virginia carry law question

T

tapnapsnap

Inactive
i am under 21 for 3 more months and own several handguns that were given to me as gifts.i cant find anything about carrying, i know i cant yet get a CCW but can i carry it open unloaded/loaded??
also what about transporting?

thanx
 
Open carry is lawful in Virginia at age 18 years. Check out www.packing.org for the Virginia Code sections.

You may want to consider where you live and where you are going to be going before you open carry. Just dedcide if it is going to be worth the possible aggrivation to you of explaining to a police officer why you chose to act in a perfectly lawful way that unfortunately got somebody's panties all twisted in a wad.

You can open carry in a vehicle. But be sure you are open-carrying and not unintentionally concealed-carrying. There is some case law that makes it clear how easy it is to be convicted of unlawful concealed carry when you might have thought it would be considered open carry.

Submit your CHP application on your birthday. Consider it a present to yourself. Once you get it, you can use VCDL's web site www.vcdl.org to sign up for an automated renewall reminder.

BTW - I open carry about 1/2 the time. A few folks seem to actually notice it, but nobody seems to get too excited about it except one convenience store clerk who thought I was LEO and asked for help with a problem customer. Turned out I could help resolve the situation to everybody's satisfaction. Everybody went home happy.

Welcome to TFL.

stay safe.

skidmark
 
Thank you very much for your reply, while carrying open what condition does the weapon need to be in (ie:loaded,unloaded,mag inserted no chambered round)
 
I don't think it makes any difference about it being loaded or not. You could be convicted just as easily with an empty gun as you could a loaded one. Skidmark is right on, but be cautious carry laws vary from one jurisdiction to another in Virginia. He is also right on about the hastle you would put up with if you carry a weapon exposed. Be careful.

Backstrap
 
tap, nap snap...

you need to take a gun course.. I know it goes against the grain of all 'right thinking' red blooded American males (I'm assuming here) but believe me, you need to. I spent close to 40 years thinking I knew close to everything...then decided to take a class and learned probably as much in one day as I had in the last 4 decades.

To put it in more of today's terms... 'packing heat' needs to be way beyond just a cool thing to do. When you carry a deadly weapon you are taking on an awesome responsibility... not only can it impact the life of someone else...it can in a moment change your life forever too. It will not be like on TV..,. even if you are absolutely justified in using the weapon...and that is the ONLY reason to carry it (open or concealed) if you use it, it will most likely cost you 10's of thousands of dollars... yes, your or someone elses life is worth that...but, the weight is awesome. Think about it way beyond what I perceive as your 'cool' stage.
 
"cool" STAGE? THATS FUNNY
i hunt,shoot for fun, go to the range at least 3-4 times a week, served in Afghanistan, firearms are part of my life, yes they are a hobby, but ultimately there for protection of myself, wife, and son and i was wondering the laws on carrying, i dont see where you get the whole im trying to be cool

tattoos, pet snakes, muscles, black eyes, 4x4 truck.... thats what makes me cool (sarcasm)
 
Okay, I was probably out of line and making some

assumptions. Sorry. But I still stick with the class idea, would not hurt. I'm not from Virginia but I do know it is an open carry state. You need to go to packing dot org to find out exactly what that means. Also, start working towards a Concealed Weapons permit...
 
i understand what you were saying, i know people are like that. Im looking into a shooting course and have to wait on the cwp.

thanx
 
I finally decided to take the plung this year

In SC you have to take a one day, one long day, class and then wait 3 months... a long 3 months, to find out if you are 'okay.' the class I took was presented by a master NRA instructor and he knew his stuff...it was all pretty informative... video at the end was pretty lame.... and the only problem was that 2 of the 10 folks took close to an hour to finish the test. Everybody else was done in 15-20 minutes.,..

Pistol shooting / Qualifying part was fun. You have to hit one of those big targets 35 times out of 50 from 3 yards to 15.

Don't know about Virginia's requirements.
 
It's 21

Like most stuff on Web sites is right in front of you and hard to see...over on the right side in that panel of information...Yes, No, etc...21.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top