Senate public-safety subcommittee recommends slate of gun, corrections and public‑safety bills to full committee

The Virginia Senate public-safety subcommittee voted Thursday to recommend a package of public‑safety bills to the full Finance and Appropriations Committee, moving forward several measures addressing firearms, hospital safety, juvenile sentencing evaluations and correctional practices.

The subcommittee, chaired by Senator Hashmi, advanced multiple gun‑related bills — including measures to ban certain “assault‑style” firearms, expand criminal penalties for bringing weapons into hospitals, narrow rules on air‑ and gas‑operated weapons, require safe storage in homes in certain circumstances, and clarify criminal treatment for unserialized “ghost” firearms — and also reported bills on juvenile evaluation procedures, fireworks permitting for small localities and limits on prolonged solitary confinement in state correctional facilities.

Why it matters: the subcommittee’s recommendations send the measures to the full Finance and Appropriations Committee for consideration of fiscal impacts. Many of the bills either create or change criminal penalties, set enforcement requirements for local institutions (hospitals and colleges), or mandate state action (for corrections policy or juvenile evaluation processes).

Most prominent items

Senate Bill 1181 and 1182 (firearms): Senator Deeds returned with bills previously considered last year. One version would ban possession, sale and transportation of certain assault‑style firearms after a specified date; another would allow a board of visitors at an institution of higher education to adopt policies making possession of firearms in campus buildings a Class 1 misdemeanor where the board chooses to do so. The subcommittee adopted an amendment to clarify exceptions for authorized training (for example ROTC or Virginia Military Institute) and to give boards authority to enact policies that carry criminal penalties.

Senate Bill 1110 (weapons in hospitals): Senator Williams Graves characterized SB 1110 as making it a Class 1 misdemeanor to knowingly and intentionally possess a weapon inside a hospital that provides mental‑health or developmental services, with posted notice required at each entrance and limited exemptions (hospital security, individuals with written…