsoever in the hands of private citizen. And, of course, I was respectful as a uniform -- as a colonel in the military. I was not going to be argumentative. However, I recall leaving that office with this strange feeling that I had just left the office of a congressman who had no regard whatsoever for the second amendment to the united states constitution. And it was a very odd feeling at that moment because I was naive, honestly. I had been out in the field. I hadn't been a washington insider until just recently and I believed that we all respected the u.S. Constitution including the bill of rights. And I just recall quite vividly walking out and thinking I am leaving the office of a very influencual congressman who does not believe in the second amendment. Now, I have heard over the years many times things where people say you don't have to worry about this, the fact that we are doing thus and so doesn't mean that eventually we are going to do away with marriage or do away with this or do away with that. I'm going to tell you this, this idea, this concern that people have that taking one step forward on something like guns is going to eventually result in their registration and their elimination is dead serious. There is every chance in the world that chuck schumer will end up being the Head of the democrats in the Senate. And I have no doubt that he has not changed his opinion since those times in the early 1990s when he made it quite clear he does not believe that you should have any guns, you should not have a shotgun, you should not have a rifle. And so I would just ask my colleague and those who are on the other side of this issue to be a little bit understanding that this is not paranoia, this a based on fact and -- this is based on fact and we will not yield on the second amendment. It is in the constitution. It is our right. And those who say well, you know, we need to do this or that, change the constitution. If you don't like the second amendment, the individual's right to keep and bear arms change the constitution. It can be done. Thank you, mr. President.

Thank you, Senator. The Senator from buckingham.

The Senator has the floor.

I can't sit here as a student of the constitution of the united states and a person whose advocation outside the chamber is to persuade people based on facts andest and remain silent in -- and evidence and remain silent in the face of and I mean in in this instance good friend and colleague from Fairfax. I was a prosecutor for a little while. The first speech I startd that off with. And had the occasion to come into contact with a number of serious cases and one that happened relatively early on after I was elected to be a prosecutor involved a lady who had been the subject of repeated horrible domestic abuse. And a husband whose medication and self-medication were something that he had a difficult time controlling. That lady moved from her home into the home of a brother in the county. And the abusive spouse one day after not getting right with his ms decided to go over there. The brother whom she lived was confined almost entirely to a wheel chair. He could get up but he couldn't move very far. And the abuser came over to that House one day and forced his way in through the door and began to beat on that woman and she was helpless to do anything and the brother in the wheel chair said stop hitting my sister stop hitting my sister and the abuser said something to the effect of when you are done hitting her, you are next. Pardon me. I almost slipped. So he went back to beating this man's sister, this estranged wife while the individual in the wheel chair made his way to a front closet and retrieved a .22 caliber weapon. Struck the defender in the sternum and killing him instantly. And the sheriff's office called me from the scene and set what shall we charge him with. I said give me the facts again I want to make sure I got this right and they gave me the facts again and said what should we charge the man in the wheel chair with and I said charge him with being a good shot. Guns do save lives. They save far more lives than they cost. The statistics promulgated and pushed by the other side include the tragedy of self-inflicted gunshot wounds with intent which bridges to the next issue which is a mental health issue. Wasn't working well with his ms but we knew he has mental health issues. Flanigan said the ms don't work anymore. James holmes who purchased the firearms with federal student aid jarred laugher in and adam lan da and dillon roof were all all their ms. Off their ms which wecouldn't ff hppa. I don't want to plug my work outside of the general assembly business. Concealed permit holders are responsible for 1/200 of crimes. You literally can't find offenses. 1/200 of crimes. So it is quite literally the concealed carry permit holding universe already with the current training requirements, the safest most law-abiding, the folks that some of you will scowl at. The safest most law abiding citizens of the entire population of the commonwealth. And the reality of gun violence and gun deaths nonself-inflicted is in. The homicide rates with the states with the ten toughest gun control laws in the nation is higher, higher, higher than the rates with those with the least restrengthive. The murder rate and robbery rate and rate of violent rape is higher in states with restrictive gun control laws. There have been drops incredible drops in florida and texas indicative from about 1988 when we went from 10 so the point where we are now at 38. I mean like 50, 70% drops in the period of a year. And the vast bulk of these homicides occur in places ironically controlled by the party that screams the loudest about gun control. I mean you know, I will -- I will mention the elephant sitting in the corner. I don't know when the last time a republican mayor of chicago was. Detroit, new orleans. Washington, d.C. And so the reality is then we have a circumstance here where we blame the instrumentality and not the individual which I can't think of any other circumstance where we do that. Zero. And where we cherry pick our statistics in order to advance the argument which is not true 99% of the gun owning public. And so while I admire the Senator from Fairfax, I take great exception with his application of the facts. And the facts are that where you are lawfully owning a firearm and legally possessing that firearm you are far safer than would you be if that were not the case. And the numbers bear me out. Thank you, mr. President.

