RICHMOND, Va. (CN) — Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin broke the record for most vetoes in one term by a Virginia governor, nixing 30 gun control bills Tuesday.
"Guns for everybody, no redemption for anyone, suppress the vote and voters and tax cuts for millionaires," chair of the state Senate Democratic caucus Mamie Locke wrote in a tweet. "Who's backwards?"
Youngkin is up to 121 vetoes over his three years in office, one more than Democrat Terry McAuliffe's 91 vetoes from 2014 to 2018. Youngkin still has hundreds of bills to sift through by April 8.
The 80 vetoes in this legislative session came after Democrats gained control of both chambers of the General Assembly in November. With their majority, Democrats sent Youngkin progressive bills ranging from a ban on assault weapons to establishing a retail cannabis market.
"The governor's interest in public safety apparently does not extend to protecting Virginia's from firearm violence," state Senate majority leader Scott Surovell said in a statement. "Red flag orders are supported by 80% of Virginians, but Governor Youngkin instead chose to appeal to the MAGA base."
Youngkin made his views on gun control clear Tuesday, vetoing efforts from Democrats he called anti-constitutional.
"I swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of Virginia, and that absolutely includes protecting the right of law-abiding Virginians to keep and bear arms," Youngkin said in a statement.
Democrats made gun control a legislative priority at the start of the session, even inviting prominent gun control activists and Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg to speak with reporters midsession.
Although Virginia saw the deadliest school shooting in the nation's history when 23-year-old Seung-Hui Choat killed 32 Virginia Tech students and faculty members in 2007, Youngkin vetoed a bill criminalizing possession of firearms in public university buildings. Youngkin explained that schools are given enough autonomy to regulate gun possession.
"While I am committed to ensuring well-secured and safe college campuses in Virginia, this legislation does not adequately consider the numerous variations in Virginia's diverse geographic, cultural and societal norms across different regions of the Commonwealth," Youngkin wrote in support of his veto.
Democrats sought to make Virginia the 11th state to impose meaningful restrictions on assault weapons. They introduced legislation creating misdemeanor penalties for transferring and possessing certain semiautomatic firearms.
"For the first time in history, Virginia sent an assault weapons ban to the governor to keep weapons of war off our streets," Delegate Dan Helmer, a Democrat, wrote in a tweet. "Today the governor vetoed it — putting politics above public safety. We won't stop fighting to keep our communities safe."
Youngkin argued that increased criminal penalties and investment in behavioral health are most effective in combatting gun violence.
"Virginia has some of the strictest gun laws in the country," Youngkin wrote. "That twofold approach can provide a real solution without creating outcomes that would affect law-abiding citizens and violate our constitutional rights."
Helmer and state Senator Jennifer Carrol Foy passed legislation through the General Assembly to create a civil penalty for firearm industry members — the bill aimed to increase safeguards preventing the sale of firearms to straw purchasers. Youngkin found the measure arbitrary, pointing to the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
"This federal law, grounded in common sense and common law principles, prevents baseless litigation that could financially devastate a lawful industry with exorbitant legal fees," the 57-year-old governor wrote. "Our legal system should prioritize punishing criminals rather than targeting law-abiding manufacturers and retailers within the firearms industry."
Democrats passed a bill addressing an incident in the Hampton Roads region of the state where an elementary school student stole his mother's gun and shot his teacher. The bill would require gun owners to lock their firearms and ammunition in containers minors are unable to access. Youngkin vetoed the bill, claiming it creates a financial burden for gun owners.
"It would completely disarm individuals who cannot afford a storage device," Youngkin wrote. "While the intent may not be to strip the poorest Virginians of their right to self-defense, the proposal would price them out of the market for a fundamental right."
Other bills Youngkin shot down include a measure prohibiting handgun owners from storing their firearms visibly in an unattended vehicle and a bill closing what's referred to as the boyfriend loophole.
Under federal law, a person convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence is barred from owning a gun if that person has a child with a victim, lives with a victim or is the current or former spouse of a victim. The bill would have added intimate partners, defined as an individual who, within the previous 12 months, was in a romantic, dating or sexual relationship with a victim, even if they don't share a residence, to the list. Youngkin said creating a vague intimate partner category would create headaches for the jurisdiction of juvenile and domestic courts.
Youngkin signed two of the dozens of gun control bills sent to his desk into law and offered amendments for six. Youngkin signed a bill dubbed Lucia's Law honoring the killing of a 13-year-old Henrico resident killed by a 14-year-old boy who had access to his parent's firearm despite being charged with multiple felonies and being the subject of a school-initiated threat assessment.
Lucia's Law, signed on the third anniversary of her murder, creates a felony for any parent whose willful act or omission enables their child to gain possession of a firearm if the child is deemed a credible threat for violence.
"We know that nothing will bring back our Lucia, so the work of parenting her has shifted to telling her story and advocating for changes so that we can make Virginia a safer place," Lucia's parents said in a press release. "This legislative change was necessary and important."
Youngkin signed a bill prohibiting the sale or possession of auto sears, a small device that enables semiautomatic weapons to shoot dozens of rounds per second.
A two-thirds majority would be needed to override Youngkin's vetoes, a majority that Democrats don't have in either chamber.
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