Bill Text: VA HB189 | 2018 | Regular Session | Prefiled
Bill Title: Firearms; use or display during commission of a felony, killing or injuring police animals.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 28-14)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-02-15 - Left in Courts of Justice [HB189 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2018-HB189-Prefiled.html
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §18.2-53.1 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§18.2-53.1. Use or display of firearm in committing felony.
It shall be is unlawful for any person to
use or attempt to use any pistol, shotgun, rifle, or other firearm or display
such weapon in a threatening manner while committing or attempting to commit
murder, rape, forcible sodomy, inanimate or animate object sexual penetration
as defined in §18.2-67.2, robbery, carjacking, burglary, malicious wounding as
defined in §18.2-51, malicious bodily injury to a law-enforcement officer as
defined in §18.2-51.1, aggravated malicious wounding as defined in §
18.2-51.2, malicious wounding by mob as defined in §18.2-41 or,
abduction, or the killing
or injuring of a police animal in
violation of §18.2-144.1. Violation of this
section shall constitute a separate and distinct felony and any person found
guilty thereof shall be sentenced to a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment
of three years for a first conviction, and to a mandatory minimum term of five
years for a second or subsequent conviction under the provisions of this
section. Such punishment shall be separate and apart from, and shall be made to
run consecutively with, any punishment received for the commission of the
primary felony.
2. That the provisions of this act may result in a net increase in periods of imprisonment or commitment. Pursuant to §30-19.1:4, the estimated amount of the necessary appropriation cannot be determined for periods of imprisonment in state adult correctional facilities; therefore, Chapter 836 of the Acts of Assembly of 2017 requires the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission to assign a minimum fiscal impact of $50,000. Pursuant to §30-19.1:4, the estimated amount of the necessary appropriation cannot be determined for periods of commitment to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice.