Thank you, Senator. The Senator from grayson, Senator Carrico.

Thank you mr. President. Point of personal privilege.

The Senator has the floor.

I don't do this often but after hearing the gentleman from Fairfax speak, I wanted to touch on a few things. And you know coming from a law enforcement background, the old saying that seconds count when the police are minutes away is really true. And everyone in law enforcement does understand that. One of the things that strikes me so odd as his excellency had implemented executive order 50 was that there was no evidence to go along with how many law-abiding concealed weapon holders actually had targeted any state grounds. And as we here on the general assembly grounds are afforded the protection from the capital police and surrounding us, what about those at vdot and dmv? What about the times that you drive down the interstate and decide that you really need to go to the restroom and you stop at the rest area that you are no longer -- you are criminally violating a trespass law now that the executive order is in place, executive order 50. What about those times? What about the times that you work at dmv or vdot and you have a protective order because you are being threatened and they know now that you can't be protected because you are on a state facility? What about those times? What about the reciprocity issue of revoking the reciprocity with all of these states? Being a legislator that represents an area boarded by tennessee, north carolina, tennessee and kentucky and a lot of times to get to a place in Virginia and southwest Virginia you got to go through those states. You can't just go around them. You have to go through it. No evidence enforcing the law means you have evidence to show that there is a problem. No evidence has been produced that any law abiding concealed weapon holder has committed any crime that led to the revcation of this reciprocity. In Bristol, Virginia, you can stand on state street and straddle the double solid line and despending which side your holster is on you could be in violation of the law. These are the things that bother me about the whole anti-gun movement. Maybe nothing I said today has resonated. I will say this one thing. If virginians wanted bloomberg to be their governor they would have elected him. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator. The senior Senator from Fairfax, Senator Saslaw.

You know, mr. President, you hear talk from both sides about guns. And just a couple of observations. And you can google the article, the san diego press did a story. And I got it up in my office. I printed it out. It is lengthy. It is two parts. Ran two days. And if you xerox it, it is like 15 pages. They did a study in 2010 the european community had 17 members. Those 17 members had 511 million people. The u.S. That year we did the census. The u.S. Had 318 million. Maybe 319, I 'm not sure. But approximately 60% of what they had. Gun deaths in europe were that year gun homicides not gun deaths, gun homicides were 1,164. Gun homicides in the u.S. That year were 9,960. Now you hear a lot of talk about a good guy with a gun is going to stop a bad guy with a gun. There is 288 million maybe 28 the million guns outstanding in the civilian population today. Incidentally, we are 2.4% of the world's population and percent of the private gun owners. My question would be to anybody and you decided this argument with x amount of people being shot and killed in this country every day you would think that some where somehow that good guy with the gun would stop the bad guy with the gun. We have 300 million people in the country and 288 million guns. Surely some where some good guy with a gun is going to stop the bad guy with the gun. I suspect the reason that you don't read too much about that is a couple of things. Number one and this May come as a shock to some people. The lone ranger is dead. So is hop along cassidy and roy rogers and gene autry. The guys that shot the hands out of the bad guy, they are dead. They are dead. The other problem I suspect and I had prosecutors and liability lawyers or whatever you all call yourselves tells me if somebody comes in here and starting shooting or any place and you take out your gun and in the process of maybe even killing this guy you injure four or five people these lawyers told me you better have one heck of an insurance policy because you are going to need it after you finish getting sued. And if you kill somebody who was not the guy with the gun you are going to be prosecute with the a minimum of manslaughter charge. Now, the situation the only one that I have ever read about that May have been others, but the only one I ever read about where somebody present had a gun and didn't use it was when that congress lady from arizona got killed. And it was either one or two people there that did have their guns with them and they had permits. And they said that they didn't use the guns because they were fearful of hitting innocent people. Therein lies the problem, okay. There is no easy answers to this whole problem. And the other thing in that article they quoted a study, a two-year study done that was published in the new england medical journal. The study was somewhat flawed because they included homicides to cut it by 53%, 54% because that is what I understand most gun deaths are in this country are suicides. But if you had a gun in your -- if you have a gun in your House you have a 43 -- that includes homicides, like I said cut it by slightly more than half if you just -- if you go with regular gun deaths, but you got a 43 times greater chance of having a family member or an acquaintance of the family killed than you do of shooting an intruder. 43 times more likely. So, nobody wants to take anybody's guns. I'm not voting to take people's guns away from there. As Senator Marsden pointed out, everybody says enforce the laws, enforce the laws. I good news for you. Y'all voted for that law. Not you all but people who were here before you when we put that on the books. They voted for it. They had to have the same choir requirements we had, okay. So I mean I -- you know, and by the way, just so you some of you May or May not know, I have fired an m-1. I have fired an m-16. A 30 caliber machine gun and 50 caliber. A 155 howitzer and fired a flame flow thrower and rifle propelled grenades. I'm not anti-guns. I know what a gun is and I know what a gun can to can. And I know what a flame thrower and incidentally as you all know you can now buy a flame thrower online and we don't want to outlaw it because when we do only the outlaws will have flame throwers and everybody also knows that flame throwers don't burn people, people burn people. So anyway, that is the latest from this side. And I will be glad to talk to anybody about that but you can google most everything I have said and you will see who printed it, okay. But if that politico fact guy whoever he is, I got the article, what they used and he is welcome to it if their reporter is here. All right. Thank you, mr. President. And thank you all for putting up with me.

Thank you, Senator. Excuse me, the Senator from -- the Senator.

Thank you, mr. President. I just want to note that most virginians are in the middle on the issue. We have had bills that have come up certainly in the Senate that have attempted to take guns away from folks who were convicted of misdemeanor sexual assaults and a professor from the university of Virginia stood before us and said, stood before the can comme and said folks that demonstrate violent behavior will always escalate that behavior. So why can't we make laws based on fact because then you can be in the position of actually preventing violence. What about folks under protective orders? Again, a judge has made a determination that this individual should be under protective order, should not have visitation opportunities, and whatnot because violent behavior had been demonstrated. So, there are ways that we can try will limit the access to firearms by people who should not have that access, by people who are not going to use the firearms responsibly and by people who put others at great risk. Those are the kinds of questions we should consider when we are talking about this gun debate. Thank you, mr. President.

Thank you, Senator. The Senator from rocking ham, Senator Obenshain.

Point of personal privilege.

Senator has the floor.

I wasn't planning to stand up but I take any opportunity I can to try and educate the senior Senator from Fairfax County. And he indicated that he is unaware of any situations in which somebody who actually has a gun was able to actually stop a crime. It must happen sometime. It must happen some where. Indeed, he is right. As a matter of fact, the Senator from some where in southwest Virginia, from Grayson County, I guess represents grundy, actually Senator Chafin represents grundy. We have the appalachian school of law and you May not remember but in January of 2002 an armed man went in to university are to appalachian school of law with a gun. He was not a concealed carry permit holder. He was a disgruntled student who apparently was mentally ill and he started shooting and killed three members of the college community. There happened to be three other students, one named michael gross and a second named tracy bridges. They are gun owners. They did not have their weapons on them. But when the shooting started they ran to their cars and they got their guns. And they were joined by a third student an ex-marine. And they encountered the shooter. And they stopped him. They drew down on him. Told him to drop his gun. And jumped him. And but for those two students' decision to run towards the chaos and towards the violence with their guns, there May not have been just three dead in grundy that day. And, indeed, it happens. Here in the commonwealth of Virginia that law-abiding gun owners step in and save lives. It May not happen every day, but the point that has been made is that the law-abiding citizens of the commonwealth of Virginia are not the ones we are afraid of and the people who have concealed carry permits are among the safest to most law-abiding that there are in the united states. You have to respect those rights we ought not further undermine them and I 'm proud to stand up for the second amendment rights of the citizens of the commonwealth of Virginia.

Thank you.

Mr. President, point of personal privilege just a response to that. I'm look at an article here you all by the florida sun and parentally florida has of 2006 already handed out 1,400 concealed weapons permits to law-abiding citizens who had criminal records. 218 outstanding warrants for concealed weapons permits including 14 wanted for murder, okay.

The Senator from buckingham, Senator Garrett.

Point of personal privilege. I will try to be brief. A great statesmen said you are entitled to an opinion but not entight thele to your own facts. The five nations you are most likely to die are nor way, finland, slovakia, israel and switzerland. In the last 30 years, 61 mass shooting incidents in the united states. 38 of the shooters had a preexisting prediagnosed mental health problem by professionals. I could stand here and cited incident after incident of law abiding gun other thans stopping crimes but instead I will quote crimes but instead I will quote the phd and professor of crimology of florida state who is the author of point blank gun violence in america his best numbers along with dr. Guertz are that there are 2.5 million defenses uses of a firearm in the united states every single year. Which far, far outstrips the number of criminal uses of firearms. We own 42% of the firearms on the planet. You would think it would be shocking if you learned that when defining a mass shooting as an incident wherein three or more people were killed wouldn't it be shocking to know that in the last since 1950, so 65 years, there has been exactly one mass shooting gaby giffords, in a gun-free zone. When you use the statistics on what is a mass shooting since 1950. There has been one mass shooting that wasn't in a zone where someone had decried that the individuals there were not allowed to carry firearms. We agree there is a problem and that is the first step towards solving it. I would point out that you are 2.5 times more likely to be beaten to death with hands or feet and three times more likely to be killed with a knife than you are to be killed with an assault weapon. Now that we agreed there is a problem, let's identify it. The consistent fact is gun-free zones aren't, gun free zones cost lives. Criminals intentionally avoid gun free zones as borne out by of 66 years of data. Law abiding gun owners are the least of our problems. Thank you.

Point of personal privilege

The Senator has the floor.

I find is very difficult for me to sit here and not give you this example. Memorial day, 2014 as I was leaving the restaurant with my mother and father who are 78 years old, an altercation took place in the parking lot. The gentleman who was arguing with the lady that was in front of him overheard my mother say that someone needed to call the police as I rounded the corner in my vehicle, the gentleman had then begun to take aim at my father. I yelled at him to get back in his vehicle. He then proceeded his anger towards me. As I stopped my vehicle, my wife and were sitting in my new pickup truck which really made me mad, and came from around the front of the pickup truck out of his left-rear pocket came the weapon. My son happened to be in the parking lot, who saw it going on, my sister happened to be in the parking lot, called the police that he had a gun and was going to shoot me. The first indication I had was to get my weapon which was at that time actually not on my side but in my vehicle. I hit the gentleman with my door, knocked him back, pulled my gun, and I was prepared to shoot. And he took one more swipe at the window, he saw the gun, he saw my son, and began to flee. I chased him through the parking lot, got into his car and he took off and tried to run over my son. We got the tag number and he is in prison doing two years for attempted malicious wounding. So if weapons don't deter crimes and personally protect you then explain that situation to me. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator. Is there any other business to come before the Senate ? The clerk will please report any announcements on the day.

Today Monday January 18, the committee on commerce and labor will meet 15 minutes after adjournment in Senate room about. The committee on general laws technology 45 minutes after adjournment in Senate room a. The finance sub committee on health and humans resources 10th floor conference room, Hanger, Howell, zander, Barker and Dunnavant. Tomorrow, Tuesday, January 19, the finance sub committee on economic development and natural resources will meet at 7:30 a.M., 10th floor conference room. Senators ross, Saslaw, Alexander and Obenshain. The committee for finance meet at 9:00 a.M. Senate room b. The republican caucus meet at 11:30 a.M. In Senate room 20. The democratic caucus at 11:30 a.M. In Senate room one. Judicial nomination forms available the clerk's desk. See either tara or sarah.

Thank you, madam clerk.

The Senator from Lynchburg, Senator Newman.

I move that the Senate adjourn until 12 noon tomorrow.

The question is shall the Senate adjourn until 12:00 noon tomorrow in favor I. Opposed no.

The ayes have it. The Senate stands adjourned until 12:00 noon tomorrow. [the Senate is in recess] [the Senate adjourned at 1:02 p.M.] at 1:02 p.M.]